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My mom harrumphs,a sound she makes when she’s beyond frustrated. “Still, you can never fully trust these people. Your father and I have been watching undersea experiments ever since you told us about this fellowship of yours and most of the time, something goes wrong.”
I change the position of the phone to my other ear as I proceed to zip up my suitcase. “Well, I can promise you that nothing is going to go wrong.” I know nothing I say will convince my parents. They have always worried too much about everything. “Besides, by the time I was three, I could swim an entire lake with my eyes closed. You called me your little genius, remember?”
It'smy mother’s turn to sigh. “Randall, will you talk to your daughter, please? Maybe she’ll listen to you if you use your mean, father voice.”
I roll my eyes,wondering how long this is going to go on for. Much to my surprise, my father doesn’t say much. He just grills me on the basic survival skills and I answer all of his questions correctly. Then, he proceeds to wish me luck.
When the phoneis returned to my mom, I swallow the groan that threatens to escape when she starts talking. “You know, Sheriff Gary’s son stopped in town a few days ago. In fact, he has gotten even more handsome since the last time I saw him,” she says while I wonder how the conversation ended up here. But I shouldn’t be surprised, I guess. My conversations with my mother always end up here somehow. “You used to have a little crush on him back then, remember? Maybe when you come home for thanksgiving this year, we can invite him over for dinner.” I can practically see her jumping with excitement. “Oh, wouldn’t that be so wonderful.”
“Sure, mom,”I agree reluctantly.
“Maybe when youfinally settle down with a man, this urge to partake in dangerous expeditions will be quelled.”
Deciding I’ve had enough,I hurriedly make an excuse. “Look mom, I have to go, okay? There’s a lot to be done, but I’ll give you a call as soon as I’m at the airport. I love you. Give daddy a kiss for me, okay?”
We’ve hadvariations of this conversation so many times that I can practically hear her rolling her eyes. “Sure, love you too, honey. Bye.”
The call endsand I heave a long sigh of relief. I lift the suitcase off my bed and am placing it on the floor when the door to my room opens.
Ava pokes her head in,taking in my orderly room. “Are you done?” she asks and I nod. She makes her way into the room and throws her arms around me. “I’m going to miss you so much,” she cries and I hug her back tightly.
“It’s notlike I’m going to be gone forever. It’s just three months and I have that one week break in the middle, remember?” I tell her, trying to convince myself, as well as her, that everything will be fine. “I’ll be back in no time,” I mutter.
She pulls awayfrom me and we drop down onto the bed. “Yeah, but you’ll be right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, underneath it even. We won’t be able to reach each other and there won’t be any cute boys around.” She whispers the last part so conspiratorially that I burst out into laughter.
It’s justlike Ava to bring boys into a conversation that has absolutely nothing to do with them. “I’m going off to possibly make a discovery that could change the world of science. Trust me, the last thing I will be thinking about is whether or not there are cute boys around me.”
“I know…it’s just that going three months without sex is practically criminal.” She scrunches up her nose as she addresses me and I can see the disgust in her eyes just thinking about it.
“I’ll manage,” I reassure her with a laugh. “You, on the other hand, better not harass my supervisor while I’m gone, okay? Leave the poor man alone.” I shake a finger in her face.
Ava smirks. “Oh please, by the time you get back, Dr. Brad will have been successfully seduced by me. We’ll have had hot sex all over this very apartment.”
This time around,I’m the one scrunching up my nose in disgust. “Just keep it out of my room, please, and refrain from telling me all the gory details. I don’t want to find it hard to look into my professor’s eyes when I return to tell him all about my groundbreaking discovery.”
Giggling,Ava sticks her tongue out at me. Then she sobers up and nudges me with her shoulder. “Take care of yourself, okay? I already spoke to my dad and he promised not to let anything happen to you, so you have to stick by him at all times, okay?”
The thoughtof sticking by Christopher Young causes my breath to hitch and my stomach to dip in a delicious manner. But I know that’s not at all what Ava means by sticking to her father.
I’ve been trying notto think about the fact that Chris and I will be stuck in an undersea lab for the next three months. Sure, others will be there, but we’ll be far away from the real world and that is more than enough to forget how inappropriate it would be to get involved with him.
At the same time,the anticipation of what is to come is so overwhelming that I have had to remind myself to breathe on multiple occasions. I still can’t believe he asked me to come with him a few days early and I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I said yes.
I haveno idea if it was the high of being in the water a few seconds before he asked me that made me respond so positively and eagerly, my thirst for knowledge, or my innermost desire of wanting to be near him at all times.
Being togetherin that tank with him last week had felt unreal, like everything was finally right in the world. In a space like that, which would have made many feel claustrophobic, maybe even me if he hadn’t been in there with me, I had never felt safer. It felt like coming home and a part of me somehow knew that a man like Chris would allow me the freedom I desperately crave. He would even encourage me to pursue it.
The doorbell ringsand Ava jumps to her feet. “That must be daddy’s driver, here to pick you up.” She grabs the handle of my suitcase, rolling it along with her as she gestures for me to hurry.
While feelinglike my chest is about to explode from the strange mixture of emotions I’m feeling right now, I hastily put on my shoes and follow right after Ava. Confirming her suspicions, there’s a man standing in our living room who introduces himself as Rafael, Chris’ driver, tasked to bring me to our meeting point.
He takesthe suitcase from me while I hug Ava goodbye. As Ava wipes a stray tear from her cheek, she and I finally pull away from each other so I can follow behind Rafael.
At the parking lot,I see a black, sleek Audi befitting a billionaire like Christopher Young. When Rafael pulls the backseat door open for me, I’m shocked to see Chris already seated in there.
Slowly, I head in and watch him as the door closes after me. “You look different.” The words slip out of my mouth before I can caution myself. He has on a gray t-shirt and dark blue jeans with white sneakers. His dark gray hair is perfectly styled and his eyes are covered with dark sunglasses, making me a bit sad that I can’t lose myself in them.
He doesn’t replyto me, at least not immediately. His hands are folded in fists on his thighs and his jaw is clenched. He looks angry, but at what I don’t know. When he finally replies, it has nothing to do with acknowledging what I just said.
