Chapter 10
From: Polly
To:
Jane Porter
Where are you?
Are you working late AGAIN? It's no fun watching Desperate Housewives on
my own!
Pol
##
From: Jane Porter
To:
Polly
Sorry! We've only got 4 days
until we have to report to Susan and I still haven't found anything that Marsh
can use. I've got about 30 articles to look through in the hope that one of them
has a throw away comment about combining drugs.
To make things worse,
I can't keep my mind off Marsh. It's really quiet at this time of night and the
office walls are so thin that I can hear him talking into his Dictaphone. Just
knowing that he's so close is driving me insane.
And my head
hurts.
Jane
##
From: Polly
To: Jane Porter
You're working too hard.
That's why your head hurts.
Come home. Have a glass of wine and watch
Desperate Housewives with me.
Pol.
##
From: Jane Porter
To:
Polly
Maybe you're right. I'll go pick
up the last research paper I've printed out and I'll call it a day.
See you in a
bit.
Jane.
* * * *
Jane stood and stretched. Her back was stiff from sitting still. She rolled her
shoulders, trying to loosen them. The walk to the shared printer in a room around the corner
would do her good.
The floor was quiet. Everyone else seemed to have gone home. It seemed strange to
see the place so still, when it was normally buzzing with people. She heard a door shut
somewhere. So, there were others working late.
She paused at a window. It was another cold night and the beginnings of fog were
starting to thread through the streetlights down below. She shuddered, and forced herself to
look away from the street, up at the other tower blocks. A number of them had lights on here
and there.
She ran a hand over her tired eyes. She didn't know which was more depressing,
seeing the enormous amount of reading she had to do, or nearing the end of the list and still
not finding anything of any use. Once she got home, the last thing she'd want to do was read,
so she'd try to read the remaining document on the way.
Jane turned into the print room and found Marsh kneeling, loading paper into the
printer tray.
He looked up and smiled. "Still here? I thought Keith and I were the only ones mad
enough to stay this late."
"I was just thinking of heading off, actually," said Jane. "I'm nearly at the end of the
list."
Marsh pushed the drawer shut, stood, and dusted off his knees. "I guess you haven't
found anything." The printer whirred into life.
"Nothing. I've started dreaming about patents." She sighed. "I think I'm losing the
will to live."
"I know that feeling," he said. Printed pages began emerging and falling into a neat
pile.
Jane's mind had gone completely blank. When a page shot out of the printer and slid
off the top of the pile, they both reached for it.
Marsh's hand grazed hers. An electric thrill ran up her arm. Her breath caught and she
looked up, straight into his eyes. The paper fell, unimpeded, to the floor.
Held in his gaze she couldn't move. He was so tantalisingly close.
Marsh drew a breath and blinked. He cleared his throat. "Sorry," he murmured.
He picked up the paper. "I think this is part of yours." He hesitated, looked at it more
closely. "Looks like it might be relevant." He sorted through the rest of the printed papers,
making two piles. "These are yours too."
"Thanks," she took the pages, careful not to touch him again. What now? Did they
walk back to the office together? Did she go first, with him behind her? What?
"I...er...was just going to get a cup of coffee," he said, and walked around her to the
door.
"Right," said Jane, relieved. "I'll see you later then." She noticed his coffee cup was
still sitting on the counter beyond the printer.
"See you later," he said.
"Right," she said again, but she doubted he'd heard her. He was nearly running down
the hall toward his office.
Jane returned to her office, trying to get her thoughts in order. Once she got there, she
looked at the document she'd printed out. She skimmed the front page.
Marsh had been right. It did look relevant. She came to a halt in front of her desk and,
still standing, she started to read.
There it was. Buried in the conclusions was a sentence suggesting that combining
two classes of drugs might lead to more effective results. Just the thing she was looking
for.
She stared at the paper for a moment. All these hours of wading through patents and
research papers and she'd found it. Quickly, she flicked to the front to find out the publication
date. She cross checked the date to see if the paper had been published before the patent had
been filed. Her heart sank to see that the date was one day after the date she needed.
She was just about to put the paper into the pile of others that she'd already read when
she caught sight of a small line of text.
Published on the web
and a date that was a
full two weeks earlier. Which meant that it had been available to the public for several days
before the patent had been filed. So the inventors could have read it before they put the patent
in.
She gave a little squeak of excitement. Without stopping to think, she headed toward
Marsh's office.
He was at his desk, clearly tidying up to go home. "What's up?" he said, when she
rushed in.
She thrust the paper into his hands. "Paragraph before last." She tried not to jiggle up
and down with excitement.
A smile crept across his face as he read. "When was it published?" He flipped to the
front and his smile faded. "It's a day too late."
Jane leaned across and triumphantly stabbed at the date it was published on the web.
"There!"
Marsh looked where she pointed. "Fantastic! This is perfect! Jane, you're a
genius."
When he looked up at her, she was still leaning across his desk. Too close.
Her eyes focused on his mouth. If she leaned forward just a little bit, she could kiss
him. She knew it wasn't strictly appropriate, but there was no one else in the office. Who
would know?
She wasn't sure if he liked her. What if he didn't?
Somewhere in the middle of her next thought, Marsh kissed her.
Her heart stopped for a second and then restarted, hammering hard and fast. She'd
been right all along. He wanted her just much as she wanted him. She kissed him back with
passion.
Marsh moved around the desk so she was no longer leaning at an awkward angle. He
moved his hands to her waist.
Jane ran her fingers through his hair, pulling him closer. Her heart pounded, almost
deafening her.
Somewhere a door slammed. They jumped apart. Footsteps sounded in the hallway,
coming towards Marsh's office. They stared at each other, with lips parted, both breathing
hard.
"Evening," said Keith. "I see we're all still here."
She took one step away from Marsh as she turned to look towards the door.
"What's going on?" Keith said, looking from one to the other.
Jane was sure her cheeks were flaming. She glanced at Marsh, whose lips had
clamped into a line. "I...found this paper." She picked it up. "I thought it was relevant."
Keith took the paper and started to read.
Marsh winced.
Jane bit her lip. She wanted, more than anything, for Keith to go away and leave her
alone with Marsh. But there was little chance of that.
"Hey, this looks very interesting." Keith flipped through, looked at the date. "Bugger.
It's a day too late."
"Is it?" said Marsh. "What a shame." He shut down his computer. "I guess that's me
done for the day."
Jane suddenly realised he hadn't wanted Keith to know about the paper. She
wondered why. Surely, they were all on the same team.
"Oh hang on," said Keith. "It was published online two weeks earlier. It could still be
relevant."
"Certainly could be." Whilst Keith read the relevant paragraphs, Marsh continued to
pack up.
Jane fidgeted, wishing Keith would leave.
"Well, this is brilliant. Just what we were looking for!" He folded the document in
half. "This calls for a celebration. Let me buy you a drink."
"I...er..." Out of the corner of her eye, Jane could see that Marsh had frozen in the
act of putting on his suit jacket. "That's really nice of you, but I have a terrible headache." She
frowned in what she hoped was a convincing display of pain. "I was thinking of finishing up
here and heading off."
Keith looked from her to Marsh and back again. "Actually, it is quite late. I'll walk
you to the tube station. We don't want a repeat of yesterday's incident, do we?"
She gave him a weak smile.
"I'll meet you in the foyer in ten minutes."
Jane couldn't think of any way out. She would have to let Keith walk her to the
station. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said to Marsh.
"Yes. Have a good evening." Marsh surprised her with a smile. "See you
tomorrow."
"Not running today then?" said Keith, as they trooped out of Marsh's office.
Marsh held the door for him. "I decided I couldn't be bothered." He looked over his
shoulder at Jane and twitched an eyebrow.
She stared at him, not sure what he meant, but he merely smiled and followed Keith
out.
Jane returned to her office, confused. She relived Marsh's kiss. Just the memory of it
weakened her knees. To her surprise, she realised that she hadn't experienced that melting
feeling in years. Not since she'd first got together with Ashby.
At least now she knew that Marsh liked her. But what now? It was only one kiss.
And he'd pretended nothing had happened after Keith walked in. In fact, he had been
almost anxious to get away from her.
From what she had heard of Dominique, she wasn't surprised that his previous
experience had made him cautious. Without thinking she touched her lip. Was she supposed
to pretend it had never happened?
She had no idea where this was going to go. If all else failed, at least they were going
out for dinner next week. She was about to email Polly when her phone rang.
"Hello? Jane Porter..."
"Jane, it's me," said Marsh, speaking quickly. "Just wondered if you wanted me to
wait outside for you..."
"Yes please," she said with a smile. "That would be nice."
"Do you think you can get down before Keith catches up with you?"
"I'm on my way."
"Brilliant. See you in a minute."
Jane ran for the lift, pulling on her coat and scarf as she went. She glanced anxiously
at the glass doors, fearing that Keith would appear and catch her. She watched the numbers,
willing the lift to move faster. It arrived at the same moment as Keith walked into reception.
He stopped to sign out and didn't appear to have noticed Jane. She leapt into the lift and
closed the door before he saw her.
Marsh was standing just outside the building, waiting for her. "He's right behind me,"
she said.
They walked quickly towards Holborn, side by side, but not touching. Marsh wasn't
wearing a coat and had his hands stuffed into the pockets of his suit jacket.
"Where are we going?" said Jane, when they stopped on a kerb to wait for a lorry to
emerge from an alley.
Marsh looked sideways at her, the streetlight casting his face into shadow. "My
place?"
The lorry was nearly out now. Jane cleared her throat. "Um... funny business?"
His eyes sparkled in the streetlight. "Absolutely."
* * * *
When they emerged from the underground station into the suburban night, it was cold
enough for Jane to see her breath, but she felt warm with anticipation. As the train left, Marsh
took her hand and his palm burned against hers. They walked faster.
At his apartment building, they practically ran up the stairs. Marsh let go of her hand,
so he could open the door, but dropped his keys. For an instant Jane felt a stab of worry that
he might be one of those men with unsteady hands. But Marsh managed to let them in, kick
the door shut and start kissing her all at the same time.
She wrapped her arms round his neck. His long body pressed against hers. She lost
all sense of time as his mouth moved against hers. She felt his runner's muscles under her
fingertips when she laid her had on his chest. His kisses grew more frantic as he pulled her
towards the bedroom, leaving a trail coat of coats, hats, and scarves.
When it came to it, Marsh's hands were not unsteady. Not one little bit.
Chapter 11
An alarm beeped and someone turned it off. Jane sank back into sleep.
Sometime later she woke up again. She wasn't in her own bed.
Barely a second later, she remembered whose bed she was in. A thrill ran through
her. Eyes still shut, she savoured the morning. She heard a shower running. She was wearing
one of Marsh's t-shirts, with a faded logo for a university running event. It was clearly a well
loved t-shirt. Somehow, that seemed endearing.
She hauled herself upright and looked around. The curtains were drawn, but the
bedside lamp shed enough light to see pale blue walls holding a couple of framed
photomontages. A large wardrobe and chest of drawers made the room feel cramped. On the
other side of the room were a wicker basket with a shirt hanging out and a plastic basket
holding loosely folded clothes. A sock that had missed its mark lay between them, as though
unsure which pile it belonged to.
She remembered Polly's definition of heterosexual men when she saw the line of
clothes lying where they'd dropped them on their way to the bed.
The sound of the shower stopped. Jane leapt out of bed and scrabbled around to find
her underwear. When she heard the bathroom door open, she jumped back into the bed and
hurriedly finger-combed her hair.