Surprised, I look over at her. Watson uses my brief inattention to his advantage to rip the small pack of treats out of my hand and disappear under the sofa.
"Oh! That little rascal!" Valerie tries to catch him, but he is too fast and slips straight through her hands.
"No chance" I assure her. "This cat is fluid. If he doesn't want to be caught, you can't catch him."
Shaking her head, Valerie leans back and looks at the ceiling.
"So you want tutoring from me?" I ask, just to make sure I understood her correctly.
"Yes, ..." she looks over at me cautiously, "if it doesn't give you too much trouble?"
With a red head,
I avoid her gaze. Tutoring? Wow, I´m honored! That way, I could spend more time with Valerie...
"No, not at all! I'll be happy to tutor you!"
"Really?" Valerie sits up abruptly. "You would do that?"
"Sure!" I clear my throat because my voice has suddenly become hoarse.
"Wow, thank you!" Before I know what's happening, she hugs me again. I nervously return her embrace. My heart suddenly beats so fast that I'm afraid it could turn into ventricular fibrillation. Oh God, are there defibrillators in this building? Maybe I should look for one on the way back as a precaution...
The hug lasts a few seconds too long to not being awkward. When the centrifuge makes a beep, we quickly rush apart.
"Oh, seems like your centrifuge is ready." Valerie notices quietly. I nod and run my hands through my hair with trembling hands, hoping she won't notice my tremor. How embarrassing! Is it the calcium deficiency, the alcohol, or is it because of my first female company in this lab, who is not a colleague?
"Now only photometric measurement is left." I think out loud.
"Determine the degree of purity?" asks Valerie curiously and looks over my shoulder as I clamp the tubes in our robot. Meinolf takes a few microliters from each sample and fills them into cuvettes, where he dilutes them with buffer.
"Yep. They will be sent in tomorrow. Then it takes a few days with sequencing and then the CMg pipeline is tested for evaluation." I explain to her. "These are a few computer programs connected in series with which I can identify the pathogens. There are good tools for this as freeware."
Valerie nods enthusiastically. "That's so cool!" she whispers.
Wow. My heart is beating even faster than it has just been. How is that even possible?! She is the first woman to call anything remotely related to me "cool"!
"Nice that you find it exciting." I murmur softly as I start Meinolf's program for photometric analysis that I wrote this morning.
The evaluation takes place within a few seconds and the values appear in my computer model.
"Looks good." I notice with satisfaction. "Can be sent in."
Valerie nods and watches as I seal the tubes and store them in a fridge.
Once we return to the bar, Yara and Aaron have vanished. None of the guests present has seen them, but when Georg, the shopkeeper, notices who we are looking for, he points annoyed to a door that does not lead to the toilet.
"In there. I hope you finally take them home. I only made an exception because Aaron is a regular here."
His words cause a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. What the hell happened while we were away? Nervously, I follow him to the narrow door. Georg disappears immediately. I have a bad feeling about it. When I finally open the door, we catch Aaron and Yara smooching. Maybe even more if you judge how her hair sticks out in all directions. The two are so engrossed in their doing, that I cannot judge whether they noticed our presence or not.
Surprised, I slam the door shut again and give Valerie an alarmed look.
She bursts into resounding laughter and waves me a little further away. There she sits down at the table closest to the small chamber.
"I think they had a little too much of the strong cocktail..." she remarks giggling.
"Wow." I notice dryly. "Just wow." Unsure what to do, I put my hands on the table and stare at my fingers. What the hell did Aaron do to Yara?! Horror scenarios spread in my head. He won't have given her any weird pills to get her to it, right? Oh God... I clench my hands into fists.
Valerie starts laughing. "This is Yara, as we know her." I look up confused.
"Seriously? She doesn't even know the guy. They just met today!"
Shrugging her shoulders, she leans back. "Maybe she just wants to forget her ex-boyfriend."
Nervously, I look over to the storage room. "But... What if she regrets it tomorrow?"
"I guess a few minutes more or less won't change that now..." she answers.
I look thoughtfully at my hands. She is right.
"So? What do we do now?" I ask, looking carefully over to her with one eye. "Are we going to get them out of there? Or..." I can't think of an alternative, given the fact that Georg, the bartender, has already asked us to take her home.
"So, how about ordering water to take away twice and then taking them to the park?" suggests Valerie with a chuckle. "With a little fresh air and water, they will certainly sober up faster."
I nod nervously. Valerie knows Yara best. And I don't have the slightest clue about Aaron. I don't even know how much alcohol he can tolerate. But how much could the two have drunk in our absence?!
It was no fun to
get the Two Lovebirds out of the broom closet. It was all the less fun to go
with them to the park, where they both had to vomit at the same time, which
certainly led to the death of some, rare geophytes here. The small poisonous
plant garden here was specially bred to teach the plant and biotechnologists
something. I
sincerely hope that no one has seen us here, but I guess the really important
plants are grown in the greenhouses.
Thank God, Aaron doesn't have long hair, which needs to be kept out of his face. Unlike Yara. I really feel sorry for Valerie who has to deal with it at this moment. I have settled down on a park bench at a safe distance and guard our backpacks and handbags.
Aaron returns to me after ten minutes, completely exhausted. Wordlessly, he drops onto the bench next to me and supports his face with his hands.
"Uuuuuuuggghhh" he presses out.
Disgusted, I slip him a handkerchief and move away from him.
"This girl can drink..." he murmurs silently, before brushing his face with the cloth.
"What the hell did you do in the half hour we were gone?!" I ask, but change my mind: "Wait, wait, that was a rhetorical question, I really don't want to know." I add quickly after the image of the two in the broom closet comes back to my mind.
"Pfffft..." Aaron laughs sarcastically. "half an hour?" he gives me a doubtful look. "More like a One and a half hour, bro."
Somewhat suspicious, I lean back. Have we really been in my lab that long? It didn't feel that long... But now that I think about it: centrifuging and measuring the optical density must have taken some time...
At that moment, the girls emerge from the bushes, Yara has totally stepped away. Valerie has her arm around her shoulders and supports her like an injured soldier in the trenches.
"We have to go." She says worriedly. "Yara has to lie down."
"I'll help you." Says Aaron and jumps up. I want to hold him back by one arm, but he is faster than me, staggers a few steps too far to the right and lands, with his butt first, in a small frog pond.
For a moment, everyone remains silent. Then I start laughing.
"Shit!" Swear Aaron and pat his hands insulted into the knee-deep water around him. I laugh even louder.
"Oh dear, did you hurt yourself?" asks Valerie worriedly. Yara didn't notice any of this.
My fit of laughter just doesn't want to end. Man, when was the last time I had as much fun as I did today? That must have been years ago! In a good mood, I approach the pond and offer my hand to Aaron, who seizes it offended.
"How nice that you think it's funny." He growls. "Just wait until YOU are really drunk one day." He adds menacingly and climbs out of the water.
Dripping wet and shivering, he stands in front of us on the meadow.
"Don't worry, buddy." Let me reassure him about that. "My alcohol dehydrogenases are well beyond that level." Grinning maliciously, I pat him on the shoulder and grab our bags from the park bench. "Let's go to the frat-house. Otherwise, Aaron´s temperature drops down too much. And Yara has to lie down." I give Valerie a serious look. "How far is it to your apartment?"
Valerie shakes her head. "Too far. We missed the last train."
"Come with us." I suggest. "You girls can have his room." I point to a dripping wet Aaron trotting in front of us like a swaying, wet dog. "Right, Aaron?" Said dog turns to us and nods curtly.
"I'll take him with me."
"Thank you." Valerie smiles with relief. "Are you really sure?"
"Yes. His room is bigger and tidier than mine anyway. I'm sure you'll have it more comfortable there." I admit my bad habit of chaotic housekeeping.
The next morning slams in properly. Literally, because shortly before seven one of Aaron's fists lands clapping in my face. In panic, I wake up from sleep and clench my fists to defend myself when I realize that he was just spinning around in bed and accidentally hit me.
Sighing in frustration, I swing out of bed. My heart is too agitated now anyway to fall asleep again. Tired, with disheveled hair and toothbrush in my mouth, I look around the room. At least Aaron didn't puke again. Relieved, I grab towels and soap and jump into the shower in the shared bathrooms on our floor.
Phew. A wonderful feeling to wash off the dirt and alcohol from the previous evening. After we hoisted two completely comatose and/or swaying people up the stairs last night, I just said good night to Valerie and then fell into bed. Strange. Even though I wasn't even close to drunk! I guess emotional tension makes you just as tired as hard physical work.
With a towel around my hips and another over my wet hair, I return to the hallway, where I collide with something small. Confused, I take the towel out of my face.
"Adrian?" asks Valerie tiredly. Flustered, I cover my upper body and stagger backwards.
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