Love and the Laws of Motion Read online

  Chapter Four

  With her undergrad lab assignment sorted, Livie’s next stop was the department office to get her office assignment. After two years of storing all her stuff in a tiny little grad carrel no bigger than a closet, she was finally getting a real office. With a desk. And a chair.

  “These kids,” Anita sighed when the scrum of frantic undergrads finally cleared out. “I tell them they gotta talk to the professor to add a class, but do they listen? No, they come in here and insist on telling me all their sad stories. Bet you weren’t like that in undergrad, were you, Livie?”

  “Hmm, not exactly.” She was always first off the mark at registration, completing it before most other students had even logged on. Not getting into a class she wanted wasn’t something that happened to her very often.

  “How was your summer, Livie?”

  She’d worked straight through her brief summer hiatus, plowing through all the published research she didn’t have time for during the school year. “Nothing special. How was yours?”

  “We redid the kitchen this summer, so it was hell on earth. You’re here for your office assignment?”

  “Are they ready?”

  Anita fished through a drawer in her desk. “They are, and I made sure you got a good one.” She handed over a set of keys. “406. It’s closest to the copier and farthest from the lecture halls. Nice and quiet.” She leaned forward, her voice dropping to a whisper. “This one has a window.”

  “Thanks, Anita.”

  Peter Hockman burst into the office and lumbered noisily over to Anita’s desk, crowding Livie out of the way. “Anita, I need my office assignment.”

  Peter had started the PhD program at the same time as Livie, here to work with Dr. Langley on his interstellar medium research. Better Peter than her. She couldn’t imagine a more boring way to earn her PhD. Generally, she did her best to avoid him. Now that they were through the classroom portions of their PhD and onto their dissertation research, hopefully their paths wouldn’t cross much.

  Anita’s face was stony as she wordlessly handed Peter’s keys across her desk.

  “412?” Peter said as he checked the number on the keys. “That one’s right next to the bathrooms! It’s noisy as hell and it smells.”

  Next, Anita handed across a lengthy form. “If there’s a building issue, submit a request to Maintenance. They’ll come check it out. In a semester or two.”

  “Come on, Anita. Let me switch with someone.”

  Livie curled her hand around her keys. No way was she giving up her office assignment.

  Anita shrugged, shuffling files on her desk. “All the offices are already assigned, Peter.”

  “But—”

  “Hey, Peter, if you’re done, I need my office assignment.” Peter’s massive frame completely blocked Michiko Satsuma, who was standing behind him. When Peter moved to the side, Michiko flashed a sunny smile at Livie. “Hey, Livie. Good summer?”

  “Um, yeah, it was fine.”

  Michiko was tiny, barely five feet, with a long glossy black ponytail and little wire-rimmed glasses. She’d started her PhD at the same time as Livie and Peter, and had been in nearly all of Livie’s classes for the past two years. Despite crossing paths with her almost daily, Livie knew next to nothing about her. That probably had more to do with Livie than Michiko, though. Waiting on Romano’s regulars was one thing—she’d known most of them her whole life—but casual interactions with people her own age were a different thing altogether. If the subject wasn’t astronomy, her mind went utterly blank.

  Peter turned on Michiko. “Hey, Michiko, switch office assignments with me.”

  “Not a chance, Hockman,” Michiko scoffed, not the least bit intimidated by Peter’s size. Where did she get all that confidence? When Peter started blustering and taking up too much space, Livie’s instinct was to make herself smaller, while Michiko seemed to double in size.

  Leaving them to their standoff, she quietly slipped away to her departmental cubby on the other side of the office. It was stuffed full with beginning-of-the-semester info. Nothing important, since all that came through her school email. This was all flyers for the departmental potluck and sign-up sheets for the grad student softball league. She flipped through it over the recycling bin, dumping as she went. None of it had anything to do with her.

  “So, Livie.” She did her best not to lean away as Peter came to lean on the mailboxes next to her. “How was your summer?”

  “Fine.” He’d pestered her a lot when they’d first started at Adams, always wanting to get coffee and hang out. She’d always declined, usually because she was busy, but also because Peter Hockman wasn’t interesting. He only ever talked about himself.

  “Guess you’re going to be pretty busy this year, huh?”

  She didn’t look up from her stack of papers. “We’re all going to be busy. It’s a PhD program.”

  “I meant you and Finch. You got the Skylight grant.”

  “We did.”

  “Lucky you. Funding like that isn’t falling from trees these days.”

  “It wasn’t luck and it didn’t fall from a tree. Dr. Finch spent a year putting together the grant proposal. I helped.” That was an understatement. She’d spent countless hours last year helping Janet ready the grant application.

  “Sure, sure,” Peter said quickly. “Of course she did. Well, good luck with it. We’ll muddle along with our old computers for another year, I guess.”

  “All the departmental equipment is old.” The entire Astronomy building and all the equipment in it was held together with duct tape and optimism.

  “But you’re going to get new stuff.”

  “Yes, with our grant money.”

  Peter floundered for a moment. “I’m just saying, it would be nice to get new equipment, too.”

  She turned to face him. “Then you should apply for a grant.”

  Peter’s mouth fell open. “Sure, sure,” he said after a moment. “Langley’s got big plans for that.”

  Yeah, sure he did. Langley wasn’t exactly setting the research world on fire. As far as she knew, he hadn’t published a major piece of research in years. Just endlessly slogging through his interstellar medium work, which nobody cared about anyway. If he ever got around to publishing his research, six other people would have probably beaten him to it.

  “Sure thing. Hey, you get your undergrad lab assignment yet?”

  “Section two.”

  Peter’s face fell. “Fuck. That’s the good section.”

  Livie bit back a reply, simply shrugging instead, like that was news to her.

  “Finch had better not shaft me with that shitty Friday night slot.”

  She kept her eyes on her stack of paper and said nothing, as she suspected that’s exactly what Finch would do. Peter was by far the weakest candidate in their program.

  Peter’s big meaty hand suddenly came down on her shoulder and Livie stiffened. “Congrats again on the grant. I know you guys will do great things with it.”

  Ugh. He was standing too close, and touching her, and just...no.

  “Hey, Peter, move. I need to get to my cubby and you’re literally blocking, like, the whole thing.” Michiko had once again silently popped up behind Livie.

  Peter swung around to glare at her—thankfully removing his hand from Livie’s shoulder in the process. “Satsuma, how many people have told you you’re a pain in the ass?”

  “How many have told you that you’re one of the greatest minds working in astronomy today? Because it’s that many. Now move.”

  Livie watched in disbelief as Peter—big, huge Peter who didn’t pick up on a single one of Livie’s hints—moved out of tiny Michiko’s way just because she told him to. It was like she had magical powers.

  “You chicks all on your periods or something?”

  “Yes!
” Michiko grinned, her eyes lighting up with glee. “And you know three menstruating women together can form a wicked cabal with the power to rob you of your manhood. Hands over your junk, Peter. Can’t be too careful.”

  He looked alarmed for a millisecond before sneering down at Michiko. “Very funny, Satsuma. Whatever, I’m going to get my lab assignment.”

  Still scowling, he thundered out of the office.

  “Stupid little asshole,” Anita muttered as soon as the door closed behind him, and Michiko burst out laughing.

  “What a total dickwad,” Michiko said, clearing out her own cubby. “You should come.”

  “What?” When Livie looked up, Michiko pointed to a flyer still clutched in Livie’s hand.

  “The departmental potluck next Sunday. You should come. It would be nice to have somebody normal to talk to at one of those things.” Michiko waved over her shoulder as she hurried out of the office. “See you around, Livie.”

  Livie stared at the flyer for another moment, imagining clutching a soda, trying to look relaxed while making small talk with strangers. Her stomach roiled at the thought of it. Besides, next Sunday was family dinner day, and she might have just hired a felon to work on the most important project of her academic career. She had plenty on her plate already. She dropped the flyer into the recycling. “See you later, Anita.”

  Chapter Five

  It was entirely possible that Janet’s meeting with Nick DeSantis would be a disaster. He didn’t exactly match one’s mental image of an expert computer programmer, and his résumé was unorthodox, to say the least. What if Janet asked him where he went to college? What if he told her? Janet was hardly going to be impressed by a dropout felon. Well, nearly a felon. His actual legal status was a little unclear. But he was brilliant, and full of enthusiasm about the project, which counted for something. She just hoped it counted enough to convince Janet.

  As Janet typed away on her computer, Livie worked through the heaps of papers and books littering her office and checked the time every two minutes, alternately eager for, then dreading, Nick’s arrival.

  Nothing of a romantic nature was ever going to happen between them, of course. He was practically married. She just wished she could turn off these inconvenient feelings now that she knew that. It was tremendously frustrating that the first time she ever felt this zing of interest in someone, he turned out to be completely out of reach. But she needed him for this project, so she couldn’t let her inconvenient “zing” get in the way of her work.

  As she moved on to reshelving books, she took to checking her phone every minute. It was nearly time. Then it was past time. Because he was late. Lateness made her crazy. Of course, Nick had no regard for laws. Why on earth would he have any regard for punctuality?

  After ten minutes, she began a whole new line of worry. What if he never showed? He seemed mercurial, easily engaged and perhaps just as easily disengaged. Sure, he’d seemed completely fascinated by her research when she’d met him, but maybe in the two days since then, some more interesting project had come his way and he’d forgotten all about the awkward grad student with the cool astronomy project. Who cared if he was a genius if he turned out to be a flake she couldn’t rely on?

  She’d all but resigned herself to starting her search for a programmer all over again when there was a knock at the office door. She startled and dropped the book she was shelving, yelping in pain when the corner of it hit the top of her foot.

  “Oh, dear, have you hurt yourself, Livie?” Janet asked.

  “Um, no. It’s okay. That must be Nick DeSantis. I’ll, um, I’ll let him in.”

  Janet blinked at her when she made no move to actually do that. “You’ll have to open the door to let him in.”

  “Oh! Right.” She hobbled over to the door and threw it open.

  Once again, she was completely unprepared for the sight of Nick. Her chest flooded with heat, and her tongue suddenly felt too big for her mouth. This was even worse than the first time she’d met him. This feeling was supposed to go away now that she knew he was off limits. Danger, Livie, danger.

  He looked at her expectantly, and, after several excruciating moments of silence, his mouth quirked with a smile.

  “You okay, Livie?”

  “Errrr.” Coughing, she swallowed and tried again. “Fine. Yes, I’m fine. You’re late.”

  Nick absorbed the accusation with a casual shrug. “Got distracted,” he said by way of explanation, even though it explained nothing.

  She scowled in disapproval, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Um, come in. This is Dr. Janet Finch. Janet, this is Nick DeSantis.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Nick said. Then he strode into her office, grabbed a chair, and dragged it around to Janet’s side of her desk, throwing himself into it. “Now tell me about your research.”

  Oh no. He did not waltz into Janet’s office, make himself right at home, and then demand that she explain her work to him. Livie’s heart sank. Janet was going to toss him out of her office. She’d think Livie was out of her mind for suggesting this guy to design a key component of her research. And she’d be right. This was a disaster. She was definitely going to have to find another programmer. If Janet even let her after she’d presented Nick as a possibility.

  Livie braced herself for Janet to politely but firmly tell him he was not what they were looking for after all. But to her astonishment, Janet turned to her computer and began to do as he asked, as if strange men invading her office and demanding a walk-through of her research was an everyday occurrence.

  The breath Livie had been holding left her in a shaky exhale. Apparently that charm that had so discombobulated her worked on all women. Good to know.

  Since Livie knew this part of Janet’s walk-through like the back of her hand, she took the chair still remaining—on the correct side of the desk—and watched in silence as Janet explained her theory to Nick. He was fully engaged, his gaze alert and focused as she explained the work she’d done so far. Janet was a brilliant scientist, but she often forgot that not everyone around her was as sharp as she was. More than one student had been reduced to tears as they frantically took notes in her class, unable to keep up with her lightning-fast mind. That wasn’t a problem for Nick. Every now and then he’d ask a question that would prove how closely he’d been listening. He might not know anything about astronomy, but that didn’t seem to be slowing him down at all.

  With his early admittance to DeWitt and his success in his field, she’d assumed he was intelligent, but she hadn’t been prepared for this level of brilliance, this kind of agile, expansive mind. Of course, that only served to make him more appealing to her. Why couldn’t he be smart and capable, but utterly boring? Or an obnoxious ox like Peter Hockman? Why did he have to be hot and brilliant? It just wasn’t fair.

  “This is amazing,” Nick said, when Janet finished explaining what they would be looking for. “You could change telecommunications forever. This could be how we finally make transporters work.”

  “Transporters?” Janet asked.

  “Star Trek. You know, where they stand on the platform and the transporter turns them into an energy pattern and then beams them to another location?”

  “Well, beaming an object to another location is outside the laws of physics—”

  “As far as you know right now.”

  Livie bit back a gasp. Nobody knew the laws of astrophysics better than Janet.

  But Janet shocked her again by letting out a laugh. “You’re right. Perhaps we’ll have to rewrite the laws of physics by the time we’re done.”

  “I’m all for breaking a few laws.”

  Then he glanced at Livie and winked. Winked. She’d be furious if she wasn’t too busy being flustered.

  “Can I take it you’re interested in working with us, Mr. DeSantis?”

  “Oh, yeah, I already told Livie I’m in.
I just wanted to hear more about it. When do we start?”

  Janet clapped her hands. “Wonderful! Why don’t you get started with Livie? She’s got all the Hubble data and knows the parameters of what we’re looking for.”

  Nick shifted his attention to Livie and grinned. “Can’t wait to get started.” Her stomach flip-flopped dramatically. Stupid, stupid stomach.

  He glanced down at his phone. “I gotta run. Walk me out and we’ll figure out a time to start.”

  Livie slowly rose to her feet, in no rush to face Nick one-on-one. His effect on her was bad enough when he was paying attention to someone else. It was pathetic.

  She waited by the door as Nick made his goodbyes to Janet. “Welcome to the team, Mr. DeSantis.”

  “It’s Nick. And are you kidding me? This is the coolest thing I’ve worked on in months.”

  Janet looked pleased and flattered as they left her office. He really could charm anyone, even Janet. Well, she wasn’t going to let him charm her anymore. She was putting a stop to that as of right now. It would only get in the way of the work they had to do together, and she couldn’t afford that kind of distraction.

  As they left the office, Nick grasped Livie’s elbow and steered her to the left. “This way.”

  It was the first time he’d touched her, and every nerve ending in Livie’s left arm recorded the moment for posterity. It was like she’d been reduced down to that single point of contact, the only important part of her body being the one he had his hand on. But if that were true, then why did she feel his innocent touch in a dozen other embarrassing places? While her body had come to pulsating life, her brain, usually the most reliable part of her, shut down entirely. If Nick had asked her her name, she wasn’t sure she could answer him. So much for putting a stop to her inappropriate feelings. That had lasted all of thirty seconds.

  She still couldn’t find her tongue, but Nick didn’t seem to need other people to help carry on a conversation. He could do it all by himself.

  “I think we should work at my place.”