He drank his coffee and nibbled on his donut as he watched her organize her chaos. By the time she finished, half of the desk was completely full and encroaching on his half of the space.

She leaned back and smiled as she handed him a sheet of paper. “I took the liberty of creating our calendar. If we are going to get this in on time, we need to stick to the outline and hire at least one intern immediately to help with the research.”

Benjamin was impressed. But then, she must have some skills or she never would have gotten her master’s degree.

She pointed her half-eaten donut at him. “I figured since we’re both single, we can work weekends and maybe a few nights. I’m fine with hiring an intern to help, but it’ll have to come out of your budget. I’ve already spent my research allotment.”

“I agree. The sooner we get the data, the sooner we can begin.” He glanced down at his donut and realized it was half gone. “I know just the man to intern. I’ll call him this morning. He’s about to graduate and this will look good on his résumé. He’s a few years older than most students, so if he has time to take the work on he’ll be dependable, and he has no family, so he can probably work this week.”

She smiled. “So, we begin.” She wiggled her eyebrows up and down as if they were starting something illicit.

He shook his head. “I can’t work most Saturdays.” They didn’t know each other well enough for him to explain. “But weeknights and Sundays are open.”

“Nights are fine with me.” She winked at him. “I’ve always liked the night.”

“Fine, Miss Clark,” he said, having no idea what she was referring to.

“Call me Jenny.” She looked up from her notes and gave him a quick smile.

“Call me Benjamin, Jenny.” She had a bit of chocolate on her lip, but he didn’t plan to mention it.

She nodded as she shuffled through her notes and began handing him pages. “Last year’s proposal that won.” She leaned toward him. “Several studies in the past five years on sexual attraction and mating rituals. We might ask the librarian to pull all university studies on the subject in the past three years.”

Surprisingly, she also had an outline of what questions they might use for their survey.

“Please feel free to edit or add. I did it while I was watching CSI.” She giggled. “I can solve the crimes and work at the same time.”

Benjamin didn’t dare ask her which CSI she was watching. Probably Alien Crimes on Mars.