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“How long before you know?” he asks.
I frown, not sure what he means.
“Whether you’re pregnant,” he clarifies.
My lips part. I’d completely forgotten that’s the reason why we slept together.
Except, of course, it isn’t, not really. Not if I’m honest with myself.
“Two weeks,” I whisper.
He nods. He looks at the steering wheel and scrubs at an imagined mark on it. Then he says, “Would you like to go out for a drink tonight?”
“A date?” I murmur.
He looks back at me. “We should talk.” He’s not smiling. Serious Huxley. My heart skips a beat, and I nod.
He starts the engine and heads us back into the city. We don’t say much as he drives through the gathering traffic.
He pulls up outside my apartment block. “Meet you at the Crescent at eight?” he asks.
“Okay.” I pause before I get out. “Thank you,” I say softly.
He meets my eyes, and all I can think about is that moment in the shower where he demanded, “Open them,” and made me watch him as he came inside me.
I lean forward and kiss his cheek. Then I quickly get out of the car, retrieve my bag, and run up to my apartment.
Chapter Fourteen
Elizabeth
Within fifteen minutes, I’m heading out to my car to meet Titus and Mack.
Usually we meet at Huxley’s, but today Titus asked us to come to his office. His company is based in Parnell, not far from Mack’s offices, in a smart glass-and-chrome building overlooking Hobson Bay and with views of Rangitoto Island.
I pull up in a Visitors’ spot in the car park out the front, sign in at Reception, get my visitor’s sticker, and then take the elevator up to the top floor.
“Morning, Ms. Tremblay,” Elaine, his PA, greets me as I exit the elevator. “Please go straight in. They’re waiting for you.”
“Thank you.” I push open the glass door and go inside.
They’re sitting in the cream chairs that circle a coffee table at one end of his office, and they both raise a hand as I approach and take one of the chairs next to them.
Titus—as his nickname suggests—is a big guy, an inch or two taller than Huxley and Mack, and with shoulders that reflect the fact that he played Lock for his university rugby team. He was even considered for the Blues—Auckland’s Rugby Union team—but decided to focus on his work rather than take up the chance to become a sportsman, although he still plays at a casual level.
He has dark-brown hair, cut like the other guys’ in a modern short fade, longer on top, and he has attractive green eyes. We’ve been friends for a long time, and we work well together, maybe because neither of us has ever shown any sexual interest in the other. His girlfriends are always tall, leggy blondes, and although I’m happy to admit he’s good looking, he’s more brooding than the genial Huxley, and quieter than the sometimes explosive Mack. He’s a little too brooding and quiet for me, but I like that he’s interested in healthcare, and that he’s always open to new ideas and willing to listen to others. Not every guy in his position is like that.
At university, Titus, Mack, and I all decided we wanted to run our own companies, but we were keen to work together as often as we could because we’d built up a strong friendship and trust. As a chemist, I enjoyed the development of and research into drugs, and it was clear to me from the start that was the area I wanted to work in. I was lucky enough to get an internship at a major New Zealand pharmaceutical firm, and in my first year my work on developing a new drug that boosted the immune response against melanoma cells won me a lot of interest in the scientific community, and led to some major funding for further research.
I’ve always been more interested in the bigger picture than the smaller elements of projects—I like to see how things are implemented and how the project I’m working on will benefit others. I prefer working with the patient in the forefront of my mind, and I liked the idea of shaping the culture of a company, rather than having to fit in with an established one. And so I started up my own firm, initially with a low headcount and a small research and development team. But it proved to be so successful that over the past three years we’ve tripled our number of employees, and we’re starting to be a major player in drug development in New Zealand.
Mack was always going to be a genius computer engineer, and his construction of the fastest supercomputer in New Zealand has been both amazing and useful in the development of Titus’ and my businesses.
Titus is also a computer engineer, but from the start his fascination was with artificial intelligence. It has so many uses, many of which he has an interest in: robotics, astronomy, and climate change to name three, but his greatest passion is healthcare. He heads a company that works with Mack’s supercomputer, Marise, to find ways to use AI to deliver better healthcare faster and at a lower cost, to discover links between genetic codes, to maximize hospital efficiency, and to power surgical robots, amongst many other things.
When I approached him and Mack with the idea of a joint project involving using AI to improve IVF, both of them said yes immediately. We’ve all been working closely on it over the past six months, and once we realized its potential, we immediately began looking for extra funding. All three of us are excited because an English company called Acheron Pharmaceuticals approached Titus a couple of weeks ago offering a huge investment in the project. The owner of the company is a Kiwi who moved to England, but he’s keen to maintain a close connection with his homeland, and he’s excited about this new research from up-and-coming Kiwi companies. I’d rather have kept it in New Zealand, but it’s too generous to pass up on, and the research is too important for me to pick and choose.
“Coffee?” Titus asks as Elaine pops her head in, and when I nod, he says, “Yes, please,” and she goes out to make it.
