Chapter 16
As Yasmine’s question lingered in the air, Bella bit down on her lip, looking almost… nervous. Yasmine thought she’d finally gotten Bella off her game, but then Bella’s lip quivered, her chest rose, and a laugh came tearing out of her.
She doubled over in hysterics.
To make matters worse, she looked stunningly beautiful as she delighted in Yasmine’s misery. Without the threat of imminent death hanging over her, Bella’s bruises started to look like art, her skin a canvas of colors.
“What’s so funny?” Yasmine muttered.
“Nothing, nothing,” Bella said, wiping a tear from under her eye. “I just didn’t expect this to be the way I’d tell you. I was planning a whole presentation.”
Yasmine blinked slowly.
Talking to this girl was like being strapped to a never-ending carousel.
“A… presentation?”
Bella took a breath in, steadying herself. She gripped at the metal edges of the gurney.
“My interest in fungus,” she said, “is not coincidental.”
She reached for the discarded bottle of cream, and dangled it in front of Yasmine’s face. “This is a fast-acting antifungal compound. A sort of symptom suppressor. I designed it myself.”
Yasmine’s lips parted. That was the last thing she’d expected.
“You have… a fungal infection?” Yasmine enunciated slowly.
“Not really an infection,” Bella sighed.
She reached for her discarded sweater, slinking it back over her head.
Yasmine tried not to mourn the view. “We all have thousands of fungi living in us. This one just makes a lot of noise. I’ve had it my whole life.
And before you try to guess what kind of fungus it is, you won’t be able to.
It’s undiagnosable, at least via existing medical literature. ”
The scientist inside of Yasmine prickled. “Nothing is undiagnosable.”
Bella let out a short snort.
“I am,” she said, taking Yasmine’s shoulders and giving them a gentle shake. “On many levels, according to a few therapists.”
She jumped off the table, balancing easily even as the van bobbed up and down on the uneven pavement.
“The symptoms started when I was really young. About five or six. I’d get…
” Bella trailed off, looking down at her hands.
“Really hungry. Starving. It was almost unbearable. Nothing ever really made me feel full.”
Yasmine pounced immediately. “That sounds like leptin resistance. Not fungi.”
Bella looked up at her with a sly smile. “Good girl. That was my first guess too.”
Yasmine’s cheeks burned, hating how quickly Bella had upset their dynamic again.
“I’d get these black spots under my eyes,” Bella said, touching just above her cheeks. “It looked almost like eyeshadow, but it was just really dark skin discoloration. My mother always called it pretty, but I hated it.”
Yasmine found herself wishing she could have seen what they looked like. She’d never seen a symptom like that. But the bruising could suggest…
“A severe vitamin deficiency,” Yasmine said. “Or… hemophilia? People with hemophilia tend to get lots of bruises. Were you ever tested for it?”
Bella licked her lips. “Yes, I tested myself. No hemophilia.”
“How about Leukocytoclastic vasculitis? God, there’s so many options.”
Before Yasmine could throw out another theory, Bella pressed her into the cold edge of Larson’s medical desk.
“Do you want to actually learn something?” Bella laughed, pinching her waist. “Or do you want to just hear the sound of your own voice reciting medical terminology?”
Bella was only a few inches taller than her, but Yasmine felt so small under her gaze. No human in history that she’d interacted with had this sort of presence. She couldn’t stand it.
“I’m just questioning the validity of your statement,” she muttered.
“Usually the best time to ask questions is after someone is finished talking.”
Yasmine’s cheeks burned, thoroughly chastised. “Fine. Continue.”
“I identified triggers for the symptoms. Stress, the kind of food I was eating,” Bella said, her fingers tracing the table behind Yasmine.
“Once I got to college, I started keeping meticulous records. Every meal, how much I slept. I worked at the school infirmary so I could run my own blood tests and bill for my own experimental medications. I pretended to be a hundred different patients. It was actually incredible that I didn’t get caught. ”
Yasmine let out a clipped laugh, trying not to let it show how impressed she was. But it was frustratingly attractive just how singleminded this woman was.
“And you learned…?”
“A lot of nothing. Blood tests were abysmally normal.” Just like mine had been, Yasmine thought idly, even though they were clearly dealing with different issues.
“So I pivoted. The first breakthrough was when I noticed that the symptoms correlated with changes in my gut flora. That’s when the fungal gears started churning. ”
Yasmine studied the pink in Bella’s cheeks. She’s so close. It made it very difficult to focus on unpacking the case she was making. “While that is interesting,” Yasmine mumbled. “I’ve still never in my life read about a fungal issue making someone turn into a walking bruise.”
“Yes. That’s the key phrase, isn’t it.” Bella smiled. “Never read about. That’s because I believe this is a novel fungus. One that acts in ways that have never been documented before. Thankfully, I took the liberty of doing so.”
Bella wiggled her fingers for emphasis. Yasmine rolled her eyes, trying to contain her affection.
For a genius, Bella really was a fool.
“Let me get this straight. You want me to believe you’re host to some kind of indescribable, medically novel, dare I say magical organism that makes you insatiably hungry and… easily bruised?”
“It almost sounds sexy when you put it like that,” Bella said, letting out a cold breath of air on the shell of Yasmine’s ear. “But yes. Lucky me, right?”
She released her hold on Yasmine, and Yasmine felt like she could breathe again.
Then, as if they were discussing something as blasé as the weather, Bella leaned down to casually grab Yasmine’s purse, pulling out the other makeup Yasmine had taken from her dresser.
She found her foundation and opened it up.
Yasmine’s mouth opened and closed like a nutcracker. How was she even supposed to respond to this kind of thing? “This is an insane theory,” she landed on.
“And yet I have a gut feeling about it,” Bella said, then smirked wildly. “Get it?”
“So this is why you want access to my lab,” Yasmine scoffed. “So you can test your magic fungi theory?”
Bella completely ignored her condescension, smirk still firmly on her face. “You throw around the word magic like it’s something you don’t believe exists.”
Yasmine paused, gobsmacked, watching as Bella finished with her foundation, then started filling in her lips, so they were that vibrant, terrifying crimson.
“I’m a scientist,” Yasmine said. “Of course I don’t believe in magic. I wouldn’t be studying immortality if I thought it was something that could only be given to you by some indescribable, unseeable, un-studyable force.”
Bella rolled her eyes, shooting her a knowing smile. Then she capped her lipstick, tucking it away.
“Sure, of course,” Bella said. “Yes. You’re correct. This is why I wanted access to your lab. You have DNA sequencing machines, anaerobic chambers, oh, and a shit ton of money for anything else I’d need. It would help my research considerably.”
“But that’s not what we agreed to. I hired you to work on the subject of immortality. Not to mention, you promised we’d complete that research in a month.”
Bella’s eyes drifted toward her in the reflection of the small makeup mirror. Yasmine gripped the edge of the desk harder as she forced herself to stand her ground.
“I sympathize with what you’re going through, and under other circumstances, I’d probably love to study your condition myself,” Yasmine said quietly. “But if you want to work with me and use my equipment, we’ll be working on my thesis, not yours.”
Bella snapped the mirror closed.
“Sorry, I think I’ve confused you,” she said, sighing.
She looked at her nails, studying the glossy sheen for several long seconds, as if she was thinking about her next words, before she fixed Yasmine with a look.
“There’s one other symptom about my condition that I didn’t mention that makes it very relevant to your research. ”
Taking a step forward, she pressed her hands to Yasmine’s shirt, ironing out the wrinkles. Yasmine swallowed, her thoughts reeling.
Bella bit her lip, looking down at Yasmine with nervous eyes.
“You have to make me a few promises before I tell you,” she said, a genuine vulnerability in her voice.
Yasmine hated how she instantly felt like she wanted to protect Bella from whatever it was she was afraid of.
“Okay,” Yasmine said, taking a breath in. “I can try.”
“Well first, you can’t tell anyone about this… symptom. Even your friends.”
Yasmine blinked, surprised. That wouldn’t be hard. All she cared about was the end result, sharing the details of how they got there wouldn’t be necessary.
“Easy. What else?”
Bella’s fingers clenched around the fabric of Yasmine’s shirt. She couldn’t meet her eyes. It was incredibly out of character.
“You need to keep up your end of the deal. If we finish the research within a month, you still owe me the money.”
“Um, duh?”
Yasmine tapped her foot, growing impatient. If Bella was just wasting her time again…
“And lastly, you can’t ask me any questions about my condition outside the scope of our research,” she said, letting out a shaky breath as she finally released Yasmine’s shirt. “Deal?”
These details seemed completely insignificant to Yasmine, who just shrugged and said, “Sure, what the hell. It’s not like you ever answer any of my questions anyways. Deal.”
Bella swallowed. “Thank you,” she said, voice strained.
“So?” Yasmine said, pushing Bella lightly backwards at her hips, so there was some distance between them. “What’s next, do you need me to sign an NDA?”
Bella laughed, finally regaining some of that lightness.
“No. With the kind of legal team I’m sure you have, I’m pretty sure that would just backfire on me. Guilt tripping you for breaking a promise is way more effective.”
Yasmine rolled her eyes. “Probably. Now out with it. What’s your secret?”
Bella nodded. She took a step back, sat back down on the gurney, and looked at Yasmine through strands of disorderly blonde hair.
“Well, it’s no big deal, really. I wouldn’t say it’s a problematic age gap. It’s just that…” Bella trailed off, then bit her lip. “I’m older than you.”