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“Oh, is that how you and Ethan met?”
She leans away from the counter, glancing toward her table on the far side of the restaurant. “Sort of. But that’s a longer story. I think my table’s ready to cash out.”
I nod, going back to scrubbing as she leaves. I’ll see Austin tomorrow in the Stress Lab and it won’t be a big deal at all. Just because we’ve run into each other a few times doesn’t mean he wants to be friends or anything. He’s my participant for my study and I’ll be neighborly if I see him at the apartment.
That’s all we need to be.
CHAPTERSIX
TESSA
“Knock, knock.”
I glance up from my spot at the desk to find Joel in the doorway of my room in the Stress Lab, holding two cups from the campus library’s coffee shop. “Got you a coffee,” he says, placing one on my desk.
At three forty-five in the afternoon? “You didn’t have to do that.” I swear I’ve told him before I don’t drink coffee.
“Need to make sure you’re good to go for today. How’d the applied relaxation go last week?”
“Great. Everyone seemed to understand the exercises we went through. I’m interested to see how they’ve been doing on their own. And how was your meditation?”
“Great. No complications.” He takes a long sip of his coffee. “I booked one of the study rooms at the library for tomorrow night. Want to look at the data we have so far?”
What data? The participants haven’t even turned in their questionnaires from last week yet. “Sorry, I have to work.” Didn’t we go over our weekly availability when we came up with times to hold the training sessions with participants? I told him a million times I work every Monday and Wednesday night, plus all weekend. “How about Thursday night after we finish our second sessions for the week?”
“Yeah, sure.”
He’s free all the time since he doesn’t work and his parents pay for all his expenses.
Okay, not being fair again. It’s not his fault his family is well-off.
“Hey, I’ve got a paper for Somatic Psych coming up,” he says, perching on the edge of my desk. I quickly pull papers out of the way before he crumples them. “You took that last semester, right? Would you mind helping me with it?”
I shuffle the papers in my hand, now all disorganized from my quick grab. “No, I had Social Psych. I’m pretty sure Mia took Somatic, though. You should ask her.”
“Right,” he murmurs, taking another long draw of coffee. “You going to drink that?” He points to the still full cup on my desk, smiling. “Don’t tell me I wasted my money.”
You mean the drink I don’t like and didn’t ask him to buy?
Ugh, why am I in such a bad mood? He did something nice for me. “Maybe later. I wanted to go over the sequence for today in my head one more time. We’ve only got ten minutes left.”
“Yeah, okay.” He stands, knocking one of my folders to the ground. “I’ll get out of your hair, then.”
I get up and grab the folder, smiling at him as he exits. He really is a good friend. Without him, I wouldn’t even be doing a study.
I run through the shortened version of the progressive muscle relaxation sequence I have planned for today one last time, then go out in the lobby area to wait for Tamara, my first participant of the day.
An hour and a half later, I’m ahead of schedule as my fifth participant finishes. That only leaves one more.
Austin.
And as I decided last night, it’s not a big deal at all. Just because he makes me sort of… flustered… doesn’t have to mean anything.
I head out into the lobby, my stomach jumping around a bit as the main door opens, but it’s not my guy.
Not that he’smyguy.
Half a minute later, itishim, though.
