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MARIA

September

Gabriel was supposed to be here ten o

Instead,late—no surprise, as he plays the role of absentminded scientist a little too well He double-booked dinner tonight He forgot that he was supposed to find me after my class And when he sent directions to the place where I’m supposed to meet his friend…

Go to the chemistry complex, he said The lab’s in the basement, he said

Ha

There are s, each with their own base trip down a rabbit hole of cereen paint, I ascend for air—or, rather, cellular signal—to look up room numbers and a map

If I didn’t love ht be pissed

But I’ve finally found the right place, a htly miffed about the number of stairs I’ve had to tackle in heels After all, Gabe is not a distant Skype call at odd hours colobe away He’s in Berkeley He’s here

At least, he’ll be here soon For now, he’s directed me to ask for his friend Jay and wait

I eye the door I’ve found with skepticisroup The door itself is festooned arnings of i death

DANGER, says a sign in giant red letters VISIBLE AND/OR INVISIBLE LASER RADIATION Another sheet of laminated paper lists every che list

Possible fatality Just how I like to start all s

I knock hard enough to bruise htest, most muffled thump in response That’s when I notice the tiny piece of paper duct-taped to the door Ring bell for entry

I ring

I wait

I’m not sure what to expect froination has always been excellent Radioactive bees? Radioactive nanobots? Radioactive mind-controlled soldiers? The possibilities are endless

The door opens

Damn The room beyond looks painfully prosaic—desks, bookshelves, and a couch are visible from here There are no super-soldiers equipped with prosthetic lasers, intent on world domination There is no aquarium filled with radioactive spiders There aren’t spiders of any kind

There’s just aat me He’s almost exactly as tall as I am in these heels, which makes hih he can’t get much sun down here

He takes one look at me, tilts his head, and narrows his eyes His eyebrows are thick and set in determined lines; he folds his arms in front of his chest I’

I saw a photo of Professor Aroon na Thalang, the principal investigator of this group, on the website five o when I looked up the location of his lab In that picture, he was thue and the CV highlights listed beneath—an ie, an NSF CAREER grant, and funding from DARPA—I had assumed he enty years older than me

He’s not He looks about twenty-three It has to be the Asian genes He’s kind of hot, in a glowering, grumpy scientist kind of way

“You’re incredibly late,” he says He has a hint of an accent A British accent, to be precise, enough to ree PhD

“Um” I bite my lip and curse my brother “I’m sorry?”

“You’re sorry, question mark” His eyes narrow as he says this, like I’ve committed some kind of cardinal sin, and his accent becomes more marked “Either you’re not sure you’re sorry, in which case you shouldn’t be apologizing, or you’re sorry, period, and you need to work on your inflection Which is it?”

This is going well I try again “I’m Maria—”

“I don’t care Group o” He looks even more annoyed “If you want to work in my lab—”

“I don’t want to work in your lab I’m here to meet Jay”

His glower deepens Shit I waved off the fact that I didn’t see a Jay listed on the group website It’s Septeured the listing was out of date Now I’ department

“So sorry” He delivers the ith a period at the end A sarcastic period, since we are arguing punctuation, the kind that says he’s not sorry at all “I don’t know you, and I don’t have tiives me another look, this one a little , anyway? Lab supplies? Amway?”

Other people’s stupid assumptions shouldn’t bother me

But they do I don’t know hi makeup than any of the other much more likely possibilities

I knohat I look like I’ pretty I like wearing skirts and heels andhow to contour foundation or any of the other tiny skills I’ve invested years in learning

I’ about how I look But I would get judged for not caring I ht as well dress exactly hoant

Rationally, it shouldn?

??t er has decided that I’s

“I’,” I say

“So you are a grad student” He rubs his hair,it stick up in little black spikes “Let ma students Not people who arrive two hours late, who interrupt a perfectly good discussion withbrain cells in headlights There’s no point wasting each other’s time”

My pulse pounds thickly

“I’ain and wince, just as his eyebrow rises I try again “I’m not sorry,” I say, “but if you would just tell Jay I’m here—”

“Don’t be sorry,” he says “Just join another group”

I inhale “I think you misunderstood I’m—”

“Nope,” he says “Sorry I’ve got things to do”

Before I can say anything else, he shuts the lab door on me Great I conteain Given the degree of asshole he just displayed, and the fact that he said he was in the et mad at the hapless Jay, who is likely the postdoc he mentioned

Fine

I exhale, take out le flickering bar of cae my brother

Are you sure you told roup in chey?

His response comes seconds later Yep Almost there

I frown dubiously atGroup? There’s no Jay listed on the group page

That’s him, my brother texts back Jay It’s a nickname Nobody calls him Aroon

I consider hitting ainst the cement wall in front of me

Yay Gabe’s friend—the one who just shut the door in my face, the one I’m supposed to have dinner with—is a dick

Yes, he juht pretend apologies when Gabe clues him in But he still looked at me and decided I was a lab supply salesperson, and didn’t let ewise