Chapter 24: Thermodynamics of Social Interaction
Timeline: ~18:00, Tuesday
Location: The Guest Suites / The Commons
The parts were ordered. The schematics were saved. For the next seventy-two hours, we were effectively dead in the water waiting on high-voltage capacitors to ship from various warehouses that could expedite the shipping.
I walked out of The Barn feeling lighter than I had in a week, though my clothes still carried the faint, sharp scent of melted insulation from the morning's electrical failure.
As I crossed the crushed gravel courtyard toward the residential block, the air changed. The sterile smell of the lab was replaced by something warm, smoky, and distinctly domestic. All the trappings of a charcoal grill.
I followed the scent toward the Guest Suites. Smoke was rising from the concrete patio of Block B. Dan stood in front of a massive stainless steel grill, holding a pair of tongs like a conductor's baton. He was wearing an apron that said GRILL SERGEANT.
"Hey!" Dan yelled as I approached. "You look like you just escaped a prison camp. Rough day at the puzzle factory?"
"Something like that," I said, forcing a smile. I couldn't tell him we'd just melted a sixty-thousand-dollar security vehicle. "Just... trying to keep things a little less explode-y."
"That's a little less boring-y," Dan dismissed cheerfully. "Well, I blew up the budget at the grocery store. Burgers, brats, and veggie skewers for the hippie in your soul. Go invite your coworkers. There's too much food."
"Dan, they're working. It's a secure facility."
"They have to eat, Lon. Besides, I want to meet the people keeping you hostage. Go get 'em. Ellie's making margaritas."
I sighed, but the smell of the grill was intoxicating. It's not like they wouldn't have smelled it anyway.
I walked back toward the staff rowhouses and knocked on Marcus's door first. "Food," I said when he opened it. "Dan is grilling. There are margaritas. And we're reliving the glory days, apparently."
Marcus lit up. "The WVU crew? I'm there. Let me just wash up."
I walked to Unit 1. I hesitated, then knocked. Alex opened the door. He had changed out of his suit into a cashmere sweater and jeans. He looked impossibly relaxed for a man who had just watched one of his cars melt in front of him. If anything, he looked… touchable. And the thought made my hand go to the cheek he so sweetly kissed the night before—followed by a mortifying blush that I did that in front of him.
Oh, crap. Crappity crap-crap. Do I play it off like I was just scratching an itch on my cheek? No… then he'll think I'm allergic to him.
"Uhm…Dan is grilling," I said. "He invited everyone. You don't have to come, obviously, but…"
"I love a barbecue," Alex smiled. "And it would be rude to refuse hospitality on my own campus. I'll bring wine. Margaritas can be… aggressive."
"There will be beer, too. I can't do tequila, either."
"It would be rude not to bring a host gift," Alex played it off politely.
He's so proper. He'd probably be the "prince" archetype if this were an anime.
I smiled at him and excused myself.
I can never let him know.
Two down.
All that was left was Unit 2. I raised my hand to knock, but the door opened before I could touch it.
Julian stood there. He was still wearing his work clothes—black slacks, white shirt. He looked at me, then past me at the smoke rising from the Guest Suites.
"I smell burning animal fat," Julian observed.
"Yes. It's barbecue, Julian. It's social. We're waiting on parts for our project, anyway. So, you have nothing to do."
"I have plenty to do."
"I was asked to invite you," I countered. "But it's okay if you don't want to come. Dan is threatening to tell stories about from undergrad. I need character witnesses to refute them."
Julian leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms. A slow, amused smile spread across his face. "College stories?" he asked. "Something like… 'there was that time Lonna tried to build a fusion reactor in a dorm room?'"
"Possibly worse," I said.
Julian's eyes glinted. "I'm in."
Why do I feel like I just handed him ammunition?
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Timeline: 19:00
Location: Guest Suites Patio
The patio was coming alive with greetings, chatter and questions about Dan and Ellie's first impressions of the Bay Area. Dan was on the grill, flipping burgers with a theatrical flair. Ellie was playing hostess and making sure everyone stayed hydrated. Marcus was sitting on the cooler, laughing at Dan's jokes like no time had passed since graduation.
Alex sat at the teak patio table, pouring a vintage Pinot Noir into plastic cups with the grace of a sommelier. And Julian…
What the heck. Is Julian prowling?
He walked over to the grill, peering over Dan's shoulder. "Stop pressing it," Julian said casually.
Dan stiffened. He looked at Julian, tongs in hand.
"Excuse me?"
"The spatula press," Julian said, pointing at the burger Dan was currently squashing. "You're forcing the fat out. It wastes the flavor."
"Here," Dan said, shoving the tongs at Julian. "If you're the expert, you flip 'em."
Ack.
I held my breath. I expected Julian to sneer and walk away. Instead, he looked at me with a grin and took the tongs and spatula. "Watch and learn, Doctor Dan," Julian said. He moved them to different heat zones on the grill. He timed the turns. He found a way to stay busy and focused.
"He's hijacking my cookout," Dan whispered to me, looking both annoyed and begrudgingly impressed.
"He likes being in control of things," I whispered back. "But he looks… kinda happy. Let him cook. It means you can drink."
We sat around the table as the sun went down. I was next to Ellie, shouldering the role as representatives of the female voice among the meat and muscles.
These burgers are annoyingly perfect. I was sulking on the inside.
"So," Ellie said, wrapping her arm around mine while sipping a margarita with the other. "How is the 'Fellowship' treating you, Lonna? Has it been worth postponing your defense to come out here?"
"It's… intense," I said, glancing at Julian. "But the opportunity was too good to pass up."
"That's what the Dean said," Dan muttered. "I still don't know how you pulled that off, Vane. You charmed the entire Physics department into letting their star candidate vanish three months before graduation."
"Don't exaggerate, Dan. Everyone here knows they kept rejecting my thesis."
"I didn't charm them," Julian said, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "I funded them. It's amazing how flexible academic deadlines become when you endow a new lab."
"Wait," I said, looking at him. "You endowed a lab?"
"It was part of the negotiation," Alex interjected smoothly. "GIG believes in supporting higher education. Specifically, the institutions that produce talent like yours. Apex executed the contract."
"I only added a lecture and some equipment," Julian added.
I stared at my burger. I knew Julian had pulled strings, but I didn't know Alex was in on it.
"Well, money doesn't buy everything," Dan declared, trying to reclaim the conversation. "No offense. I prefer jobs where you can actually talk about your day without signing an NDA."
"There is a certain freedom in simplicity," Alex agreed diplomatically.
"Okay," Ellie said. "Enough work talk. Since we have the Mountaineer crew back together... Lonna, tell them about the 'Halftime Incident'."
"No," I said immediately.
"Oh, yes," Dan grinned. "Sophomore year. West Virginia University. Lonna Patricks, first chair flute."
Shut up, you guys….
"You played the flute?" Alex asked, looking delighted.
I sighed. "Yes, and I was excellent," I defended.
"She was," Marcus agreed, chiming in. "Until she decided that the marching formation wasn't aerodynamically efficient."
Julian looked up from his burger. "Go on."
Damnit.
"Wait… that's not…"
"She rewrote the drill," Dan laughed. "She tried to convince the band director that if we marched in a Fibonacci spiral, the acoustics would project 30% further."
"And?" Julian asked.
"And we tried it," I groaned, covering my face. "During the Homecoming game."
"It was a disaster," Marcus laughed, shaking his head. "I was in the percussion line. The tuba section collided with the color guard. There were flags everywhere. It looked like a medieval battlefield."
"We made the local news," Dan crowed. "The headline was 'Band Entertains with Vaudeville Antics.'"
The table erupted in laughter. Even Julian chuckled, a low, genuine sound.
I pouted.
"A Fibonacci spiral," Julian mused, looking at me with a strange expression. "You were trying to optimize a university marching band using sacred geometry?"
"It made sense on paper," I mumbled.
"I think it's brilliant," Alex said, raising his plastic cup. "To ambitious failures."
"To failures!" Marcus cheered.
I looked around the table. To my left, Dan and Ellie, the friends who knew me before I was a doctoral candidate and just a stressed-out student with a flute. Across from me, Marcus, who spent many nights with his arms wrapped around me before moving away.
To my right, Julian, the man who bought a lab just to steal me away. And… "Prince Alex."
For a moment, the anomaly didn't exist. The melted car didn't exist. The cracks in the world were sealed up by laughter and alcohol and the smell of charcoal.
But then I caught Julian watching me. He wasn't laughing anymore. He was analyzing.
I headed inside for the bathroom. Julian followed.
What's his deal this time?
He closed the distance in one easy step and leaned in close, his voice a whisper. "So, you've always been trying to fix the pattern, haven't you?"
I looked at him. "Not fix it. Solve it."
"Careful, Dr. Patricks," Julian said, using the title like a secret between us. "Sometimes the pattern fights back."
He pulled back, flashing that charming, dangerous smile again. Then he turned and stepped outside, announcing, "Now," Julian announced to the table. "Who wants to see me beat the medical student at a game of cornhole?"
Marcus groaned. "How can you call it that with a straight face? It's bean bag toss.
"Hillbilly Horseshoes!" Ellie and Dan said together.
"Sounds like we have a culture clash," Julian mused.
"And, I'm not a student, Vane. I'm a resident," Dan corrected, standing up. "Prepare to get destroyed."
When I returned, Ellie had saved me a seat. Alex, Marcus, Ellie and I settled into spectator seats on the patio and watched another Dan v. Julian battle.
Ellie and Marcus cheered Dan on. Alex encouraged Julian.
I remained silent.