“Just thinking out loud.” His voice is pure innocence even as his eyes gleam. “When a single point is under excessive pressure…”
“Let me guess, this is going to be a very educational metaphor?”
“Just making some observations.” He steps closer, I can practically feel his breath on my skin. “About weight distribution and load bearing.”
“Do you practice these lines in the mirror?” My voice comes out breathier than intended as the pole slips again.
“They come naturally.” He watches me struggle with infuriating composure. “Like the way that pole is about to naturally acquaint itself with your toes.”
I make a sound that’s embarrassingly close to a whimper. The pole has somehow quadrupled in weight in the last thirty seconds.
Alfie moves closer but still doesn’t take it, just stands there with his hands in his pockets, radiating smug amusement. “Need something?”
“Okay, fine,” I grit out. “A little help would be... acceptable.”
“Sorry?” He leans in, eyes dancing. “Couldn’t quite hear you over the sound of your arms shaking.”
“Alfie.”
“Tara.”
“You’re enjoying this way too much.”
He steps even closer, his chest nearly touching my back. “You know, I could have jumped in earlier. Taken over. But you needed to figure out your own limits.” Hisvoice drops lower, sending shivers down my spine that have nothing to do with exertion. “I’m not here to decide what you can handle. That’s your call.”
“I had it under control,” I mutter, but the relief when he finally takes the pole is immediate.
“Of course, you did.” His tone is perfectly serious, but there’s heat in his eyes when they meet mine.
When I catch my breath enough to look at him properly, he’s watching me with an expression I can’t quite read.
“What now?” I ask.
“Nothing.” But he’s almost smiling.
We fall into a rhythm after that, moving poles and setting up joints. I fill the silences with random facts about fossils, partly because I can’t help sharing when I’m excited about something, and partly because I don’t love silence, which is a problem because it seems to be Alfie Spencer’s natural state. He doesn’t say much, but I catch him watching me with what might be amusement when I get particularly animated about Cambrian extinction events.
“So,” I say, when we both silently agree to take a breather - Janine lied about this being a quick hour job, we’re forty-five minutes in and nowhere near done. Though that might have something to do with the height difference between us making every lift an interesting challenge. “You’re here all summer for research, right?”
“Yep.”
“What kind of research?” I press, genuinely curious. I’ve heard snippets from Troy about Alfie’s work, but never the details. I know he’s got one year left on his undergrad, being a year ahead of me.
“Studying mineral formations on Europa.”
“Wait, seriously?” I straighten up, forgetting how sweaty and gross I must look. “The Jupiter moon? The one with the subsurface ocean?”
Something shifts in his expression as he takes me in. “Yeah.”
“That’s incredible! How’s it going? Have you started running simulations yet?”
“Promising,” he says after a moment, and I watch him decide whether to elaborate. Something in my expression must encourage him because his usual reserve cracks slightly. “We’re studying how certain minerals might form under Europa’s conditions. If we’re right about the formations we’re seeing...” He trails off, but there’s a light in his eyes I’ve never seen before.
“In the subsurface ocean? Whoa.” Environmental science might focus more on Earth’s ecosystems, but the potential for life on Europa has been one of my favorite research topics since I did that paper on extremophiles last semester. “I read that paper from JPL about potential hydrothermal activity there.”
His eyes widen. “You follow planetary science research?”
“Sometimes. When it intersects with my interests in extremophile organisms and potential extraterrestrial ecosystems.” I shrug, suddenly self-conscious under his intense gaze. “Plus, Europa is basically a giant ocean world. Pretty relevant to someone studying Earth’s marine systems. Troy mentioned you’re trying for CalTech?”
