Here at Last (2 page)

“Of course
, Dr. Blackwell
,” she said, getting up from her chair and walking around the desk to greet me. We shook hands. “I’m
Melissa Wong
– sales and marketing
. The receptionist is out today so we’re all taking turns,” she said with a laugh. Then, she motioned for me to follow her. “Come this way. I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

Like me, Melissa had dark hair, but hers had tight curls and stopped a few inches below her shoulders while mine was straight and fell to the middle of my back. She was a few inches taller than I and had a very slender build while mine was curvy and athletic.

We walked into the Einstein
Meeting
Room – each conference room was named for a famous
physicist
– and
Melissa
offered to get some coffee
for me
.  A moment later, she returned with a
steaming mug
and was
accompanied
by
two people
.

I shook hands with
JT Knight, Executive Director of the San Diego office, and
Olivia
Parsons
,
the Communications Director.
Olivia
was tall and thin and wore a long-sleeved
silver
silk blouse, black slacks, and a long silver pendant. Her
brown
hair was
swept up in a chignon
, and she was very pretty
with a long slender face, high cheekbones, and deep-set
hazel
eyes
.

JT
was dressed in a dark
grey
suit, shiny black shoes, and a baby blue silk tie
a little lighter than his eyes
. He, too, had dark hair and somewhat angular features. Broad-shouldered and lean, he looked like he belonged on the cover of some men’s magazine.
From their body language, it
appeared that his relationship with
Olivia
was strictly professional.
I was relieved s
ince I’d hoped that I woul
dn’t have any problems with him hitting on me.
As I would learn later, Olivia and JT had worked together
many
years before, and he had hired her when he’d
been put in charge
of the San Diego office
.

I complimented
them
on the
green
building, and
Olivia
told me that
she and
her team would provide scheduled tours
of the
entire office complex
in order to help foster a good public image while introducing people to the work that Hastings does.
JT
reminded us
that we had a meeting in
forty
minutes and
offered to
show me
to
my office
so that I could settle in first
. I followed him down a long daylit corridor and into an office that was across the hall from the main lab. The room was beautiful with a large window that looked out on the Pacific Ocean in the distance and golden brown furniture made from bamboo.

“I hope you’re comfortable here,” JT said.

“Thank you. It’s beautiful,” I said, quickly scanning the room.

“Good. I’ll let you get settled in. Just come back down to the conference room for our nine o’clock,” he said.

I nodded, and he turned around and walked
out the door
.

JT was clearly a fan of not wasting time in meetings, and ours lasted all of about twenty minutes. He
discussed
some of the work that would differentiate the West coast
office
from the others.
He
also
identified
remaining personnel
gaps
and discussed the first positions that he hoped to fill
.
Afterward,
each person discussed
her or
his
current
work
and upcoming projects
.
Everyone agreed on what they needed to do, and we had a clear plan of progress.

“We’re on the same page then
?
”
JT asked.

When e
veryone
agreed
, the meeting was over
.
After
ward
, I talked with Olivia for a few minutes before returning to my office to unpack the
boxes that I’d shipped ahead
.
Several boxes
sat stacked
neatly
on the floor
, and
I
put away books and scholarly articles on physics, quantum mechanics, astrophysics, and a few on the
search for the
Higgs boson
, or “God,” particle
.

I
spent the next few hours installing and organizing
my files on my computer. By the end of the day,
my office was set up, and I’d begun putting together an inventory of current lab equipment
as well as a list of the
equipment
that
we
still
need
ed to buy with
estimated costs and suggested vendors.





That evening, I called
David
when I returned to the condo.

“Hey, Soph. How’d your first day go?”

“
It was long b
ut good. There's a lot to do here
so
I’ll be pretty
busy
over the next
several months
.
" I
felt tired already, and it was only the beginning
.

“
How’s
the team?"

I
hesitated, sipping some iced coffee
. "
Good. I like
everybody. I wasn't sure what I’d think about JT, but he was fine."

“
What do you mean
?” David
asked sounding
curious
.

"He has the reputation of being a bit of a
playboy
.”

“Why didn't you say anything before?"

“Because I
didn’t think it would matter.
I can handle myself."

“I wish you'd said something,” he sounded a little annoyed.

“Why?”
I wondered.

“Because he's your boss.”
He sounded agitated.

“I’m s
orry. I just didn't think it was very important.
”
I was quiet for a moment. “
Are you okay
?”

He sighed.
“
Eight
months is a long time, Soph. A lot can happen in that time."

This didn't sound like
the
David
that I’d been with for four years
. "Are you saying that you think
I’d
cheat on you?"

“Not you.
”

“Then who?” I felt a little offended.

“
I'm just saying
.
… Never mind. I'm tired. I shouldn't have
said anything
.
Just be careful.
"

“As I said, I don’t think I’ll have a problem,” I told him.

A
little uneasy, I was probably a
s
ready
to get off that call as David was.
He’d
never seemed like the jealous type
, and I didn't know why he was feeling so
anxious
.
I chalked it up to
both of us
being tired and my being so far away on such a long job.
Before we hung up, I reassured him that
I woul
d be home soon.





That night, I had
the most
vivid
dream
. In it, I saw
a man whom I’d never seen before
.
He was smiling at me.
Although
I couldn’t make out his face clearly,
I could tell that
he had
large brown eyes and
wavy brown hair
that
fell over the tops of his ears
.
His smile was genuine and beautiful, and I felt an overwhelming sense of love from him
that was strong enough to awaken me
.

As I lay in bed and the dream began to fade, an uneasy thought crossed my mind.
I don’t feel this way with
David
.
The realization awakened me more, and I lay in the dark wondering how that could be.
I
knew that David loved me. We ha
d said it to one another hundreds of times at the very least, probably more.  Yet, the seed of a nagging thought had been planted. 
I didn’t
feel
love from David
.

Chapter
3

The next few weeks
at work
were incredibly productive. Everyone seemed to get along, and we worked well as a team.
JT continued to hire new staff, and I was developing
some new training materials
that outlined skills and techniques required for
using
the new equipment that we had ordered.
S
ome of the instruments were very fragile, and we
would be using
chemicals and high voltage generators
that
would require
us to provide general safety training
as well
.

On the personal end, things were
n’t
going so well. For the first time
ever
, my conversations with David were strained.
H
e seem
ed
to be feeling insecure and jealous
al
though
there was nothing to warrant his behavior.
JT had done nothing to indicate an interest in me
, and I’d never considered straying
.

When I went home
at the end of the first month
, I told David that the rumors around JT were probably
just
speculative
. “You know how easy it is for people to
gossip
about someone
and make up
stories
that are
n’t
true or that are taken out of context.
JT’s done nothing. I don't think there's anything to worry about
," I told David.

Nonetheless, he
seemed
distant.
In addition to feeling insecure about JT, David
appeared
to have adjusted
to my being
away
and was a little agitated that I was home. On a few occasions, he apologized for his mood
, but w
e were finding less common ground
. I
t felt as though we were detaching from one another through some sheer force of nature.

Of course, I wouldn't discover until later that he was growing anxious about our chance to start a family.
Since
I was getting older and I was away
for eight months
,
I wasn't there to conceive or raise a child
, and we were running low on time.
H
aving children was
a dream of his
that seemed to be increasingly important to him
, and
I realized t
hat I didn't share that dream – a
t least not now.

When I got on the plane back to San Diego
on Monday
, I remembered the man in my dreams and wondered if he was real and why he had appeared to me.





I returned to work on Tuesday
morning
and arrived for the staff meeting
several
minutes
early
.
JT was setting up the computer projector.

“It’s good to have you back,”
he
said as
I
walked into the room.