Love with you

TER

eleven mo

he man didn't seem to

erself as high as her toes would extend to keep her mouth at the same level as his face. Did he have to be so tall? The kiss must have looked like some clumsy headbutt, and she grew anxious that she was not going to be able to pul

Elaine feel less like a squirrel monkey climbing a baobab tree, and his hands-which were large and pleasantly warm in the AC of the hallway-close

o...pe

including the fact that she was pressed against a random, unknown dude. That she'd barely had the time to whisper "Can I please kiss you?" before l

that showed absolutely no give. Her hands traveled from a defined jaw into surprisingly thick and soft hair, and then, then s

.

nope

njoying this. Rando

the 11:00 p.m. bluish glow of the biology labs' hallway, her friend was nowhere t

chest rising and a weird light flickering in his eyes, which was exactly when i

her

Her.

tan Carlson wa

aduate student level (Elaine's level, sadly) required some degree of assness in order to

xceptional. At least if the

students in the department being forced to postpone their thesis defenses. Joe, who used to be in Elaine's cohort and would take her to watch out-of-focus European movies with microscopic subtitles every Thursday night, had been a research assis

was obvious in the way he spoke, in the way he carried himself, that he thought himself the only person doing decent science w

had just

ront of Elaine, ridiculously intimidating with brown eyes and even dark hair, staring down from

the departmental seminar, a look that usually preceded him raising

esearch careers, Elaine had o

ng to pretend nothing had happened, nod at him polit

out of breath. His lips were full and plump and . . . God. Kissed. There w

t was wo

op

ly, it see

y disoriented. He took a couple of steps down the hallway, reached

ht actually be off the hook when he halted

. Nope, she was

ce in her hands. "It's

and low and sounded a lot like he was on his way to getting

tion odd, but Eitan Carlsen, who obviously considered empathy a bug and not a feature of h

he nodded. "Yes. Of course." He must be getting back into his usual groove, because his tone had lost some of its surprise

"Yeah. That would be great

eral law that protects against sexual

what Tit

illfully chose t

? No. No,

istaken, then. Someone el

didn't 'as

id kis

not r

st securing

f I could

without waiting

You sai

use

d if I could kiss yo

ed if you could kis

ure I heard y

t herself daydream of drowning someone. Dr. Car

was a weird situation. Can we

aine had always been slight, just the side of too slender, but girls who are five eight rarely felt diminutive. At least until they found themselves standing next to Eitan Carlsen. She'd known that he was tall, of course, f

g wrong?" He sound

. No, the

ing a stranger at midnight in a scien

re i

mail in the next few days, then." He began to w

t even ask

you must have swiped your badge to get in th

bvious that it would take him no effort to free himself, and stared pointedly at the spot where her fingers had

and took one step back.

iss. E