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nothing but air.
She was the model of a supportive female, asking him if he needed any research help
finding other groups studying his field, or even a reference for his new landlord;
whomever that might be. She even assigned one of her techs to stuffing his resume
envelopes when he left the pile on his lab table one night. She made a few rough stabs at
offering him a grant again, right along with offering to help resell his more delicate and
expensive instruments, but all offers were politely turned down.
Travis turned down everything she offered, with exception to her body and her time.
It went without saying he wouldn t accept her heart, either. It was the one thing she was
smart enough not to put on the table.
For his part, Travis didn t find any immediate positions in San Diego but he did
seem to catch more than his share of Jade s wrath. When he expressed an interest in
looking up local storage, the phone books in both their labs mysteriously disappeared.
But he made sure not to mention he could still find what he needed off the Internet. God
only knew what Jade would have done to his computer. The pile of boxes that he d stored
in the hall as he unloaded his old truck s flatbed were miraculously leaked on by enough
water to down the Titanic. He d managed to put an ad in the local paper to sell the truck
only to find that it suddenly didn t run thanks to a missing carburetor. She d checked high
and low in the building for some sign of the engine part but if Jade were behind the theft,
she certainly hadn t left any tracks. What Vetta found instead were stacks of mail that had
Travis s name on them, most of it junk, in a plastic crate in Jade s closet. The few pieces
of importance were all rejections. Much as she hated to, she gave them to him along with
the primary mail key Jade had in her desk.
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Vetta wanted to get angry at her, but it didn t take a genius to see that all Jade s
tricks were designed to keep Travis there longer. Jade just didn t understand. Keeping
him there wouldn t make him belong there. He wouldn t want to be there. He wouldn t
even be with Vetta if he weren t sure he was leaving. Prolonging the inevitable only
made him feel trapped and indebted. Sex could only salve the stress so much. Sooner or
later, he d go and Jade was just going to have to accept it. And so would she.
Shaking out of her almost-misery, Vetta concentrated on the laptop in front of her.
She d brought it over to make notes while Travis slept, tucking it underneath the bed
frame when she wasn t using it. In front of her was the collection of notes she d made
over the weeks that even she couldn t delude herself into thinking were about anything
more than holding onto Travis in some way or another. She and Jade didn t have very
different goals after all.
#859: He s so warm when he sleeps. And his face seems almost young when he s
relaxed. Not as jaded. There s a scent from his throat I cannot identify, but it s
comforting. Pheromones?
#860: X-Position notes: He seems to enjoy this one. I think it has something to do
with being able to see his effect on me, as he s equally prone to other front-facing
positions. He s made references to wishing we had a mirror wall. Responds best to visual
stimulus combined with verbal challenge. It s not enough to use profanity. It s almost as
if he likes to vie for control.
#861: Have checked online sources for facing positions to test theory&
Montana! Travis s voice, excited like she hadn t heard in a while, echoed from the
other side of the lab, where the stairwell door from his apartment opened.
Vetta jumped, nearly unbalancing the lightweight computer off her lap. She quickly
folded it and tucked it back into the space beneath the support beam, watching him bound
across the open room with a smile on his face and a paper in his hand. She only had
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Dee Tenorio
enough time to find her feet and rise before he whisked her right back off them, spinning
her in a circle and whooping like a madman.
I just got a fax from Dr. Donaldson. Remember him? He was
Our Cellular Development professor, Vetta said, looking up at his flushed face. He
was excited. Thrilled, really. Her fingers tightened on his sleeves against her will. He was
leaving. And he was happy about it.
To stave the panic, she forced her mind to work. He-he published some studies on
female hormones a few months ago.
Yes and he s making some real progress. He was something of a mentor to me, he
added, his voice softening as he explained.
She knew that, of course. Dr. Donaldson and Travis often had their heads together
after sessions. Donaldson s was the one class where the teacher, though always polite,
was firmly entrenched on Travis s side. She d even gotten a B on a paper from him.
Donaldson would never settle for mediocre from anyone, even when her mediocre was
someone else s Nobel Prize. She d rather liked the man. Then.
I e-mailed him, on the off chance he might need some extra hands. He s been away
at a conference in New York without access, said he just got back and didn t even unpack
before responding. He s offered me a position as his second. He wants me to come as
soon as I can.
Travis finally took a breath, his expectant expression a little too much for Vetta to
handle right then. She blinked, the annoying sting of tears causing a lump the size of
Jade s famous biscuits to form in her throat. She couldn t say a thing, not that she knew
what to say anyway.
Congratulations?
I m happy for you?
Don t leave me?
Vetta? Finally, it seemed to dawn on him that she wasn t going to be happy about
this. His smile melted away, his hands dropped a few inches on her back to her hips. He
finally noticed her panicked hold on him.
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She released him, smoothing the creases she probably made in his gray flannel shirt
with a pat. She cleared her throat, swallowing any urge to cry. She wouldn t cry in front
of him, wouldn t make him feel bad when she d gone to such pains to get herself into this
situation. She pasted her best paparazzi smile on her face, but had a feeling it didn t reach
her eyes. So, when do you go?
I told him I d be there by Thursday. His eyes darkened and she felt horrible for
stealing that light from him. He was the one who had faced the fear of not having
anywhere to go, the one who worried about his next meal. She d never had that worry in
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