“A while. When you didn’t respond to my initial greeting, I found you studying in here.” He looked around the dining room she’d taken over for her work area.
“Roman’s desk isn’t big enough to spread out on.” She bit her lip. Like Max cared where she studied.
“You get really lost when you’re working, don’t you?”
No use denying it. “Yes.”
“That could be dangerous.”
“I don’t study away from my apartment at night.” When all of her older siblings kept harping on it, she’d finally promised them she would do her library work earlier in the day.
“It’s cute.”
“Seriously, you’re not irritated?”
“Nope.” And he didn’t look mad either. Not even a little annoyed.
“Oh.” Cool.
“You looked pretty intent when I first got here, and not very happy.”
“It’s these results.” She indicated the printouts on the table. “They’re supposed to show Luminescent Pharmaceuticals’ breakthroughs, but they’re pretty much the opposite.”
“You think Luminescent is making false claims for their research?”
“They could be. Maybe this data is older, but they’re really sloppy about some stuff. It’s hard to tell.”
“What do you mean?”
“They keep meticulous records of results, but there are no dates anywhere on three of these reports, or names for the projects. It’s odd.”
“It sounds suspicious, if you ask me.”
“Yeah, that’s what worries me. Luminescent is a major supplier for pharmaceuticals for third-world countries and the Middle East. If they’re supplying products that don’t work, but make things worse, that’s . . .” Words failed her.
“Dangerous.”
“Right.” Not to mention, unethical. Despicable. Just plain rotten.
“I mean, dangerous for you.”
“What? Why for me?”
“You’ve got to wonder if you were supposed to be given this set of data.”
He had a point. “The woman helping me get the downloads was a little ditzy.” Then it was like Danusia’s brain finally switched on and she shook her head. “What are we doing talking about my research?”
“Just discussing our days, right?”
He wanted to do the how-was-your-day thing? It was her own fault, so she backed up and asked how his was.
He laughed. “If you could see your face, Professor. My class was a wash. I nearly sent two of the participants to the infirmary.”
“That doesn’t happen very often?”
“Try never.”
“Why today?” she prompted, wanting him to say it.