It was him.

It was the man from the club.

He was the man from the club.

Cai Hunter.

I had sex with Cai Hunter.

My boss.

Fuck.

“James D. Watson,” he repeated. “Yes. Scientist.”

Even through the plastic mask of the hazmat suit, I could see the stunned expression on his face. I was pretty sure I had a similar look on my face because I’d just been completely gobsmacked.

“You didn’t know.” He made it a statement rather than a question.

“I didn’t,” I said honestly. “Not until just now, and a part of me can barely believe it. How did I not know it was you? I mean, not many men are that tall. And your eyes. I can’t believe that I didn’t recognize them. You talked different too. Because if you talked the same, I would’ve–”

I started coughing, my eyes watering as I reached for my water. My brain was still rambling as I gulped down a few mouthfuls of the cool liquid, letting it soothe the scratch in my throat.

“Addison?” Cai was on his feet and at my side before I’d regained enough breath to tell him that I was okay.

I wasn’t okay though, and I knew it. I’d spent the last few days studying all the symptoms, and I knew I had several of them already. Irritated eyes, swollen glands, an elephant sitting on my chest. I could hide those, but the coughing, I couldn’t. I just had to either convince Cai that it was dry in here or distract him. Considering what we’d just discovered, I was going to go with distraction.

I waved him away as I took as deep a breath as I dared.

“I didn’t know either,” he said quietly. “Not that night, not until you said…what you said.”

“I figured,” I said, my voice hoarse. “You have too much integrity to sleep with someone you work with.”

He looked surprised at the comment, then pleased. “This is why I don’t do relationships.”

“What is why?” I asked as my breathing returned to normal. Relatively normal, anyway.

He looked away as he perched on the edge of the bed. “Two years after I first came to the CDC, I was on a team sent to this little village in South America. They had an outbreak of what they thought was a strain of typhoid, but some things didn’t add up. I was assigned to follow Dr. Lawrence Tighe, this brilliant guy only a few years older than me.”

I leaned forward, my own discomfort forgotten.

“On our third day there, Dr. Tighe was pulling out a needle he’d had in a patient’s arm when she started having a seizure. The needle went through his suit and into his arm.”

Damn.

“It ended up being an exotic strain of a flesh-eating bacteria. After two weeks, we found a way to cure it, but it was too late for Dr. Tighe.”

“Cai, I’m so sorry.” I put my hand on his arm.

He nodded. “When we finally returned to Atlanta, his family had already had the funeral, but I went to their house to offer my condolences. His wife was polite, but she told me something that I’ve never forgotten. She told me that the work we did at the CDC was important, but that I should never mistake it for being safe. She said she’d loved her husband, but she wished she’d never met him.”

I was starting to understand where this story was going.

“I decided then that I would never put anyone through what I’d been through, watching my friend die. And I’d never put a woman through what Mrs. Tighe went through.” He glanced at me then. “No relationships for me.”

“I get it,” I said. “A lot of people wouldn’t, but I do. I don’t do relationships either. I saw too many screwed up ones.”

After a moment, he spoke again. “Can I be honest about something?”

“Of course.”

“When I said no relationships, I meant friendships too, especially at work.” He reached down and took my hand for a moment, giving it a squeeze. “But I messed that up with you. Even before I found out about what happened…that night…I’m going to fix this, Addison. I can’t watch…I won’t watch you…you’re more than just another co-worker.”

He stood up, but not before I saw the pain on his face. It broke my heart to see it there, but it also sent warmth through me. He didn’t see me as a nuisance, or even simply another co-worker. Whatever this strange thing was I’d been feeling between us, it wasn’t only me. We had a connection.

Not a romantic one, of course, but a connection nonetheless.

“Where do we go from here?” I asked. “I mean, about what happened at the club. Do I transfer to another supervisor? Do we have to talk to someone about it? Fill out a form or something?”

“No.” He shook his head, the entire top of the suit making the movement too. “What happened, it never should have happened. Not because I didn’t enjoy what we did, but because of who we are to each other. Interns and supervisors…it’s not done.”

I knew exactly what would happen next, and I said it before he could. “We’re going to pretend it never happened.”

“We’re going to pretend it never happened,” he echoed.

Just like I was pretending that every inhale didn’t take a massive amount of effort. After all of this, I knew I couldn’t do anything that could possibly remind him of the friend he’d lost. I couldn’t let him be distracted by me. He needed to focus on his work. It wasn’t only my life at stake here.

Still, even my determination couldn’t stop the coughing fit that left my ribs aching and my breath coming in ragged gasps.

“I’ll fix this,” Cai said as he eased me back onto the pillows. “You rest. I’m going to get to work, and I’ll make you better.”

All I had the strength to do was nod.