Slipperless (8 page)

Lifting my hand to shield my gaze, I rolled my head to one side to try and figure out where I was. I didn’t see anyone as my eyes adjusted to the brightness, but as I looked around, I noticed an assortment of medical and monitoring equipment.

I exhaled and closed my eyes once again as the glare grew to be too much to bear in that instant. While I rested my head, I heard a pair of footsteps squeak as they approached until they’d drawn to within a foot or so of me, when they ceased.

“Fiona,” the voice of an older woman whispered.

As she finished speaking, I opened my eyes once again.

“Oh. Oh good,” she began. “You’re awake.”

My eyes darted around the room as I attempted to get my bearings in the unfamiliar surroundings.

“Do you know where you are, Fiona?”

I blinked as I felt awareness begin to return.

“Fiona?”

“Hmm?” I replied as I looked up in her direction. An instinct to move overwhelmed me, but as I tried to sit upright, the woman bent at the waist and pressed her palm flat into my shoulder, holding me against the couch.

“Fiona,” she said once more. “I need you to lie still and answer my question, dear. Do you know where you are?”

After a second or two I exhaled and managed a reply. “Yes um, my job. Hawkins Biotech.”

After that, the woman, who revealed herself to me as the company nurse, explained I’d lost consciousness in the lab. However, before I collapsed in a heap to the hardness of the linoleum floor, Amanda and Melissa grabbed me.

The nurse also said she’d checked me over for serious medical conditions and hadn’t found any. Instead after helping me into a seated position, she began to ask me a series of questions. I answered ‘‘no’ to all of them except the last one which forced a lie to tumble from my lips.

“Have you been under a lot of stress recently?”

Hmm, let’s see. My grandmother is battling a life-threatening illness. I’ve finally landed a job I’ve been after for most of the past ten years of my life. I’m more than half a million dollars in debt and my boss may or may not be hitting on me, which could or could not cost me the aforementioned dream job.

No.

Stress? What’s that?

“No,” I said with a slow shake of my head. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Hmm,” the nurse began. “Well, I’m going to recommend you take the rest of the day off. I’ll notify Mr. Doyle.”

“No!” I replied with a half-shout as I attempted to stand. But as I did, I felt the sting of dizziness return. My knees wobbled and before I realized it, I collapsed back into the couch.

“Fiona, please,” the woman said, as she reached down and helped to steady me. “You mustn’t make any sudden movements right now.”

I closed my eyes, leaning my head back into the cool leather of the couch. As I did, the nurse walked across the room and a few seconds later, I heard sound of liquid gurgling from a water cooler. After she finished, she crossed the room in my direction once again and offered it to me.

“Here, drink this,” she said, extending a cone-shaped paper cup to me.

I thanked her as I took it. The coolness of the liquid through the paper of the cup felt good in my palm and even better going down, as I took a healthy swig. I gulped it down she continued to speak.

“I’ll notify Mr. Doyle right away and…”

Wiping my lips dry, I interrupted her.

“No, really. I’m feeling much better. I should get back.”

I had to go back.

I’d only just started to work here. What would everyone think of me now? At a minimum, they’d conclude I was unreliable or even worse, couldn’t handle the pressure. Just then, an even more horrifying thought occurred to me.

Gabe.

If I went home Gabe would surely find out, if he hadn’t already. It was bad enough I was in the infirmary. Once he discovered it, I had little doubt he’d conclude it had something to do with him. It did, of course, but if he were to find out, he’d be relentless in teasing me about it. The nurse looked down at me for a moment before crossing her arms at her chest.

It wasn’t like I could tell her any of that.

“Really, I’m fine.” I said, now desperate to be dismissed.
Borderline begging
at this point, I continued, “I promise that if I feel any symptoms come on, I’ll do as you recommend and go home. Please let me go back to the lab. Please.”

“Hmm,” the nurse hummed. “All right. But, if you wind up back here again, you’ll leave me with no choice. Understand?”

“Yes. I do. Thank you so much.”

GABE

A couple of hours after my visit to the lab, I was sitting in my office when Holly buzzed in over the intercom with word Colin needed to speak with me about an urgent matter.

Clearing my throat, I picked up the receiver. “Colin, what’s up?”

“Gabe, I’ve got a situation in the lab that you need to be aware of.”

Lab problems always got my complete attention. The last thing we needed right now were any unnecessary delays.

“What’s happening, Colin? Is there something going on with the Link Protocol work?”

“No, no. It’s nothing like that. In fact, it’s not related to
work
in the lab.”

I wrinkled my brow. “I’m confused, Colin. If it’s not lab work, then what's the problem?”

“It’s Fiona.”

I leaned back in my chair and ran my hand through my hair. “Fiona? What’s going on with her?”

Colin spent the next several minutes explaining she’d fainted at her workstation. Amanda and Melissa helped her to the infirmary and then returned to the lab and told Colin what occurred.

“Hmm,” I said as stroked my chin. “When did this happen?”

“Well, according to Amanda and Melissa it occurred just after lunchtime. About two o’clock or so.”

“Oh yes? Interesting…”

“Sir?”

“Hmm?”

“Well, you said it was ‘interesting’.”

“Oh, right. I was thinking of something. It’s not important. Fiona. Is she all right?”

“I believe so. She returned to the lab not more than a half hour or so ago. What would you like me to do about her?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, do you want me to send her home?”

“Um, I suppose that’s up to her. What has she said?”

“She says she’s fine.”

“All right, well, if that’s what she says we’ll have to trust her.”

“Will do.”

“Oh and Colin?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t mention you spoke with me. Whatever is causing these episodes at the moment can’t be helped by her being aware of our conversation.”

“Understood.”

As I hung up, I leaned back in my chair, interlacing my fingers behind my head in the process. To the best of my knowledge, we’d never had someone pass out in the manner Colin described.

A number of causes ran through my mind as I considered the long-term impact to work in the lab. Maybe the issues Danielle revealed to me were behind it. On the other hand, maybe it was the stress of her new position but then again, Fiona hadn’t shown any difficulty handling herself.

Or perhaps I was partially to blame.

After all, she wasn’t accustomed to attention from men and I had been applying a bit of pressure. Even so, I’d never had a woman pass out from being so excited around me.

At least… not with my clothes still on.

Yet, as intriguing as Fiona might be, the last thing I could afford to do right now was have a huge delay at the lab. The Link Protocol would have to stay on track no matter the cost to my libido. I’d just have be a bit more reserved than normal, take things slow with her. I made it a point to get the best talent possible in my labs and now was no time to disrupt the environment there.

There’d be time to seduce her yet.

“Hmm,” I grunted as I released my hands from behind my head and stood from my chair.

So right then and there, I decided to let things cool off for a few days before I went and checked in on her, which I did a little before five in the afternoon on Friday. If there was one thing I could count on with my scientists, it’s that
none
of them enjoyed working after hours.

But, Fiona was a special case. I had a hunch her obsessiveness and her minor medical mishap would keep her there working longer than most.

Pushing open the door to the lab, my suspicions were confirmed. She glanced up and our eyes met for an instant before she returned her attention to the compound microscope in the middle of her workstation.

After slipping on some protective outerwear, I made my way towards her, and as I did, Fiona alternated between looking in the microscope and scribbling her findings down in her planner.

“How’s everything coming?”

“Fine,” she muttered, still not making eye contact.

I watched as Fiona drew her elbows in close to her sides and leaned in towards the microscope. I sauntered along the edge of the workstation, dragging my fingertips along its smooth surface as I neared her. I turned the corner of it and as I passed by Fiona, I brushed up against her.

“Oh,” she said, as she lifted her head. “I’m sorry.”

As she spoke, I circled around behind her. “What are you sorry for? It was my mistake.”

“Just a habit, I guess,” she said with a shrug. “I apologize for things a lot.”

“Hmm, I see,” I began, as I leaned against her workstation. “Well, I believe you owe me another one don’t you?”

Fiona’s small, thin fingers raked through her blond hair as she pulled it away from her face. Half-turning in my direction, she locked eyes with me.

“For what? What did I do?”

I smiled a bit.

“Well, Fiona, I do
own
the company. When one of my best junior scientists winds up in the infirmary, I’m going to find out about it. We can't afford any unnecessary delays with the Link Protocol. I thought I made that clear.”

She nodded and looked away. I watched as a hard swallow forced its way down her throat.

“Yes, I know,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. It won't happen again.”

“I should hope not.” I replied, feigning displeasure with her. “I’d hate to have to fire you less than a month in on the job.”

Fiona snapped her head in my direction. “Look, I said I was sorry, okay? Please don’t make jokes like that. And anyway, I’ve heard things…”

Her voice trailed off, leaving footprints of innuendo in their path. I felt a smirk come to my lips as I let her comment hang in the air between us.

Cheeky.

I studied her for a moment as I considered whether or not to entertain her gossip. Even under the less than flattering glow of the lights overhead, her beauty was getting harder to ignore. I’d only meant my threat to fire her in a teasing way. It would take a lot more than a silly panic attack, or whatever it was, for me to even consider doing such a thing.

As to her remark, well, she only had one side of the story. It didn’t matter much to me where she’d heard it. Anyway, it wasn’t something I cared to discuss with her now, if ever. I continued to look at her and as the seconds ticked by, her features flickered with lines of worry, even sadness. I nodded and pushed myself to a standing position.

“Is there something I should know about you, Fiona? Something you’re keeping from me? It’s not every day things like your fainting spell happens around here.”

Fiona dropped her head a bit, lowering her eyes and looking away from me in the process. “Gabe, this job is really important to me. That’s all. I get overwhelmed sometimes. I’m working on it. Getting better I mean.”

I wondered if she’d go so far as to tell me what I already knew about her… the death of her family, her grandmother’s illness or her debt. But instead of continuing, she turned away from me and grabbed her pen from the desk.

“Would you like an update on my lab work?” she asked, changing the subject.

I narrowed my eyes as she closed herself off from me. There’d be time to get to the bottom of all these issues. Although I enjoyed getting under her skin, I couldn’t quite get a read on whether it was affecting her in a negative way or not. That was also something I’d have to wait until later to figure out.