Just because when we met I was new to the US, having recently immigrated from Russia, and had needed his help to get acclimated in that tiny town in Alaska didn’t mean our relationship was locked in that dynamic forever. Sure, he was a few years older than me, but he seemed to think I was still somebody he needed to mentor. I was twenty-five now and I desperately needed him to see the man I had become, because how else was I ever going to convince him of the attraction I felt toward him.
“Come on, let’s go eat. I’m starving,” he said, moving toward the door.
Hope bloomed inside me like a helium balloon and then burst with incredulous joy.
“You didn’t eat breakfast yet?”
I followed him out of the room. He cast a sideways glance at me. “Of course not.”
My heart grew five sizes larger and I forgot all about my complaints. My mood soared right up to the stratosphere. If he noticed my abrupt mood switch he didn’t comment. Possibly because of all the people on Waypoint Station, he knew me betterthan anybody else. We had been together through so many ups and downs, so many adventures, so many different jobs before we landed stable gigs here at Waypoint.
2
Chapter 2
The cafeteria was abuzz with activity and chatter this time of year. We were almost at full capacity. Two days ago a new team had arrived from the state of Wisconsin, and just last week two more people had joined us as part of an Australian and US partnership project — something to do with meteorology that I did not entirely understand.
I sat down at our usual table. Grant was already there, and a new addition was his secret boyfriend, Dr. Adrien Cole. I still could not believe that Grant had waited seven years for his high school crush and had somehow engineered his love story into a happily ever after.
Grant was one of the few people on the station who knew I was gay. You did not exactly go around announcing that kind of thing. But Grant was gay and we had bonded over that the first time we met a few years ago. Like me he was also a diver, but unlike me he was not a scientist.
Over the years I had teased him mercilessly over his crush on Dr. Cole. He would obsessively track every single thing about the man on the internet, and to be honest I had never believed the feelings were reciprocated. I had genuinely thought it was something he had cooked up in his head. I was so very wrong.
Now it meant I got to watch them together right across thetable. Not that they were openly doing PDA or anything. I got the feeling Adrien was not entirely comfortable with that kind of thing yet — he was still coming to terms with his own sexuality.
Seeing Grant so happy made a part of me ache. Would I ever get there? I did not even know where to begin with Sam. He had built walls around him higher than the Gulag. I had no clue about his sexuality either.
Sam came back after chatting with the chef. He sat down next to me and without a word started eating.
“So what’s the news on your birds?” Grant asked, breaking me out of my moping. Daniel hadn’t been wrong. Iwasmoping. The bastard.
Grant nodded at the laptop I had open on the table beside me.
“A fascinating case of species-wide population change,” Marcus cut in, sitting down at the table. Usually he did not join us, but since Adrien had arrived on the station he had taken a special interest in the celebrity scientist, much to the chagrin of Grant. At some point Grant was going to have to explain to Marcus that Adrien was officially taken.
“How so?” Adrien asked me, curiosity sparkling in his eyes. “Sorry, I should probably know. Hopefully it’s nothing to do with my guys.”
I chuckled. “No it’s not.” I raised my fork and pointed at him. “Even though your guys eat my guys, I have chosen to maintain peace here,” I replied with a lofty air.
“That’s very noble of you,” Adrien grinned at me. “So tell me about your study. Grant tells me you are about to go on a week long field study?”
“Da. My current research is about the asymmetrical population movement of Adélie penguins. Most people know about emperor penguins thanks to that movie, you know?”
Adrien nodded.
“Adélie penguins are the only other penguins along with the emperor penguin that are completely Antarctica-adapted. They breed and live right here in Antarctica.”
Adrien nodded. “I saw quite a few whenever we were out scouting for leopard seals.”
“A few. See, that’s the thing. Had you come here a few decades ago they would have been all over the place.”
“Really?”
“They used to be a lot more. The population of Adélie penguins around the Antarctic Peninsula has declined sharply. The early researchers who first discovered this got concerned, right? But guess what?”
“What?” Adrien asked.
“When they exchanged notes with researchers in other parts of Antarctica a new story emerged. Apparently the overall population is not declining. Adélie penguin colonies in Antarctica are just going through a very interesting change.”
