Don't Order Dog_ 1(10)

“But anyway, even if they offer, I don’t know that I’d accept it,” the smooth baritone voice continued.

“Right,” Jeri responded as she slowly spun a pasta noodle onto her fork.

“Right what?” the voice rebuffed with frustration. “Are you even listening to me?”

Jeri blinked quickly and looked up as she broke free of her thoughts. “What? Oh… I’m sorry, Rob. I faded out there for a minute.” She smiled apologetically at the handsome man sitting across from her at the small table.

Rob stared back at her, narrowing his dark brown eyes.

“Is something wrong?”

Jeri looked down at her plate. The linguini she’d been molesting was now tightly wrapped around the tines of her fork, but she had no desire to eat it. She glanced back at the long smudge of sunlight on the far wall and shook her head.

“No, just tired. It’s been a long day,” she said quietly.

“Everything okay at the bar?” Rob said as he leaned back and returned to eating. Even in her distracted state, the derision in his voice wasn’t lost on Jeri. In the few short months they’d been dating, Rob had taken every opportunity to drop not-so-subtle hints regarding his feelings about her choice of profession. As a gifted researcher and associate professor of microbiology on the fast track to full tenure at the university, Jeri knew Rob considered her job a bit “pedestrian” by comparison. His tone was now reminding her of it again.

“Yes. Fine,” she snapped.

“Well, as I was saying,” Rob continued, his eyes flashing her a dark look. “It looks like Biotin may actually underwrite the grant, but I’m beginning to have serious concerns about how this could affect ownership of the intellectual property.”

“Really?” Jeri asked with mock curiosity. “What do you think Biotin’s going to ask for?” Of course, she had no interest in the answer, but asking the question would at least buy her several blissful minutes of not needing to speak. She took a healthy sip of her red wine, some expensive new organic blend from California. It wasn’t the best wine she’d tasted, but Rob insisted it was excellent.

Rob’s angular, handsome face immediately turned to a brooding expression as the flickering glow of candlelight danced across his pale skin. “Well, I don’t have specific details, but it looks like…”

Jeri watched him with an enthusiastic smile for a few moments before realizing it didn’t matter. Rob’s stare would remain fixed on his plate as he talked at length about the latest snag in his research grant saga. His hands moved constantly while he spoke, meticulously cutting and organizing the items on his plate as if he were laying out samples in his laboratory.

At least she admired his passion. It was the first thing, besides his looks, that had attracted her to him when they’d met months earlier at the university’s alumni summer fundraiser she’d attended with Allie. In her black dress and styled hair, she had caught his eye within minutes of entering the ballroom. She’d even blushed when he’d walked up to her, an arresting James Bond aura surrounding him as he flashed his perfect white teeth and bowed to her in his ink-black tuxedo. Allie had quickly made herself scarce, winking like a teenager at Jeri from across the room and conspicuously mouthing the words “He’s hot!” It had been an intoxicating, nearly cinematic night as they talked, laughed and danced together for almost the entire evening.

It wasn’t until a week later, on their first official date, that Rob had asked Jeri about her profession. Being in no way embarrassed of the fact she was a bartender, she had told him without hesitation. The cloud of surprise and disappointment that swept across his face had lasted only a second, but Jeri saw it as clearly as a cell under a microscope. From that moment on, she sensed that was exactly how Rob now saw her– small and miniscule, like some lesser form of life.

In the few months since, they had continued to date casually, but Jeri felt the hope of that first great night slowly drain with every subsequent dinner and conversation. As much as she wanted to believe that the handsome, brilliant young man across from her was her soul-mate, she knew his heart and love were inseparably tied to a structured, predictable life of academia, and hers was somewhere else.

“… not that we didn’t consider the possibility of this happening, but the grant itself was expressly written to guarantee the university ownership of the first viable molecule…” Rob continued, his fork excitedly tracing circles above his plate between bites.

Jeri glanced again at the fading blade of sunlight. In just minutes it had morphed into a thin, needle-sharp shaft, its color cooling from ember-hot orange to soft, languid amber. In minutes it would be gone – a final, gentle stroke of warmth in a room of growing darkness. She took another sip of overpriced organic wine and nodded half-heartedly as Rob looked over at her, his hands and mouth in constant motion. His eyes fell back to his plate and Jeri suddenly crossed her eyes and flicked her tongue at him like a child. She inwardly wanted him to look up at her at that moment, to stare in embarrassment or react in some unexpected way that might dislodge the dull ache of boredom that was creeping up inside her. But Rob simply droned on, oblivious of her actions.