Here at Last (3 page)

“Thanks,” I smiled. “It’s
good
to be back.”
I was surprised at the relief in my voice.

He glanced up at me for a moment before returning his gaze to the projector on the table.
“Is e
verything okay?”

“Yeah,”
I nodded
. “Fine.”

Olivia
and Melissa walked in followed by Cliff
, and t
hey were chatty and cheerful
.
Cliff and Melissa
updated us on their
sales and marketing
efforts
.
I
ntent on everything they said, I decided to drive my time with David from my mind and focus exclusively on work.

After the m
eeting, I returned to my office
and
settled back into
working on
my computer
.
I was so absorbed in
an
Excel spreadsheet that I
hadn’t
even notice
d
JT standing in the doorway
.

“Mind if I come in?” he asked.

I jumped slightly and held my hand to my heart, laughing.

“Sorry,” he
smiled
.

“I’m sorry,
JT
.
I didn’t know you were there.
Yes, please
come in.”

He took the seat across the desk from me. By now, we had grown fairly comfortable with
each
another
al
though we knew little about one another’s personal lives.

He began, “I realize that setting up
a new lab takes a lot of time and l
ong hours. I know it
can be
hard to be away from home
for such a long time
.”

I felt a little uncomfortable that he was broaching this and wondered if I had been too obvious in my
relief
at returning to work
that morning
.

He continued, and I wasn’t sure if he was trying to be comforting or fishing. “I know it can be tough on relationships.” I raised my eyebrows, and he looked apologetic. “
Look –
I’m not trying to pry.  I just want to be sure that my team is happy. If you need some more time at home,
w
e’ll work
something
out.”

Comforting. Classy move.
“Thank you,
J
T
. It h
as been a little challenging, b
ut I
’m
happy here.  I’ll find a way to work it out.”

“Okay, then.”
He shrugged.
“
Just let me
know
if we can help.”

“Thank you,” I said
,
and he got up and
left my office.





As things
began
taking shape
at
work
,
I
started
making
time for lunch. Olivia and I were
becomin
g fast friends
,
and
went
to
lunch together or with everyone else
whenever our schedules allowed it
.

When she asked about David, I wasn't sure what to tell her.
Great guy. Smart. Loving. Supportive.

“He sounds perfect," she told me.

"Well," I hedged.

"
What’s wrong
?"

"We've been having some problems lately.”

She smiled and asked, "Why, what happened?"

"I'm no
t exactly sure. I think David’
s ready to start a family, and I'm not.”

“Oh,” she said
, twirling more pasta onto her fork
. "Now or ever?"

I wiped my lips with my napkin.
“I'm not sure."

"It's probably just the distance, right? I mean, when people are away from each other
for such a
long
time
,
it can stress any
relationship. I'm sure everything will be fine once
you get back home. Just tell hi
m to be patient."

“It's not just that, Liv. He's also starting to get jealous."

She looked up from her plate.
“Jealous of what?"

I glanced around before answering.
“JT.”

She rolled her eyes. "A lot of guys are jealous of JT. They don't have his looks
,
his brains
,
or his money. But you know what? JT Knight is
alone
."

Curious, I asked,
"But he hasn't always been, has he?"

"No," she shook her head. "
I know you won’t talk to anyone else about this, right?”

I shook my head.

“JT
was married once
, but she left him
.
After that, h
e bounced through a few relationships, including with a couple of married women
– one of whom was married to his boss
.
JT
was working
at
Hastings, then, and
left. Once things died down and his boss retired, one of his old colleagues was promoted and
asked him
to come
back.
Now, he
’s
extremely cautious and
doesn't date anyone."

"I could
imagine
that. He seems pretty self-protective."

"Self-protective?”
Olivia laughed.
“
Sophia, we’re talking about a fortress here!
JT
is a fortress."

"Okay
,
”
I smiled,
“
I get your point.
” Turning more serious, I said,
“Anyway
,
David is just feeling really insecure right now. He's
so
agitated
that
I
felt
relieved to leave home and
come back
here
."

“Does he know that?"

"What
?
T
hat I'm happier here
without him
than
I am with
him?"

She nodded.

“No. Not yet.”





That evening, JT and I worked late. Some of the equipment had come in, and we needed to unpack it and ensure that it was place
d correctly
in the physics lab and that it
worked
properly
.
We moved various pieces
around the lab
,
and s
ome were either fragile
enough
or heavy enough
to require
the two of us to
move them.
We
would
need to
work late for
the next few weeks
to calibrate and test each piece
since
we were eager to get the lab up and running quickly
.

Around six o’clock, we ordered dinner from Dragon Chef, a Chinese restaurant
in San Diego
that
made deliveries
.
When our food a
rrived about an hour later
, w
e sat down to eat in
my
office.

He said,
“You know, it’s going to take a while to run this scan. I can stay if you
want
to go home.”

“I don’t mind staying,” I told him.
“There’s plenty to do
here
.”

“Suit
yourself
,” he said, glancing at his watch,
“
but i
t’s already
after
seven o’clock here so it’s past ten in New Jersey.
If you need to
call David
,
I
can
finish up here.”

“I appreciate it, but I don’t think David’s expecting to hear from me.”

He glanced at me with a
mildly
inquisitive
look, but I didn’t acknowledge it.
“After I got divorced, it took a while to adjust to not having to call anyone to let them know I’d be late.”

“When did you get divorced?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “A lifetime ago.”

At around
nine
o’clock, we agreed that we were getting tired and that we’d continue setting up, calibrating, and testing the equipment the
next morning
.





On Saturday
morning,
I
made some banana bread before showering and throwing
on
some
black pants, a
long-sleeved
turquoise
knit
shirt, and co
mfortable black flats.
By the time I
got to the office
,
JT was already in the lab
calibrating one of the pieces of equipment
when I arrived.
His computer was tuned in to a radio station, and i
t was the first time I’d ever seen him in jeans
and a polo shirt
with dress loafers
.

“Hi,” he said when I walked in
.

“Hi. How’s it going?”

“Good.
”
H
e turned on a piece of equipment
.

“
There’s
some
banana bread on my desk.”

H
e looked up. “Did you make it?”

I nodded and smiled. “This morning. It’s still warm.
”
Looking
at his pile of papers
, I asked,
“Have you been here a while?”

“Since about seven.”
He glanced at his watch.
“T
wo hours.”

“I’ll
be glad to
take over
if you want to have some breakfast
.”

“Okay,” he said, stepping back from the equipment.
Each piece of equipment required its own calibration and test protocol and would take some time to set up. He said,
“I also need to make a couple of calls. If you finish this one before I return, could you start on that one next?
” he said, pointing to the one on the right.
“
I’d like to work on them in clockwise order so everyone knows w
hat direction we’re working in.”

I nodded, but he didn’t see
me
.

“
Are we
on the same page?” he
said
over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

“Yes,”
I smiled
, calling after him
.
“We’
re on the same page.
”

I settled into his chair to pick up where he left off
, and
Jim Croce
’s “
Operator
”
came on the radio
. For some reason, it reminded me of
David
,
but
I
pushed
it
from my mind
. Instead,
I
focused on
calibrating and running the scan on
one
piece of equipment
before moving
onto the next. We’d likely be here all day and
would
be nowhere near finished.

JT returned about
forty
minutes later. “
Thanks for breakfast,” he said.

I looked up at him
and smiled
. “You’re welcome.”

“
How’s it going?”

“Fine. I printed out the calibration report for the
one that you were working on
.”
I handed him the document.