I had a lot more to learn about him, I decided as I headed back to the kitchen table and sat down to start assembling my study materials. And I really hoped he was willing to show me more.
Five hours later, I drooped over my laptop keyboard as my notes about the pentose phosphate pathway swam in front of me. With a yawn, I pulled my glasses off and rubbed at my eyes. How many hours of sleep had I managed the night before? Six, maybe? It wasn’t enough—not if I only pulled six hours of sleep every night for weeks at a time.
Just a couple of minutes, I thought blearily, my eyes drifting closed. A couple of minutes, and then I would get back to work.
“Josie.”
I snuggled my face deeper into my folded arms. “Hmm?”
A big, warm hand landed on my shoulder, rubbing gently. Good. It felt so good.
“Josie, wake up. You fell asleep.”
“Huh?” I raised my head and blinked against the soft overhead lights as I touched the hand that still rested on my shoulder. “Andy?”
He bent down to drop a quick kiss on my cheek. “Yup. And I have food.”
“Bless you.” I stretched my arms into the air and yawned, then sniffed the air. Thai food. My mouth watered and I stood up to follow him over to the couch and the bags of food that sat on the coffee table.
“I don’t usually do takeout two nights in a row, but all that demolition makes me too tired to cook sometimes,” Andy admitted as he flopped down on the couch and started pulling containers out of the bags. “I just got pad Thai. Seemed like a good bet.”
“It is,” I agreed, and cracked open the container, sniffing deeply. Chicken, peanut, lime and cilantro wafted out, and I dug in with my chopsticks and took a big bite of the hot, savory noodles, moaning my appreciation.
“Do you fall asleep while studying a lot?” Andy asked as he poked at his noodles with his own chopsticks.
I swallowed and set my chopsticks down to grab for one of the sodas on the table next to me. “Sometimes,” I said. “I’ve been keeping pretty long hours lately.”
Andy didn’t respond, just stared thoughtfully as he chewed his noodles.
“There’s just a lot going on right now,” I added. “Things will ease up eventually.”
He swallowed, nodding slowly as he reached for his own soda. “I gotcha,” he said, cracking the top open.
I eyed him suspiciously. “I sense a but coming.”
Andy chuckled and shook his head. “We just started hanging out yesterday, Josie. I’m not about to pretend I know everything about you or why you make certain choices. And I’m definitely not going to give you my unsolicited opinion about what you do with your life.”
I spooled a few more stretchy noodles around my chopsticks. “And I appreciate that,” I said, and looked up at him again. “But just go ahead and say it. I know you want to.”
He shrugged. “Just seems like you’re kind of burning the candle at both ends, is all. That kind of thing is hard to sustain.”
“That’s what I thought you were going to say,” I said with a grin as I lifted the noodles up to my lips. “My family all says it, too.” I paused before I shoved the messy bundle into my mouth. “But I appreciate your disclaimer. About not knowing me well enough, that is.”
Andy set his food down. “I don’t know you that well yet, but I would like to,” he said.
I smiled through my bite of noodles. I wanted that, too.
After we finished eating, I slumped back against Andy and yawned, snuggling deeper as he wound an arm around me and pulled me closer to his warm, firm chest.
“Are you staying?” he murmured against my hair. With his free hand, he reached out and linked his fingers with mine.
“Yeah,” I said, smiling against his chest. “I’d like to.”
I looked up at Andy, at his warm smile as he bent his head to press a long, soft kiss to my lips. It was gentle and unhurried, and when his tongue swiped across the seam of my lips, I opened my mouth without hesitation to let him sweep inside and slowly, sweetly tangle his tongue with mine. My fingers crept up to his face, where I felt the light scratch of his faint, scruffy beard—a dark shadow that, I had to admit, I liked better than the clean-shaven jaw he’d sported months earlier at Sam and Ian’s wedding.
“I need a shave,” he said against my lips.
I rubbed the dark bristles gently. “No you don’t,” I said. “You’re great just like this.” I pulled back and yawned again, running my fingers through my tousled dark hair. “Before we do anything else, do you mind if I grab a quick shower? I still smell like the lab and I just want to freshen up a little bit before…you know.”