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“You don’t lock your door,” I said dryly.
“Oh.”
I rubbed her back, helping her to sit up, but not wanting to let go of her yet. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she sighed, and I heard the weariness in her tone. “Yeah, I’m okay.” She paused, looking down and plucking at my T-shirt. “Thank you.”
Well, she hadn’t shoved me away, yet. Progress was progress. I took a chance and adjusted my hold, nestling her head into the crook of my shoulder. She melted, and I about exploded with happiness. “You still waking yourself up every two hours?”
She hesitated, as if afraid to answer. But then her exhaustion must have won out because she confessed, “Yes.” And then, her tone rigid, she added, “Not that it’s helping.”
I tightened my arms around her. “What do you mean?”
I heard her swallow. She gripped my shirt. “Jason has Calla. For spring break.”
Dread swirled around in my stomach and knocked against my ribs. “Since when?”
“Tuesday.”
“So, you’ve been in here, alone, all week?” I clarified.
“Yeah.”
“And your nightmares are worse?” She shrugged. Anger played tug-of-war with my fear for her. “Laurel.” It was all I could manage to get out.
She turned her face into my chest, and whether it was the haze of sleep or the magic of time apart, I didn’t know, but she gripped me tighter. Her muffled voice came out like, “Imshdu.”
I craned my head, leaning away from her and forcing her away from my chest. “What?”
“I missed you,” she admitted in a small voice.
Like an invisible hand had wrapped around my heart and worked its way up to my throat, I felt the air constricted in my lungs. “Babe. I’ve been here the whole time.”
She sniffled, wiping her eye on her shoulder. And then, as if coming out of a lucid dream, she sat up straight with a gasp. Her luminous eyes, violet in the darkness, latched onto my gaze with intensity. “Lach, I’ve got him.”
I frowned. “Who?”
She scrambled away from my lap, and I almost did a cartoon-worthy air grab to get her back. “Jason,” she ground out, and the ferocity in her tone was like a fiery shot to my veins. “I’ve got that motherfucker.” She grabbed a stack of papers off the coffee table and then hurried to sit next to me again. “I caught him with this.” She held the folder between us, her expression almost fevered and her mouth tilted up in triumph.
Whatever she’d done, I didn’t care about the particulars. I was damn proud of whatever frenzied plan she had come up with on her own. She wasn’t going to let him walk all over her anymore, and regardless of anything else that happened, I could live with that. Just knowing that she had gone on the offense imbued me with relief and pride in equal measures. “What did you find?”
“Well, don’t freak out, first of all. It’s a little alarming, but I’ve got it handled.”
I nodded, soaking in her enthusiasm.
“Jason told me he was going to upend your research,” she paused, watching me. I didn’t bother to look surprised. I wanted her to trust me, and lying for dramatic effect wasn’t really my style. She plowed on anyway. “Okay, not the reaction I expected. Anyway, hesaidhe had access to your data, but then I realized, there’s no way he does.”
A smile curved my lips. “How do you know that?”
“I’ve read preprints before, for my undergrad. I know a lot of that information is already public, and I also know that the information thatisn’tpublic has got to be embedded in whatever software programs you and your partner have been using to run data.”
I was pretty sure I looked like a lovesick puppy dog. She was so damn clever. “Uh huh,” I encouraged.
“But for him to evenknowthat, it means that he had to ask for access to your preprint.”
I grinned outright. “Uh huh,” I said again.
“You are disturbingly happy about this,” she said with a squint of her eyes.
