“So, you’re still my mentor then?” Talia fluidly changed the subject.
“Only if you promise to help out with the gala. Because, I’ll be honest, I agreed to help President Harlow before really thinking about what I signed up for. I’m a bit intimidated by it all. Galas are not my thing.”
So not only was he still her mentor, they now had a big project together. Any lingering disappointment was completely forgotten.
“Can I get you a cup of tea?” Talia asked, wondering how it was that Maxwell’s weakness didn’t lessen him. Instead, it endeared him.
“Oh no. I can’t stay. I had a few minutes, and I wanted to properly introduce myself and thank you for offering to help.”
“We haven’t been introduced, have we?” The thought struck her hard. Because they had an unmistakable familiarity with each other, yet there had never been the handshake introduction that usually started things.
“Did we need to be?” Maxwell shrugged sheepishly. “I knew your name shortly after we ran into each other, and you kinda stick out around here.” Maxwell’s eyes strayed to her hair, trying, like so many others, to decipher the color. Her neck warmed under that hair.
“And you—” Talia stopped short because even if he was proving to be vastly different from what she’d already assumed him to be, she wasn’t ready to tell him about the reputation that preceded him.
He held up a hand to stop her again.
“I’m in on the joke, Talia. I know what people say about me. If I cared I would’ve already left. I’m a sexual psychologist at an all-girls school. It comes with the title.”
“Well, you, um…” Talia stumbled all over herself, unable to think quickly enough to snap back.
“I’ll email you the link to order more business cards, and we can start working on a time to sit down with the student gala board. Okay?”
Talia nodded quickly.
“See you later, then.”
And before she could think of something witty to say—because she suddenly found herself wanting to be that with him—Maxwell slipped out of her stacks just as quietly as he had slipped in. Leaving her to face a fact—she would never be the kind of girl he went for, even if she had every clever line in the book.
Chapter 6
Maxwell
“No offense, Maxwell, but what do you know about galas? Or faculty advisor roles, for that matter. You’re excellent at your job, but, come on.”
“True…but I know people. And when people I know need help, I feel obligated to try. It’s called the law of reciprocity. Maybe you haven’t heard of it.” Maxwell turned his face to the sun, knowing the subtle dig would liven his friend’s nerves. There was nothing a scientist loathed more than being accused of not knowing.
Ivan Hosier rustled his papers, but Maxwell didn’t open his eyes to see the annoyance spread over his friend’s face. He deserved it. “That’s not a thing,” Ivan reassured himself.
The loud clang of metal meeting cement echoed over the campus, startling both men. Together, their heads swiveled to locate its source.
“What are they doing over there?” Ivan squinted for a better look at the workmen bent behind a utility box hidden beneath a well-placed bush. The campus quad was bare, which made the quiet afternoon a rare luxury.
Following Ivan’s gaze, Maxwell noticed the reason for such a peaceful quad. At each of the four main entrances sat large signs denoting Men at Work. And while there was the occasional student slipping around the barrier, for the most part, people took the necessary precautions and rerouted their path.
“Hmmm…” Maxwell studied their progress. “I believe the T-bar tool is usually what turns off a water main. There’re probably plumbing issues in one of these ancient bathrooms. Take your pick.” Maxwell’s eyes drifted to the cluster of historic brick buildings surrounding them to make his point.
“It’s nice when it’s so quiet, huh?” Ivan said.
Maxwell nodded.
“What are you working on?” His colleague put his own papers down to look across the cement picnic table at Maxwell’s. Shaded by a long, leafy oak branch, shadows and sunshine swayed across the page.
He didn’t answer at first, pulling two phones from his pocket instead. A shiny silver smartphone was already set up and working fine. With a simple Import All, he had uploaded the entire Talmadge directory. A redesigned flip phone, with an edgy graphic case, was fresh out of the box. He whipped it open and peeled the plastic cling off the screen.
“Huh,” Ivan paused, took in a deep breath, and furrowed his brow like he was lecturing on something important. “Should I ask why you now have two phones? Or why one of them is wearing my nephew’s Spider-Man pajamas?
“Your nephew sounds like my kind of guy.”
“I didn’t even know they made these anymore. Let alone superhero cases to cover them.” Ivan reached his pen over to poke the new flip phone.
“They’re reengineered. All the functionality of a smartphone, foldable to half the size. This brick barely fits in my pocket.” Maxwell rapped his knuckles on the iPhone. “In an attempt to not piss off our boss, I got a second phone. Legal doesn’t want any blurred lines between Talmadge and my practice.”
“Were they out of Batman cases?” Ivan joked.
“Batman isn’t a real superhero. He’s a trust fund kid with expensive toys.”
“Iron Man?”
“Billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”
“Captain America?”
“Ahhh, super-advanced medical science.”
“Superman?”
“Born on another planet. Extraterrestrial.”
“Thor?”
“A god born in another dimension.”
“Spider-Man?”
“He was just a regular kid. Got bitten by a radioactive spider and turned some serious lemons into lemonade. I respect that.”
Ivan nodded. Maxwell didn’t look up from his work.
“Okay. And the paper?”
Me, one. Ivan, zero. Maxwell thought and chuckled under his breath.
“I’m writing down the campus numbers I need for personal use from the iPhone. I’ll add them to the flip phone once I’m done with my notes.”
“Can’t you just import the contacts?”
“Sure, I could. But that’s not how my brain works.”