How Times Change

Genexco was the same as most of the slick labs on the West Coast, full of high science and higher profits. It was the unspoken law of the white coat community that what was good for mankind was better for the research facilities budget. Competition for the ‘next big thing’ was cutthroat, and good labs with solid research closed every day – unless they had ‘it’.

Genexco did. A string of successes in the area of electrolyte management and muscle fatigue had made them the number one name in a crowded field of performance enhancing therapies and drugs for the high end sport market. Genexco products were in the race tuned systems of athletes all over the country, and great things were expected there on a regular basis.

Jade had broken her teeth early, cracking the code on muscle fatigue in distance runners. Soon she was lead researcher, and before long heading her own team. Trexgora was a different animal- tweaking the chemicals that built up lactic acid in the muscles, she and her team had found a way to delay the process, lengthening the high burst time athletes had to use their muscles. She and Kristen had blazed, using prior research to build a fantastic case for live trials.

Those would be in two weeks. Today was the day for digging through all the data and making sure they weren’t missing anything.

“You’ve been staring at the same screen for twenty minutes.” Kristen’s flat New York accent cut through Jade’s reverie. “Jet lag?”

If only. Jade jumped on the excuse. “Yeah, this one knocked me out…”

“Sure. I get how an extra day out of the lab could do that.” Jade was used to her partner’s sarcasm by now, so she let that slide. Kristen slurped her coffee, her eyes not leaving her own screen. “How was the wedding?”

“Beautiful. Too much Daddy, too much family. Never too much champagne.” She stopped, with a sigh that sounded way too wistful for her liking. Kristen heard the tone – Damnit- and put her latte down.

“Reception Ralph?” It was code- a Ralph was that one guy you could blame on the bubbly. Jade tried very hard not to let her eyes leave her computer, but she could feel Kristen’s boring in. “Spill it sister.”

“No, Kris, it’s not Ralph…it’s…It’s complicated.” With that, she punched up a code sequence and flipped to the next page, searching for any hidden mishaps in the data, and any way she could avoid Kristen’s stare.

“Oh. Complicated.” It was school girl sing- song and it had Jade chuckling in spite of herself. “Do tell!” Kristen sat back and stretched, then grabbed her coffee, crossing her legs on her high back stool and leaning in like a gossip columnist.

Jade was going cross eyed running through numbers anyway, so she pushed away herself and leaned in on her elbows, plopping her face into her hands and giving Kristen some very lost eyes. “I don’t know what to make of it, Kris.” Which was true. She’d all but dismissed the romantic side of her life from the google calendar, making all her dates for work related things instead. Kristen had been after her to at least test the waters, go out a little, for months, but nothing and no one had really moved her.

Until Lucas and that damn kiss. She shook herself free of that thought. “I just- well, I met an old friend at the reception.” Kristen gave her the ‘go on’ look, an eager smile forming at the corners of her latte. “No. Not like that- he used to be family, in a way. We were kids in the same house for a bit.” Kristen’s eyebrows went up at that. “Wait. Let me start at the beginning…”

In about ten minutes she had Kristen up to speed on the whole thing, Genetti’s, the flight back, Lucas popping up out of the blue. All of it. When she was done, she wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t the blank look that her partner was levelling at her.

Kristen set her now empty cup down. “So he kissed you. And you slept over.”

Jade took a deep breath and let her eyes fall a notch before meeting Kristen’s. “Yes. Well, no. Not like that. He wasn’t around when I got up. Left me breakfast and went to his meeting. Nothing happened- except I got a drive home from walking Easter Island statue.” Kristen’s look said doubt in bold letters. “No, really. His driver took me home and that was that.” Try as she might, she couldn’t keep the mix of anger and confusion out of her voice.

Kristen, who knew her like a sister picked up on that immediately. “It’s fairy tale JJ, and what a gentleman. Why are you miffed?”

That was hard to put into words. Since Jade had been a little girl and her momma had passed, things always had to be right. Just so. All her stuffed animals in a row. As she got older that translated into micro-precise detail in her work, which had gotten her where she was at such an early age; at twenty seven,  she was easily ten years younger than any other project head.  This thing with Lucas-

“It’s just not right Kris. I don’t know- too much too soon? “

Kristen pursed her ruby shaded lips and raised a dark eyebrow. “So you’re mad because this didn’t come when you had it on the schedule? Sometime around 2030?” When Jade started to look for an explanation, Kristen continued. “Snap out of it JJ. What you talked about is straight out of a romance- who cares if he’s your ex-stepbrother? Who cares if he didn’t ask first? Just ride it out and see what happens…” Ride it out. Kristen’s favorite phrase- on days off Kris would hit the beach, her Jersey shore dark hair and olive gold tan a novelty for the locals. ‘Ride it out’ was almost a mantra for her, and she used it for everything, including dating, which Jade had always found a little scandalous.

In this case, Jade hated it, but Kristen might have had a point. As much as she hadn’t asked for any of what Lucas showing up in her life out of nowhere brought, he hadn’t been looking for any of this either. They were adults now- maybe she should just ‘ride it out’.  That she had that thought at all was a surprise to her; the thing she said next was even more so. “I’m going to call him.” It was so out of the blue that Kristen laughed out loud, and then quickly smothered it, looking around even though there was no one there.

“Good. How about now?” Before Jade could stop her, Kris had snatched her I-six off the desk and spun her stool. Horror flashed across Jade’s thoughts and burned a flush into her caramel cheeks.