Love Lessons

“I’ll be in the lab most of the day.”

“On a Sunday?”

She shrugged. “Experiments don’t run by a regular calendar.”

“But you can take calls?”

“Sure. If it’s a bad time, I’ll say so.”

“Okay. So I’ll call.”

“Good night, Mike. Thank you again for a very nice evening.”

He stood close enough that she could almost feel the warmth radiating from him. “Not including the haunted house, of course.”

She laughed weakly. “Let’s just say I had a very interesting time. For the most part.”

“Very tactful.” He lowered his head to brush his mouth lightly over hers. “Good night, Catherine.”

After she closed her apartment door behind him, she wondered if that wholly unsatisfying kiss had been due to gentlemanly restraint—or if he had deliberately left her wanting more. She suspected the latter. And it had most definitely worked.

Catherine had just set two six-well plates in the incubator in her lab Sunday afternoon when her cell phone rang. Her heart beating a bit more quickly, she answered it without thinking to check the caller ID. “Hello?”

“Catherine, hi. It’s Bill. Is this a bad time?”

Pushing aside her instinctive disappointment, she spoke lightly. “No. I have a few minutes to talk. How are you?”

“Fine, thank you. And you?”

She assured him that she was well. Only then did he bring up a subject she had hoped to avoid. “I had such a nice time with you the other night. I was hoping we could get together again. There’s a Halloween party at my country club. Would you do me the honor of going with me? We don’t have to go to a lot of trouble for costumes—we can just wear our lab coats and call ourselves a pair of mad scientists.”

“Thank you for asking, Bill, but I already have plans for that evening.” It felt strange to have two invitations to parties on the same night. Hardly typical for her.

“I see.” He didn’t even try to hide his disappointment. “I shouldn’t have waited so late to ask, I suppose.”

Had he asked before Mike, would she have accepted? She couldn’t think of any reason why she would have turned him down, but still she was vaguely relieved that she’d had a valid excuse to decline.

“Some other time then?” he asked, injecting more cheer into his voice.

“Yes, of course.”

She wondered after they disconnected if he really would ask again. And she wondered what she would say if he did and she had no other plans to use as an excuse next time.

“So who is this girl you’re bringing to my party?” Laurie Clancy demanded of her brother as they sat in their parents’ wood-paneled den Sunday afternoon after lunch. A football game played on their dad’s cherished big-screen TV, but Laurie was more interested in her brother’s social life than in the game.

“She isn’t a ‘girl,’” Mike corrected, reaching into a bowl for a handful of popcorn. “She’s a medical researcher. She has a Ph.D. and everything.”

“You’re dating a scientist?” his sister Charlie demanded, sitting bolt upright in the big recliner on the other side of the den. “You?”

Mike was hardly flattered by her obvious skepticism. “Yes, I’m seeing a scientist. At least, I’ve only been out with her once, but I’ve known her a few weeks.”

“Did you meet her at school, honey?” his mother, Alice, asked from her rocker, where she was crocheting a green-and-red Christmas afghan. A petite bundle of nervous energy, Alice was always making something, most of which she donated to hospitals and nursing homes through her church activities.

“No, she lives in my apartment complex. I’ve done some repairs for her a couple of times.”

“Is she pretty?” his father, Mick, asked without looking away from the television screen. The overhead lights reflected off the bald spot in the middle of his faded red hair, and his wea

thered face showed little interest in the conversation despite his question.