Applied Electromagnetism

by Susannah Nix

  “We moderate each other’s worst instincts and complement each other’s strengths.” Adam’s leg exerted pressure against hers, though from the waist up his posture was all business. They were back to playing the Quiet Game.

  The weekend shift manager wandered out of his office with a coffee cup in his hand, and Olivia’s gaze shifted to her computer screen. Beneath the desk, she laid her hand on her thigh so her fingers would graze Adam’s knee.

  Together, they watched the progress bar on their last test tick toward completion, counting down the minutes until they were released from the constraints of professional behavior.

  At nine o’clock—three hours ahead of schedule—the newly acquired Walhalla Power Plant officially went online.

  They’d run the last of the connectivity tests, verified the data with ERCOT, and texted the all-clear to the trade floor, giving them the go-ahead to start selling power from the plant.

  They stuck around for another hour after that, drinking a round of celebratory beers from the minifridge in the shift manager’s office, before heading back to the motel.

  Olivia glared up at the security cameras as she and Adam walked across the gravel parking lot. If it weren’t for Big Brother spying on them, she’d push him up against the car and kiss him.

  A mile down the road, Adam suddenly pulled off onto the shoulder, hit the hazards, and put the car in park.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, alarmed.

  “Nothing,” he said, unclipping his seat belt and turning toward her. “Nothing at all.”

  When his hand skimmed her cheek after hours of touch deprivation, it set off pyrotechnics on the surface of her skin. She breathed out in relief at the contact she’d been craving all day.

  Then his lips touched hers.

  Kissing him felt like falling, only it was the kind of free fall she never wanted to come out of. A feeling of completion shuddered through her like an earthquake. She would still be feeling this kiss days from now. She’d be sitting in a plant ops status meeting next week and her lips would still be tingling with the aftershocks of this kiss.

  When they finally came up for air, Adam rested his forehead against hers like he’d spent every last bit of energy kissing her. “I’ve been wanting to do that all day.”

  “God, me too.”

  They stayed clenched together for a few dreamy seconds, forehead to forehead, eyes closed, his hand curled around the back of her neck as their breath mingled in shaky puffs.

  Then he let go of her and pulled away, as abruptly as he’d kissed her.

  “Wait, that’s all?” she asked as he refastened his seat belt.

  His eyes were dark with barely restrained lust when he looked at her. “I just needed to taste you. The main course can wait until we’re not parked by the side of a narrow rural road in the dark.”

  Olivia grinned, slapping the dashboard with her palm. “Drive like the wind, Bullseye!”

  Ten minutes later they were pulling into the parking lot of the motel. Thirty seconds after that they were tumbling into Olivia’s room in a tangle of limbs and lips and questing hands.

  As they peeled each other’s clothes off, desperate for the skin-to-skin contact they’d denied themselves all day, she pushed aside all her worries about the future and gave herself up to the here and now.

  They had to go back to the plant and work for a few hours the next morning. And then they had to drive seventy miles to Austin, turn in their rental car, and catch a flight back to LA.

  After that, Olivia didn’t know what would happen. Living in the now without worrying about the future was not a natural state of being for her, but it was what she was determined to do. At least for this one day. They could worry about tomorrow when it came.

  To be honest, she was too tired to do much else. Adam might have gotten a good night’s sleep and recharged the night he’d retreated to his own room, but Olivia had not been so lucky. The stress and emotional ups and downs of the week were catching up with her, and she felt like someone halfway through the transition from human to slow, shambling zombie as she checked the logs for errors.

  When they were as sure as they could be that their software was running smoothly, they bid goodbye to the weekend shift manager, climbed back into their trusty Honda Fit, and headed for Austin.

  The sky was clear and blue, and as Olivia blinked at the sunlight reflecting off the highway, she felt like Gollum emerging from the lightless depths below the Misty Mountains. Between the weather and the long hours locked up inside the plant, she’d barely seen the sun in days, and the warm rays soaking into her skin felt like a miracle.

  A few minutes later, as they were driving through a small town, she saw a sign for a roadside store, and told Adam they needed to make a stop.

  “Do you need to pee already?” he asked, sounding more amused than annoyed.

  “No, I have to buy something here.”

  “We don’t have a ton of time to waste,” he warned, even as he was pulling off the highway and into the crowded parking lot.

  “It won’t take long,” she promised.

  He followed her inside Hruska’s Store and Bakery, established in 1912, past the registers and aisles full of snack foods and souvenirs and jars of pickles and jams, to the long glass counter at the back.

  “Holy shit.” Adam’s eyes were wide and bright as he stared at the bakery case. “Are those all—”

  “Kolaches,” Olivia confirmed with a nod. “Even better than the ones at Buc-ee’s.”

  She helped him select a variety of the best flavors—cream cheese and chocolate, apple, peach, and sausage and cheese—and they got back in the car and set out for Austin again. She fed him kolaches as he drove them through the wildflower-covered hills of central Texas, past cattle ranches, pumpjacks, and picturesque small towns. At some point after they’d shared the last kolache, Olivia nodded off to sleep, curled up facing Adam with her hand resting on his thigh.

  The next time she opened her eyes, they were turning off for the Austin airport. She sat up and stretched, and Adam reached for her hand and brought it to his lips.

  She felt a wistful pang when they turned in their rental car. A lot had happened in that dusty little Honda Fit, and it was harder than expected to say goodbye.

  Before she knew it, they were dragging their suitcases through the doors to the airport terminal. The security line was a breeze compared to LAX, and their flight was still scheduled to depart on time.

  “I’ll watch your bag,” Adam said as they approached a restroom, and patiently rolled their suitcases off to the side to wait for her.

  Olivia barely recognized herself in the bathroom mirror when she was washing her hands. She’d forgone makeup yet again, and the dark circles under her eyes were verging into black hole territory.

  As soon as she stepped out of the restroom, Adam’s gaze homed in on her like a heat-seeking missile, and his whole face seemed to light up. He leaned in for a kiss as she reached to take her roller bag from him, like she’d been gone three days instead of three minutes.

  They set out for their gate, and detoured again at the sight of a Starbucks. It had been days since she’d had a decent cup of coffee, and Olivia nearly hugged the barista when he handed over her venti mocha latte.

  Coffees in hand, they found two seats at their gate, and passed the time identifying celebrity doppelgängers among their fellow travelers.

  “Blue shirt over there looks like a young James Earl Jones,” Olivia said, nudging Adam’s shoulder with her own.

  He followed her gaze and nodded with appreciation at her find. “Not bad.” His eyes traveled around the terminal. “Middle-aged Miley Cyrus,” he pointed out, and she laughed, unable to remember the last time she’d enjoyed herself this much at an airport. It was the two of them against the world, comfortable and carefree and victorious after what felt like an eon of struggle.

  Boarding for their flight started five minutes early, and only when they went to line up did she r
emember that they wouldn’t be sitting together. Adam had a seat in first class.

  “You can go ahead and get on,” she pointed out. “They’ve already boarded first class.”

  He shook his head and brushed a kiss across her lips. “I’d rather spend a few more minutes with you.”

  When it was Olivia’s turn to board, Adam followed her onto the plane, but instead of peeling off at the first class cabin, he walked her to her seat and hoisted her bag into the overhead compartment for her.

  “Excuse me,” he said to the large and very uncomfortable-looking man occupying the aisle seat next to Olivia’s middle. “How would you like to sit in first class?”

  The man’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “What’s the catch?”

  “No catch,” Adam said, presenting his boarding pass. “I’d just rather sit beside my girlfriend.”

  Olivia gaped, fish-eyed, as the man in the aisle seat accepted his offer. Not only had Adam just sacrificed the luxury of free alcohol and hot towels in order to ride in coach with her, but there was also the not-so-small matter of him calling her his girlfriend.

  Had he actually meant it? Or was it merely for her seatmate’s sake? A more expedient explanation than coworker I’ve slept with but we haven’t really worked anything out yet beyond that?

  She slid into the middle seat as Adam stowed his suitcase, and fastened her seat belt with shaky, fumbling fingers. He sank down beside her and lifted the armrest between them before feeling around for his own seat belt.

  “Thank you,” she said, choosing to ignore the girlfriend of it all. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  His dark eyes flashed as he squeezed her thigh. “Who says I did it for you?”

  Twenty minutes later, when the plane began taxiing for takeoff, she felt Adam stiffen beside her. It was subtle, but she could feel the tension radiating through the air between them, like ripples in a pond.

  She set her knitting down and reached for his hand.

  “Thank you,” he said, squeezing her fingers between his.

  “Who says I did it for you?” she replied, squeezing back.

  As the plane picked up speed, preparing to hurtle itself into the air, Adam closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat. Olivia rested her head on his shoulder, and they held on to each other as they left the ground.

  She felt a small pang as they left Texas behind. Not because it was home—or used to be—but because it was where she and Adam had found each other.

  Even though the trip had in no way been a vacation, she couldn’t help worrying that this would turn out to be like one of those vacation romances that fizzled out as soon as they went back to their normal lives.

  She was probably just being paranoid and silly, but she wouldn’t be her if she wasn’t worrying about something.

  Chapter Twenty

  LAX was perhaps as quiet as Olivia had ever seen it when they stepped off the plane. Sunday nights were apparently not a big travel time.

  They rolled their bags through the airport at a leisurely pace, neither of them feeling any particular urgency now that they’d arrived at their destination—miraculously, without a single disaster.

  “Did you drive?” Adam asked as a sign for the airport garage loomed ahead of them.

  “No, Uber.”

  “Same.”

  They struck out for the area designated for rideshare pickups. As they stepped outside, into the blessedly dry and relatively cool air, Olivia breathed a sigh of relief. There might be some things she missed about Texas, but the weather was most definitely not one of them.

  “Where do you live?” Adam asked, pulling out his phone. “Do you want to share a car?”

  “We can,” she said. “Or…” She bit down on her lip, deliberating whether she should even make the suggestion.

  He looked up from his phone, eyebrows raised.

  “You could come over to my place,” she ventured. “Unless you’re too tired, that is. It has been a hella long week, and you might just want to get home, which is totally fine too. No pressure or anything.”

  “I’d love that,” he said.

  Olivia used her phone to summon a car. The driver of the Camry that picked them up was playing slow, mellow jazz that should have been relaxing, but somehow had the exact opposite effect. On her, anyway.

  Adam fell asleep again.

  Maybe this was a mistake. She didn’t want him feeling like he had to take her up on her offer if all he really wanted to do was sleep. Just because she wanted to hang on to this a little bit longer didn’t mean he did.

  When they stopped in front of her apartment, she gave him a gentle nudge. “We’re here.”

  He followed her inside and parked his suitcase next to the front door.

  “Sorry it’s such a mess,” she said, looking around at all her clutter and trying to imagine it through his eyes.

  “It’s great,” he replied, wandering over to examine a stack of fabric remainders on her dining table. “It’s very you.”

  “Do you want something to drink?” She went into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. A week-old Chinese takeout container and a single mushy avocado stared back at her. “I have no food,” she said helplessly. She probably should have thought of that before inviting him over.

  When she turned away from the fridge, he was standing beside her. “We can order something,” he said, and bent his head to hers. “Later,” he murmured as their lips met in a kiss that made her stomach do an entire gymnastic floor routine.

  “Much later,” she agreed, and led him to her bedroom.

  Olivia woke in the morning alone in her bed. It took her sleepy brain a while to remember that wasn’t how she’d fallen asleep last night.

  She opened her eyes and saw Adam across the room buttoning up his shirt. From the faint gray light coming in through the slats in her blinds, it couldn’t be much past six a.m. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “You’re leaving?”

  He nodded as he finished the last button on his shirt. “I’m all out of clean clothes. I’m going back to my place to shower before work.” He bent to brush a kiss across her lips. “I’ll see you at the office in a couple hours, okay?”

  This was it, their bubble was officially broken. No more hiding from the real world or putting off the inevitable. Reentry was upon them.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed. “You have your worried face.” He reached up to stroke her cheek, and her stomach dropped through the floor to the apartment below. “Don’t look like that,” he said with a deepening frown. “You’re freaking me out.”

  “Sorry.” She tried to will the worry lines off her face. “I’m just nervous about today, I guess.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m afraid it will be weird.”

  “What will?”

  “Us. At work. What if we revert back to our old selves as soon as we set foot in the building?”

  “My geographical location has no bearing on how I feel about you.” There was a hint of reproof in his eyes, as if she’d disappointed him by having doubts.

  She reached for his hand and interlaced her fingers with his. “A lot’s happened in a really short span of time. We haven’t even had time to process it.”

  “What’s to process?”

  “How we feel about each other when we’re not stranded in the middle of nowhere. What’s to say we won’t step back into our regular lives today and realize we don’t like each other that much after all?”

  “Nothing at all,” he said mildly, which wasn’t the reassurance she’d been hoping for. “You want some kind of guarantee or contingency plan.” He knew her so well.

  “Yes, exactly. That’s what I want.”

  He smiled and turned her hand over in his. “There isn’t one. Not for this.” His thumb stroked over her palm like a fortune teller. “You have to take a leap of faith.”

  “You don’t believe in faith.”

  His eyes met hers. “Maybe I do n
ow. Maybe you’ve rubbed off on me.”

  “Do you really have faith in this?” she asked, pressing her hand against his, palm to palm. “Tell the truth.”

  “I always tell the truth,” he said. “And yes.”

  The first thing Olivia did when she arrived at work two hours later was remove Tiny Adam the toy robot from her purse and give him a place of honor among the other assorted toys at her desk. Now, whenever she looked down at him, sitting there between Baby Groot and the TARDIS, she’d be reminded of Adam.

  Her Adam.

  The word sent a thrill racing through her. Her eyes drifted across the open workspace to Adam’s cubicle. He’d gotten in before her, but his back was to both her and the elevators, so he probably didn’t know she was here yet. All she could see was the top of his head, but even that was enough to set off a swirl of butterflies in her stomach.

  Yeah, this wasn’t going to make it hard to focus on work at all. And she’d thought her crush on him had been distracting before. That was nothing compared to this overpowering urge to go over there and talk to him, which was made worse by the fact that she knew he’d welcome her company.

  Well, she was just going to have to cope. It was going to be like this every day—except when he was out of the office traveling for work.

  She downed the last of the coffee she’d brought for the commute this morning and started up her computer. Only then did she notice the piece of paper someone had left on her desk.

  It was a recommendation letter from Adam.

  Olivia’s eyes pricked with tears as she read it. It wasn’t just complimentary, it was glowing. He described her with phrases like “determined problem-solver” and “brilliant mind.” He said she had the best people skills of anyone he knew at the company, was deserving of more responsibility, and would shine in a management role. He recommended her wholeheartedly for the Future Leader Development Course.

  But even as her heart soared to read his words, she felt a stab of doubt.

  He’d only written her a recommendation after they’d slept together. She didn’t doubt he meant every word—he wasn’t the sort of person to lie for the sake of flattery or personal connections. But was it ethical to use his help for her professional advancement now that they were in a relationship?