“How high?”
Larry gave a long-suffering sigh. “You’re not going to drop it, are you?”
“Not a chance.”
“That would be the courteous and respectful thing to do.”
“Who ever told you I was courteous and respectful? Come on, Larry. How bad can it be? I already know you’re a rocket scientist.”
“One sixty-five,” he finally admitted.
Crystal whistled low. “That’s pretty bad.”
“See?”
“I mean.” She put a combination of reverence and awe into her voice. “How can I ever dare talk to you again? What if I say something profoundly stupid?”
“You’re not going to-”
“You must know everything. You must laugh at us regular folks. You must be, on all counts, a superior human being to me or anyone else on the planet.”
He glared at her.
She faltered for a split second. “You do know I’m messing with you, right?”
His expression didn’t change. “You mock my intellect?”
She scoffed, fairly sure now that he was messing right back. “One sixty-five. Big deal. I’ve got an ass that’s worth a million bucks.”
He tried again, but this time he couldn’t completely contain his grin. “People never mock my intellect.”
“Really? Well, it’s about time somebody did.”
“Larry,” Jennifer shouted breathlessly, clambering back up on the bench and dumping a pile of tickets on the table. “Will you help us figure out what we can get?”
David was right behind, adding his own fistfuls of tickets to the pile.
“See that? Somebody out there respects my brain,” Larry said to Crystal.
“Is this what you do for NASA?” she asked him sweetly.
“Pretty much,” said Larry, helping the kids sort the tickets into piles of fives.
A RUBBER GECKO SQUEEZED tight in his chubby hand, David drifted off to sleep in the backseat of Larry’s car. A second glance in the rearview mirror told Larry that Jennifer wasn’t far behind. Her eyes had a dreamy look, and her blinks were long and slow.
He leaned toward Crystal and whispered. “Did we keep them out too late?” It had been a long time since his son Steve had been this age, and Larry couldn’t remember bed times.
Not that he’d ever paid that much attention to the details of childrearing. If he started work in his study at six, he often didn’t notice the time until well after midnight. Elizabeth was the reason Steve had survived childhood.
“They just had a good time,” said Crystal. “I won’t have any trouble getting them up for school.”
“They’re staying overnight with you?”
She nodded, a flinch of distress crossing her face. “I’m not sure what time Amber will get home.”
Larry nodded his understanding.
None of his business, of course. But what kind of a mother partied on a weeknight, potentially compromising her children’s education?
“What about you?” asked Crystal. “You have school tomorrow.”
“Classes are done,” said Larry. “I’ll mostly be compiling research over the summer.”
“Really? What are you researching?”
Larry hated this part. No matter how hard he tried to keep it simple, people’s eyes inevitably glazed over when he talked about his work. At parties, most people found a quick excuse to walk away.
“It’s not all that interesting.”
“Don’t mollycoddle me. I handled your IQ, didn’t I?”
“Fine,” said Larry. “I’m researching physical and hydrodynamical modeling for galactic superwinds.”
She blinked.
He took a breath, might as well find out now if she was going to walk away. “Specifically,” he continued, “the physical origin of X-ray emissions created when supernova remnants overlap in the star-forming regions of space. They form highly pressurized bubbles that burst into intergalactic space, redistributing mass and heat.”
The engine and tire noise filled in the silence.
“So, you don’t know yet what makes the X-ray emissions,” she said.
It was Larry’s turn to blink. “You got that?”
“Well, it may be rocket science, buddy. But it wasn’t like there were any new words in those sentences.”
He stared at her as long as he dared without crashing the car. “You understood what I just said?”
“Don’t get too impressed. It’s not like you can take me into the lab to help with the hydrodynamical modeling.”
Larry was speechless.
She took in his expression, an edge coming into her voice. “You never did ask me my IQ.”
“Well…I…” To be honest, Larry hadn’t been looking for intelligence from Crystal.
No. Wait. That sounded awful. She was obviously smart. Her sense of humor was sharp and sophisticated.
She glanced back at Jennifer.
Larry followed her gaze in the mirror and discovered the young girl was asleep along with her brother.
“You were too busy focusing on my hair,” hissed Crystal. “And my…other assets.”
“Whoa,” Larry put in. “I’ve never once fixated on your physical attributes over your personality.” He paused. “Okay, maybe the million-dollar ass comment was out of line. But it happens to be true.” Whatever else she had, Crystal was the most beautiful woman he’d ever met.
“Ask me my IQ,” she repeated.
The defiance in her voice gave him pause. “What’s your IQ?”
“One fifty-two.”
Okay. He was officially impressed. That number put her in the top one percent of his students. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“Until now, I didn’t think it mattered.”
“It doesn’t.” He knew she was smart. He simply hadn’t known how smart.
“Should we compare bank balances next?” she asked. “See who can pee the farthest?”
“You’re a girl.”
“And you’re a metaphor-phobe.”
“I don’t think that’s a real word.”
“Hey, who around here has a graduate degree in English?”
“You do,” he admitted.
They were both silent, while Larry made the last turn before the Softco Machine Works building.
“Are you really upset?” he asked.
“Not that much,” she admitted.
“I like that you understand what I’m doing. I didn’t mean to sound so surprised.”
“And I didn’t mean to go all ballistic feminist on you. I’m glad you like my…brain. Few people hang around long enough to see it.”
“Their loss,” Larry said softly, reaching for her hand.
Her fingers curled around his, and something felt totally right about the touch.
She closed her eyes and tipped her head back against the headrest. “What are we doing here, Larry?”
“I haven’t a clue,” he admitted. “You want to stop?”
To his relief, she shook her head.
He pulled into the parking lot of Softco, driving around the building to the back staircase that led to her apartment.
He killed the engine and flipped the catch on his seat belt. Jennifer’s eyes blinked blearily open, but David stayed sound asleep.
“I’ll carry him up,” Larry whispered into the silence.
Crystal smiled her appreciation, and she opened her door, flipping the seat forward to help Jennifer out.
Larry bundled David into his arms, making sure the gecko didn’t get dropped. Then he followed Crystal and Jennifer up the long staircase.
The dog named Rufus was waiting for them in the compact kitchen.
“Oh, man,” Crystal moaned. “The poor guy needs a walk.”
“I’ll take him,” Larry immediately offered, since, obviously, Crystal couldn’t leave the children to walk the dog.
After settling David in the spare bedroom, Larry clipped the leash on Rufus. The dog seemed more than willing to come with him, and Larry followed Crystal’s directions to a pathway that was partially lighted by the overhead lights of the parking lot.
It was a quick walk, and soon they were trotting back up the staircase.