Part of her felt rotten. A large part. She was almost compelled to turn around and clarify her cruel comment, but it would be forfeiting the strongest weapon she had. Herbert was the one who told her she had to learn how to play the game, even if she hated it. Mia wondered if it also came at the cost of hating herself.
“Doctor Bissonnette?” Wyatt’s calm and mechanical voice from behind her startled her, and she spun on her heels, almost crashing into his chest.
Mia looked up and was met with a cold stare that caused her insides to twist.
“Yes, Doctor Jenkins?”
“I have some questions on the splicing from the last experiment you conducted in the lab, I’ll send them to you via email and I expect an answer no later than tomorrow morning.” He waited, and when she nodded, he simply turned to his office and calmly closed the door behind him.
Mia let out a shuddery breath, leaning on the wall with a groan. She was doubting herself. Wyatt’s chilliness just now left her anxious and guilty. It was in complete contrast to the intoxicating heat of their previous encounters, and Mia didn’t like this interaction between them at all. The knowledge that she was solely responsible for it made the self-reproach even worse.
No. She straightened her spine with determination. She’d known it wouldn’t be easy to get Wyatt out of the way, but Mia had been preparing for over a month and she hadn’t come this far to back down after one day.
This was her life, the only thing that mattered. She was ready to fight for it, and she was going to win.
Rising Tensions
Mia
“No,”Mia said, hurrying to step in front of Wyatt before he entered the small lab dedicated to the clinical translation of their genomic studies. “Amika is working in there and she doesn’t like being disturbed.”
“I appreciate that, but I would like to observe her methodology and process,” Wyatt replied in his ever patient and level-headed tone that got under Mia’s skin. He was too accommodating, to the point where she felt as if she were being played.
“Then you should have talked to Amika beforehand.” Mia was putting her foot down on the matter. If it were anyone else, she would have let Wyatt blindside them, even encouraged it. It was a good method for assessing how dedicated, professional, and versed a researcher was in their current work, one Wyatt had been utilizing well in the past two weeks.
He’d spent the first week studying the binder she’d given him, having different members of the hub walk him through the labs and their research, learning how each cog saw the system and their part in it. Mia was beyond impressed, and it was an irritating sentiment since it made her constantly second-guess herself as to why Wyatt was chosen in her stead.
“I’m not asking for your permission, Mia.” Wyatt was still calm, but his words took on a layer of command, as they tended to every time she’d cross a professional line with him in the past three weeks, and his large palm gently rested on her arm to move her aside.
Mia knew it was a disaster waiting to happen. Though it would play in her favor, considering the outcome would hinder Wyatt’s confidence in his ability to manage the lab, she couldn’t do that to Amika.
“Please.” Her fingers closed around Wyatt’s wrist, and he froze. “Amika is a brilliant young woman, a gifted scientist, she can repeat the entire research log from memory. She’s more serious and committed than any DPhil I’ve ever worked with, but she doesn’t handle surprises well.”
Wyatt stared at her, seemingly torn between acquiescing to her atypical pleading or following through with his executive decree.
“You’ll put her in distress,” Mia continued. “Amika doesn’t deserve that.” She squeezed his wrist for good measure. “Please, Wyatt, I’m asking you, on this one thing, please trust me.”
“Okay.” He nodded slowly, sliding his hand down her arm as if to release his hold, but Mia felt his fingers tighten ever so gently as they kept a firm contact over her lab coat before reluctantly dropping to his side.
“Thank you.” Mia breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure she’d have listened to Wyatt if it were the other way around, and she was thankful Wyatt wasn’t willing to wage their war on the back of the other members of the hub.
Wyatt nodded again before turning towards the lab, where they focused on using their findings for decreasing health disparities among marginalized groups.
Mia took a stabilizing breath and followed, reaching Wyatt with a few hurried strides. He was standing, staring at the keycard held in his hand before turning his gaze to her. “I do trust you, and I hope in time you’ll learn to trust me back.”
He never gave her a chance to answer, swiping his card against the panel and opening the door to the lab, where a pair of DPhil students they’d recently accepted immediately went silent and looked up, wide eyes visible behind their protective glasses.
Mia couldn’t concentrate on the exchange between Wyatt and the DPhil students, tossing his words around in her mind, trying to make sense of them. He must know trusting her was a terrible idea and that she could never allow herself to trust him, not when, since the moment they met, she’d wanted him out of the way.
Mia knew this was her own doing. Wyatt had arrived hoping for an ally, but she’d decided he was the enemy even before she’d learned his identity. Maybe that was the variable she was missing. Wyatt was still hoping they could overcome the initial animosity and learn to work together. Either that, or it was what he wanted her to believe.
“Lunch?” Wyatt asked once they left the disparities lab, and Mia shrugged, following him into his office.
“Why would I trust you?” she asked once the door closed behind her.
“Because I’ve never given you a reason not to?” Wyatt answered with his back to her, organizing his notes into tidy binders. “Or are you one of those people who distrust everyone they meet until proven otherwise?”
“It’s more sensible that way, don’t you think?”