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Her friend leaning forward a hand on the lab table. “What the hell are you talking about down there, Gracie?”
“I was set up, Lou!” The timing of his last glance at her had been too perfect to be coincidence, as had been the knowing smirk on his face. The jersey knit of Anton’s somehow dressy looking sweats shouldn’t have been showing her as much of his backside as it had, but here she was, shamefaced and in hiding. He planned on torturing her. To what end she hadn’t figured out yet.
What could he possibly want from her? Whatever it was, she knew it wasn't good. Not for her anyways.
Monday on a Thursday, indeed.
“You planning on getting up from there sometime today, or should I just have everything sent to you here?” Lou asked, hitching a hip against the table.
Grace sighed. “Would that be too drastic of a career choice?”
“Just a smidge.” Lou pinched her fingers together in illustration and then held her hand out to Grace. “Get back up here. It’s just a butt.”
“Easy for you to say,” Grace grumbled, taking her friend’s hand and standing up. She kept her eyes averted from the side of the lab where Anton’s team milled about, which amounted to her being unable to turn her neck further than fifteen degrees to the left and certainly didn’t account for a route to the bathroom or out of the lab. She rubbed her temples. This was not going well.
“It’s easy for me to say because I’ve learned how to be covert.”
“You’ve been looking too? I knew it.” Grace laughed, grateful for the distraction.
“Keep it down. Don’t bring the rest of us down with you.”
“What happened to‘it’s just a butt’?”
“It’s just a butt whenyou’recaught looking, but I’m the boss. I can’t be caught. I’ve still got a project to see through with him, you know. I have a reputation to protect. If I go down, we’re all finished.”
Grace rolled her eyes and executed a less-than-nimble turn to the right. “Can I please make this day a little better and get the S’mores and Stars party all prepped?”
Lou sagged forward onto the table and groaned. “Grace...there’s so much to do. We have that brand new pulsar timing array that I need to get cracking on. You know it’s going to take us weeks to get it sorted. I’m pretty sure we have a bunch of young pulsars from glancing through the data.”
“But party…”
“It took us weeks to get these readings. Three weeks, to be exact,” she said, holding up three fingers and making Grace roll her eyes.
“And that’s why one more night isn’t going to kill us. Besides, it’s tomorrow so you can use the rest of today to ogle your science,” Grace said with what was definitely not a pout, because lab queens did not pout when their science bosses couldn’t see reason enough to relax. She pressed her palms together in supplication and raised them up to Lou.
“Just one night is all I’m asking for, and then we can go wild with back to business as usual. All the glitches and possible black hole collisions.”
Lou raised an eyebrow but at least she wasn’t groaning anymore. “Oh, is that right?”
Grace nodded, sensing her friend weakening under the promise of data readings. “So many pulsar waves. More than you can shake a stick at. I bet you we find at least two new black holes.”
Lou tapped her chin for a second and let out a hum as she feigned deep thought, but a second later a warm smile lit her face.
“Yes. Permission granted.”
“Perfect, because I already have the permit too. Here it is!” Grace jumped to her feet and slapped the pink paper she’d picked up earlier that week from the good people of Telepherique du Salève for the overnight use of both the steam-powered tram to the top of Mont Salève and a cozy little spot for a bonfire, replete with a fantastic view of Jura and Mont Blanc. It was the stuff of European daydreams, and Grace was ready to say just as much when Lou huffed a sigh.
“What if I had said no?” Lou crossed her arms. “I could have said no, you know that right?” she added when Grace raised a dubious eyebrow.
“You wouldn’t.” Grace shrugged and gave her friend an excited squeeze. “This is the thing we used to talk about while we were in exile in Arizona. Besides, you can’t return liquor, and I already bought itandburned the receipts, so no takesies backsies! We’re going to have a sweet little bonfire with a wonderful chance to stargaze, and everyone is going to be happy. I just have to get it all up there.”
“You know I don’t do well with the outdoors.” Lou shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself with a pained look. “Nature is an absolute war zone for me. When you mentioned a party, I thought it would be at a bar in town. Not outside.”
Grace waved her off and pocketed the permit. “Bars are boring. This is next-level Geneva living, lady. We have the bonfire all prepped and ready to go and a genuine steam-powered cable car to cart us up like royalty, with insane night views. I’m bringing booze and s’mores fixings, so don’t scowl at me.You love s’mores.Plus, there’s a restaurant nearby, just in case you feel the need to mutiny.”
Lou perked up. “What kind of restaurant?”
“The fancy French kind, so what else do we need? And it used to be an observatory during WWI, and that means I thought about everything. Wholesome fun for the whole science family.”
