Nora paced impatiently in front of the restaurant where she and her closest childhood friend, Anna, had agreed to meet. She checked her watch. As usual, Anna was ten minutes late. She would blame it on the traffic, her roommate, or… The list went on and on. Truthfully, Nora didn’t care about the excuses, but she was in the middle of an experiment she needed to finish before morning. At present, her lab partner was monitoring the reactions of the ions to a variety of stimuli, but she didn’t completely trust him to keep a close enough eye on things and to accurately reflect the data in their reports.

“Hi, hi,” Anna said breathlessly. She waved as she approached, her smile incandescent as always. “I’m so sorry I’m late. You wouldn’t believe…”

Nora tuned out the rest of the explanation and instead focused on the dimple in Anna’s chin. She could’ve told Nora she’d incinerated her favorite pair of shoes and Nora would’ve forgiven her. All throughout their childhood years, it had been like this. Stop this madness. She’s a woman, you’re a woman. End of story. She doesn’t feel the way you do. You know that. It’s time to let it go.

“Hello? Where are you?” Anna snapped her fingers in front of her face.

“What did you say?”

“I said, let’s go inside. The wind is messing up my perm.”

“Right.” Nora opened the door and followed her in. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the low lighting. The restaurant was crowded for a Wednesday, but they managed to get a booth in the back.

Once they’d ordered, Anna asked, “So, what’s this big news you wanted to share? Have you found a fella?”

“Huh?” Nora barely managed to right the glass of water before it spilled in her lap. Her face turned beet red. “N-no!”

Anna threw her head back and laughed, and Nora wanted to crawl under the table. Instead, she stared at the tablecloth. She nearly jumped out of her chair when a soft hand covered hers.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you or make you uncomfortable. I was hopeful, is all. I want you to be happy. You spend too much of your time alone in the lab or with your head in a book.”

Nora wanted to stay miserable, but warmth radiated from where their hands touched through the rest of her body, making her uncomfortable in an entirely different and foreign way. She withdrew her hand and put it in her lap. It was time to get back on safe ground.

“I’ve got a job offer.”

“Wow! Already? That’s fabulous! Tell me all about it.”

Nora scanned the room to make sure no one was paying them undue attention. “I wish I could…tell you all about it, I mean.”

“Why can’t you?”