Biochemistry - New Love in the Lab

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Our chemistry led us to our basic biological urges.
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This is a story about new love. I hope you enjoy it.

*

I was smitten the very moment I saw her. A girl with a striking mop of curly bright red hair that cascaded to her shoulders sat near the head of the table, her eyes fixed on a form in front of her. She looked like she was deep in concentration as she held a pen which she absentmindedly tapped the non-writing end against her lower lip. As I walked into the meeting room she looked up from the form to me and I immediately noticed her beautiful sparkling blue eyes, and then her cute little smile with which she greeted me. I couldn't help but smile back.

"Hello, I'm Angie. Are you part of Dr Pritchard's lab?" She had a slightly husky voice and in an instant I had decided it was the sexiest voice I had ever heard!

"Hi, it's a pleasure to meet you Angie." And it really was a pleasure I thought, as I placed my mug of coffee on the table and shook her hand, introducing myself to her at the same time. I briefly told her about my role as a laboratory assistant.

It was Thursday morning, the day that Dr William 'Bill' Pritchard's laboratory group scheduled its weekly lab meetings. I was a laboratory assistant who worked for Dr Clara van den Berg, who worked with Bill, and everyone who was part of the lab were supposed to attend the meetings. I normally sat up the back of the room with Bill's lab assistant Brent Benson, who we all called 'Benno' (pronounced 'Ben-O'), but on this day I sat down next to Angie and chatted with her. Our chat was very brief though and she was only able to get around to telling me how she was a new student studying under Dr Pritchard before other members of the lab started to arrive, making plenty of noise and interrupting our conversation. Benno raised his eyebrows when he saw me sitting at the table chatting with an attractive young lady that he had never seen before. As usual Bill and Clara were the last to arrive at the meeting and Bill sat at the head of the table, while Clara sat opposite Angie. Clara raised her eyebrows at me as well because I was sitting so far up the meeting room table, which was highly unusual, but she smiled at me, guessing my motive. Bill most probably didn't notice anything different as he spoke in his characteristic booming voice.

"Okay everyone, we have a few things to get through this morning but I am racing to get to another meeting with the department so we will try to make this brief. First, I will introduce Angela Macleod, my new biochemistry PhD."

"Hi everyone." Angie gave a cheerful greeting as she flashed a smile that I thought was the most gorgeous smile I had ever seen. She gave a little wave too and I thought that her wave was super cute! I was already hooked and I wondered if maybe this is what love at first sight was all about!

"We are in a bit of a rush Angela, but I am sure everyone can introduce themselves to you later." Bill was typically in a rush. Though a brilliant scientist, he couldn't have organised a piss up in a brewery. He talked from topic to topic without any obvious connection or order between the topics, just rambling on as things came to his brilliant mind. He let one or two other people from the lab speak about this or that too, including Clara. Bill and Clara were like chalk and cheese. Clara was brilliant too, but she was much more organised than Bill, bringing a sheet of notes with her so she knew exactly what she needed to say and what order to say things in. The difference between Bill and Clara was most noticeable if you were to visit their respective offices. Bill's desk and floor had papers and books piled in every available space and his book case was a shambles. Clara's office was incredibly neat and everything had its place. I really admired Clara and she was very thorough with her work, but I suspect she was obsessive compulsive about neatness! Despite their differences, Bill and Clara worked very well together.

The meeting finished and Bill swept out of the room, heading off for God only knows where. Clara asked me to meet with her in the lab and so I knew that right now I wouldn't be spending anymore time chatting to this lovely creature that had just blown into my life and who had stolen my heart with a smile and a wave.

"I have to go Angie but I am sure we will bump into one another soon." I had work to do, as I am sure she did too.

"Yes, great to meet you. I will be around so, yeah, we will catch up then!" Her reply was very cheerful and her smile and eyes captivated me. We both sort of stared at each other, smiling for a second or two before I caught myself and walked out the door, heading for the laboratory. I couldn't help but grin and I couldn't wait to see the gorgeous new biochemist again!

"Smooth one mate!" Benno slapped his hand down on my shoulder in a friendly manner as he caught up with me in the hall that led to the laboratory.

"Ha ha ha," I laughed. "Mate, she's gorgeous!"

"True. You should find out if she is single. It's about time you got yourself a new girl."

Benno was right. I hadn't had a real girlfriend in one and a half years. My previous girlfriend Harriet and I had been together for three years. We broke up after she moved to the UK for work purposes. Even though we had told each other we would wait and see if perhaps I would follow her too, I wasn't ready to move overseas. The distance made it tough and after six months of her being away we decided it was best to call it quits. While I had some casual relationships in the meantime, I did not feel prepared to get so attached to someone again. Harriet had been my first real love and she was still fresh in my mind. But for the rest of that Thursday I could only think of the new girl, Angie! Like I said, I was smitten and it was definitely love at first sight!

~~~~0000~~~~

"You should make your move man! Someone else will ask her if you don't." Benno encouraged me regularly. I established early on that Angie was single. Yet I wasn't very proactive at asking her out. Maybe that just isn't my style and to be honest, the more I like someone the harder I find it to ask them out. And I liked Angie in spades. I couldn't get her out of my mind! I feared someone else might ask Angie out but in the first month with the lab I rarely saw her while she settled in. She was not conducting any experiments early on as she was just getting a feel for her new project and she spent most of the time in her new office. The few times we did run into each other I would try to act casual to hide the fact that I was nervous because I wanted to get up the courage up to ask her out! I compensated for my nerves by trying to be funny, and fortunately she seemed to laugh and smile a lot. I started to get an inkling that she might like me too. Strangely that didn't help give me the courage to ask her out though.

Some of our little group who worked at the lab would occasionally meet socially at a bar, or we would go to a movie or a party every now and then. Angie made good friends with James Farr, one of the other students from her office and he brought her along to the pub one night when we were having a get together. We called James 'Jamie' because there was another James in the lab and fortunately Jamie was gay so I knew he wasn't competition for Angie's affections. Michael, Blake and Benno were not going to be competition either, because they all had girlfriends. In our little social group only James Parson, who we just called 'Jimmy', and Nick, were the other single boys. Jimmy might be competition and he had a bit of a reputation as a lady's man, but I doubted Nick would be a problem because he rarely came out with us and he was quite geeky. I doubted Nick would make a move even if he was interested. But I hadn't made a move either had I.

I remember there were nine of us that night at the pub, including Benno, Isabel, Blake and his wife Tanya, Jamie, Louise, Jimmy, Angie and I. Angie sat next to me as we all laughed and chatted about nothing in particular. There was nothing shy about Angie and she made friends quickly, laughing and joining in from the start. I think our flirting started that night.

"So, what ya doing this weekend?" she asked.

"I'm going to the footy with some mates on Sunday."

"Ahh you go for the Broncos then?"

"Yeah, why, who do you go for?"

"The Storm."

"You go for the Storm? You can't go for a Melbourne team! They don't even know what Rugby League is down there!" I pretended to act shocked, like she was a heretic.

"They won a grand final," she stated matter-of-factly and poked her tongue out at me.

I grinned and shook my head in mock disappointment, "I can't believe you go for Storm."

"Well I actually grew up just north of the Murray, and Melbourne was closer to us than Sydney, so I follow the Storm." The 'Murray' she had referred to is the Murray River, which is the border between the southern states of Victoria and New South Wales.

"SO you are a cockroach too!" I blurted but grinned to make sure she knew I was mucking about. We call people from New South Wales 'cockroaches'.

"It's better than being a toad!" she grinned back, giving as good as she got. Cockroaches referred to us Queenslanders as 'cane toads' after the introduced noxious pest amphibians that proliferated up here.

I let our friendly sporting and state rivalry drop for now as I didn't want to push too far with it and come across as a serious dickhead. I mentally put the facts I had just learnt away for further use down the track though, for the times when my team beat her team and I could cheekily give her a bit of stick. The night rolled on and Angie and I were drawn to each other, chatting freely and easily. I had been worried that Jimmy would have been trying chat her up but he didn't even make a move, probably because she and I were getting on so well that he hardly had a chance. Angie looked gorgeous though, wearing a simple blue skirt with a black top that showed off the outline of a pair of well shaped breasts. Yet, believe it or not I was hardly taking any notice of her breasts because I was lost in her gorgeous blue eyes and her cute little smile that hardly ever left her face all night! The pub was loud and there were people chatting and music blaring, yet I only noticed Angie. Late, around eleven pm, Jamie said he was heading off for home and offered to give Angie a lift to her place. We all decided to call it a night and we left just after Jamie and Angie. Isabel, Benno and I walked down the street together because we lived close to each other.

"Well done. You and Angie seem to be getting along famously!" Isabel said in her Spanish accent. She was from the north of Spain and had been a biology student here for two years now, studying under Clara. Within three weeks of her arriving at the lab Benno had asked her out and they had been together ever since.

"Yeah she's gorgeous," was all I could respond. I had wanted to ask Angie out at the end of the night but I lost my nerve and had missed my opportunity.

~~~~0000~~~~

Several weeks went by and I ran into Angie with increasing frequency. When she began to use the laboratory, I saw her most days. We had a natural rapport and spent more time together socially too, but I still hadn't got around to asking her out. I couldn't understand what was wrong with me because I was not normally this shy about asking a girl out, even when I did really like her. But each time I got to the point of asking her I lost my nerve and let the moment go. When we were out with the others, she and I would always end up chatting and hanging out together, which I was enjoying immensely. For some reason I worried that if I asked her out it would break the magical spell. I couldn't believe my poor form! I had no trouble asking her to come to social occasions where others were involved but when it came to asking her out on a date I was becoming frustrated.

"Hey, got any plans for the weekend?" I asked one afternoon, my frustration building to the point that my mind was screaming at me to be proactive. I planned to ask her out, perhaps to dinner and a movie.

"My friend is coming to visit for the weekend and we are thinking of going down the coast."

My timing left a lot to be desired and so I knew I was out of luck that weekend. At least it wasn't a male friend who she was going away with, I thought with some relief.

Tension seem to build though. Perhaps on both sides. She flirted with me, just innocently at first. We were rarely alone together, but when we were little things would happen. One time I was in the lab centrifuging some samples for Clara and suddenly I felt something gently hit me in the back. I turned around and there was a paper aeroplane on the floor at my feet. The only other person in the lab was Angie. She was facing away from me looking like she was busy at her bench and so I tossed the paper plane in her direction, where it landed on the bench next to her. She turned around and looked at me.

"What?" she said in the most innocent tone she could muster. "You shouldn't throw things in the laboratory you know!" I shrugged my shoulders and faced my palms out at her in a gesture of innocence, as if I didn't know what she was talking about. She grinned a cheeky little grin back at me.

Another time I walked into the lab and Angie was sitting at her bench, engrossed reading a paper or something like that. I decided to play silly buggers and creep over to her and scare her for a bit of a lark. I thought of scaring her with a loud "BOO" but I didn't want to startle her too much. I crept up behind her and boomed in my best impersonation of Bill Prichard's voice, "Angela Macleod, what is this mess you have made here in my laboratory?" She spun around with a shocked look on her face. Ever so briefly her expression went from shock to confusion when she saw it was me and not Bill, and when she realised that I was mucking about with her she began to grin.

"You scared me out of my wits just then! That was so mean!" She threw a soft punch at my arm. I laughed at her and she poked her tongue out at me. "I will get you back you know. You won't know when, but it will be when you least expect it!"

"Oh, I am so scared."

She pushed me playfully. "Well you should be."

~~~~0000~~~~

We were having good flirtatious fun that was harmless, but every now and then our games went a bit too far.

Shit, someone has stolen my bike! I thought to myself as I entered my office, noticing my bicycle was missing. Every day I rode a mountain bike to and from work, and instead of locking it up to a bike rack I would leave it in the office that I shared with Benno, just next to my desk. Like every other day I had left my bike in the office, but this particular afternoon my bike was nowhere to be seen and my helmet sat on my desk.

"Hey Benno, where is my bike?" Benno was at his desk typing something on his computer.

"I don't know mate." Benno didn't seem to be all that worried that someone might have been into our office to steal stuff and I got the impression he knew exactly where my bike was.

"Shit mate, I have really got to get going. I have to pick my friend up from the airport." I had promised my housemate Jess that I would pick her and her boyfriend up from the airport because they were returning from a holiday in south-east Asia. With the shocking traffic I knew I would be cutting it fine to get there on time. I didn't want to let Jess down and have them waiting at the airport for too long just because I had been looking for my damn bike. My friendship with Jess went way back to high school, and though she would forgive me if I couldn't pick her up, I hated the idea of breaking any promise I had made. Benno looked at me quizzically for a second and he could tell I was getting agitated and stressed. I didn't quite believe someone would have entered our office because we were rarely in there and it was locked shut more often than not.

"Ah mate, sorry, your bike is out at the bike rack. Angie has the key to the lock. She thought it would be a funny joke."

Shit! I was pissed off. Clearly Benno had helped Angie with this one. I grabbed my helmet and went looking for Angie. She was not in the lab and so I ran to her office. I found her chatting with some of her office mates.

"Hey Angie, I need the key to my bike," I said in a calm but firm tone.

"I don't know what you are talking about," she responded equally as calm, but a grin was forming at the edges of her mouth.

"I really have to be somewhere Angie. Please, I need the key."

Angie analysed me just as Benno had done. Everyone else in the room just stared at me too, like I was some kind of oddity. Then Angie realised I was serious and that she might have gone a little bit too far. She reached into the pocket of her jeans, pulled out the key and handed it to me.

"Hey I'm sorry, I was just playing a joke," she said, looking genuinely upset.

No matter how pissed off I was I couldn't feel angry with her. "I guess we are even then."

~~~~0000~~~~

The next day Angie came to me in my office first thing in the morning and apologised.

"I am really sorry about the bike thing. I thought it would be funny. I'm sorry."

I was sitting at my desk and Benno had not yet arrived.

"Let's forget about it eh," I said. I didn't want to make a big deal out of this. No damage had been done and I had managed to get to the airport on time the previous night. And Angie looked genuinely upset with herself.

"Okay. Hey, what are you doing this weekend?" she asked. I looked up at her and my heart started to race. Was she going to ask me out? But I had unchangeable plans for both Saturday and Sunday. Bugger!

"I am going away on a bucks weekend for an old mate of mine who is getting married." Bugger! Bugger!

"Oh," was all she said.

"Why?"

"Well nothing really." She sounded disappointed.

"Nothing? Really?" I wasn't convinced.

"I just wanted to see what you were doing, that's all. Don't worry about it."

"Okay, I won't." I did though, wondering if she had been going to ask me out. I thought about it for the rest of the week and into the weekend.

~~~~0000~~~~

The week after the bike incident there was not much flirting between Angie and I. We still chatted but some of the light heartedness and banter between us had gone. Monday went by and we were on our best behaviour around each other, like the two professional work colleagues we should have been, instead of the serial flirts we had become. This had the effect of making more tension between us and it drove me totally nuts! I had to relieve the tension between us somehow. On the Tuesday I was in the lab working on some samples for Clara. Angie came in around ten o'clock and greeted me in a cheerful, but professional tone.

"Hey, how ya doing?" she asked.

"Not bad," I said, but wanting to say more. Then I remembered a silly joke that had been told on the weekend at the bucks party. "Hey, wanna to hear a joke?"

"Yeah why not," she said as she prepared her work on her bench. She sounded so serious and I thought the joke was probably inappropriate, so I decided not to tell her.

"Oh don't worry about it, I will tell you some other time."

"No. You can't not tell me now. I want to hear your joke!" She came over and sat on a stool opposite me.

"Okay here goes. Four nuns rock up to the pearly gates and St Peter greets them." I watched Angie's face to see if I was being inappropriate.

"A Catholic joke," she said. "You do know I am Catholic don't you?"

"Oh forget it. Don't worry about my stupid joke." This was not going too good.

She grinned at me, her eyes coming alive with the cheeky mischief that had been missing since the bike incident. "Ha ha I'm not Catholic!" she laughed. "Tell your joke."

"No, I don't want to tell the joke now," I said, trying to keep a straight face.