Chapter 11
Monday 12:04 p.m.
It’s only twelve, but my stomach is knotted into one tight ball. I need to eat something urgently. The queue in the canteen seems extra slow today. I slide up my tray as the person in front me of leaves. Once I’m standing next to the lady at the cash register, I pull out my ID card to pay, but then I remember something and ask, “Hi! Sorry—do you have any pomegranate juice, by any chance? I couldn’t find one in the fridge.”
The woman looks at me as if I’m sprouting antennae. “If you haven’t seen it, girl, that means we don’t have it.”
“Right. Okay.” I nod and hold my ID card against the scanner.
“Thank you. Next!” she shouts for the person behind me.
What a sweet lady.
I pick up my tray and then stand at the outer circle of the canteen to look around. There is a hand waving from one of the tables. I smile and walk toward it.
“Hey, guys!” I say as I sit at the table with Miyako and Frank, who sit so close to each other, they could almost fuse into one another.
I have to smile. This is how things should be.
Frank looks at my tray. “Still no pomegranate?”
“Nope,” I say as I sit down.
“You should complain. Three days already and no pom!” He tries hard to hide a smile.
I look at him and tilt my head.
“Am I right or am I right?” He shrugs his shoulders.
I pick up a fork and take a bite of leafy salad.
“Hey, Frank,” says Miyako in a girly voice. “You know what?”
He raises his head.
“Jane finished her project!”
He looks at me. “No! Really?”
I nod and give him a shy smile.
“Oh, wow, Jane, this is great! Well done!” He stands up and hugs me awkwardly over the table. Then he sits down even closer to Miyako than before and continues eating. “Wow! You really need to let me in on your secret.”
“I don’t think there is a secret. It often has to do with luck . . .” I’m trying to undermine my success a little bit, so they don’t feel bad that they haven’t had their own breakthroughs yet.
“Well, luck or not, now we need to celebrate!” Frank says cheerfully.
“I agree. In fact, we already have a time and a place,” Miyako says.
“Really? When, where?”
“Tomorrow at Bo-Bo Bar!”
“What if I can’t come?” Frank says.
Miyako turns to Frank, a serious look on her face. “Really? You have something going on?”
Frank waves a hand at her. “No, I don’t. But hypothetically. You should let me in on your plans.”
“Well, I didn’t get much of a say, either, if that makes you feel any better,” I say, scraping sauce from my plate with a crust of bread.
“We’ll also need to tell Florence and Chris,” Miyako continues, completely ignoring what I just said.
Then Frank joins in. “Oh, yes, and Kevin too!”
I look up. “Why Kevin?”
They both look at me at the same time, then at each other.
“I thought he’s only into guys’ outings,” I explain further. “You know, secret agent movies and things like that.”
“Well, because he—” Frank starts, but Miyako interrupts.
“Because Kevin loves that bar! That’s why.”
I narrow my eyes. Something’s fishy. Then I sigh, shrugging, while cleaning my plate. “Okay. Fine.”
They pointedly look down at their plates.
I frown, looking at one and then the other. Then I shake my head. Time to change the subject. “Have you talked to David yet this morning, Frank?”
He coughs and says, “What you really want to ask is if he invited me to the new project meeting today at two, right?”
“Yes. Strange, don’t you think?”
“Totally!” Miyako and Frank say at the same time. Then Frank continues, “It doesn’t make sense. You just finished your project. The next logical thing would be to write it up, send it off to some cool journal. I mean, I thought that’s what David wants too.”
I shake my head. “Couldn’t agree more.”
“And I only have one more step left, and, if that works, I could have a finished project, too. You know, not as cool as yours . . .”
I open my mouth to say something supportive but Frank puts a hand out, stopping me. “No, no. It’s fine. Not everyone can be as brilliant as you.”
“Frank, you know that’s not true,” I say. “David gave me this project. It could have been you, too.”
He waves his hand, dismissing any future discussion. “My point is, I would really like to finish it. Wrap it up. And then continue with something new.” He puts his knife and fork to the side.
“Well, I guess I don’t mind switching to something else,” says Miyako, trying to pierce the last of her green beans with a fork. “My work is going nowhere, I’m running in circles. Doing something else for a while might be a good break for me. But hey, perhaps this new project is really something cool. We might all be surprised.”
I push my plate away. “I’m sure David wouldn’t be so interested in it if it wasn’t something intriguing.” I sigh inwardly. “I just—”
“Yeah, we know,” they both say at the same time.
We are silent for a few minutes. I want to talk about something else, but besides Sam, my new paper, and this mysterious project, nothing else comes to mind.
“Hey, guys, I totally forgot to tell you something!” Frank says, digging something out from his jeans pocket and putting it on the table. “I won four tickets to the Bruins next week! Are you interested?”
I look up.
Bruins?
I pick up one ticket, then Frank pushes another one toward me. “You can invite someone else if you want . . .”
Sam. He loves the Bruins. I could give it to him. Unless he already has a ticket . . .
I look up and they both have this smile on their faces, like parents who just gave their only daughter a present she always wanted.
I pick up the second ticket too. “Thanks, Frank. Are you sure you don’t want this ticket for someone else?”
He shakes his head. “No. I have the only one I need over here.” And he hugs Miyako, pressing her against him with one arm. “Besides, I’m sure you won’t have to think too much about who to invite.” He winks at me.
“What do you mean?” Am I this obvious? More importantly, am I this obvious to Sam, too?
Frank doesn’t say anything, but Miyako answers, “You’ve had this mysterious smile on your face all morning.”
I open my mouth to say something, but she shushes me. “Don’t try to hide it. I’m sure there is a good reason for it, and maybe that reason wants to go to the Bruins game with you.”
Yes. I’m obvious.