Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
ELENA
Elena arrived early the next morning, hoping to arrive before Finn.
Last night could only be a onetime thing, she told herself.
But when she got into bed last night, it was all she could think about.
How his hands felt around her waist. How she had to crane her neck to look up at him.
How she felt wrapped up by him. None of that mattered, though. It couldn’t happen again.
When she opened the door to the lab, Finn was already at his desktop. Why did he always have to be early? "Good morning," she said, the greeting sounding rehearsed.
"Morning," he replied. "I've been reviewing the dataset from yesterday. We now have ten patients on the new protocol.”
Elena nodded, hanging her jacket. "Good. That's... good." The silence that followed was tense. Things were just starting to get comfortable between them, probably too comfortable. But now it felt like they were back at square one. "Coffee?" she offered, gesturing to the pot she'd started brewing.
"I've already had a cup, but thank you.”
Elena poured herself a cup, noticing how her hand trembled slightly. She took a sip and nearly choked—it was very hot. "We have two new patients starting today," Finn said, still not looking directly at her. "I've sent you their information."
"Great, thank you." She set her mug down.
Another silence. Elena found herself staring at her screen, unable to focus on work.
She thought back to the song that Finn played last night, the second one.
It had a deceptively fun vibe, but it was about a secret fling between an older woman and a younger man.
She wondered if he played that song on purpose, or if it was just his phone shuffling to the next Alanis song.
Is that what he wanted? A secret casual hookup with an older woman?
It didn’t seem like him, but whenever she thought she was beginning to understand Finn Cochrane, he found another way to surprise her.
What if he wanted more than that? And why did she feel butterflies in her stomach when she asked herself that question?
None of these questions mattered because she couldn’t allow any of it to happen.
"I’ve also set up their scheduling for all of their appointments for the next thirty days,” Finn continued, keeping his eyes on his screen.
"Perfect," Elena murmured distractedly, "That's exactly what we need." Though she hadn’t processed a single word that he had just said.
Finn turned to look at her. "Elena," he began, then hesitated.
Her head snapped up at the use of her first name. Finn was already staring at her.
"About last night—" he started.
"We don't need to discuss it," she cut in, "It was just... blowing off steam. We were tired."
He held her gaze for a moment longer. "Right. Of course."
She couldn't decipher his tone. Was it disappointment? Something else entirely? Before she could analyze it further, he turned back to his monitor, shoulders stiff.
They worked in silence for the next hour, the only sounds the clicking of keyboards and the occasional rustle of papers. Elena found herself re-reading the same paragraph six times without absorbing a word. Her mind kept drifting back to the previous night and the intensity of Finn’s eyes.
"I won't be able to stay in the lab too late tonight," she said abruptly, "I'm getting dinner with a friend. It's... overdue."
Finn looked up. "Okay. Sounds like fun."
"Yes. Her name is Laura," she added awkwardly. That definitely sounded like a lie. It wasn’t, she did have plans to catch up with a friend tonight. But Finn probably didn’t believe it.
He nodded, turning back to his work without another word. As Elena continued working, she tried to ignore the way his shoulders had tensed when she mentioned dinner plans.
She would get through this day. She would maintain professionalism and perspective.
She would not overthink a simple dance, a moment of connection, a song that happened to be about a younger man and an older woman.
The rest of the research assistants started arriving to the lab.
The noise and normal conversation were a wave of relief.