Hope, Levy, Marc [good summer reads TXT] 📗

“My father.”

“A laboratory pays for mine. They gave me a loan. Once I graduate, I’ll need to repay it all, or spend ten years working for them.”

“And you called my lobster trapped?”

“Not everybody has parents who can afford to pay.”

“How did they recruit you?”

“It was a kind of exam. We had to present our idea for a groundbreaking concept, something almost utopian, but doable.”

“Weird . . .”

“Most of the technological breakthroughs that have impacted our lives would have been considered impossible thirty years ago. Makes you think, doesn’t it?”

“I guess.” Hope shrugged. “I mean, it depends on your priorities. What about Luke? Did he sell his soul too?”

“We presented a joint project.”

“What was the groundbreaking idea?”

“Creating a digital map of all the brain’s connections.”

“Sure . . .” Hope laughed. “Just the kind of thing you do casually on the side while studying. What are you smoking these days?”

“I’m serious.” Josh looked at her. “We’re part of a team of researchers. A big team with a lot of funding to get the project off the ground. Luke and I were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. They took us on.”

“Sure you were. What are the chances of getting that lucky?” Hope was dubious, and a little jealous too.

“Swear this is just between me and you. Not a word to Luke, and if he ever mentions it to you, you need to promise me you’ll act surprised.”

“Go on.” Hope nodded. “I get the feeling I’m going to be surprised anyway.”

“It’s simple, really.” Josh beamed at her. “It’s because I’m a genius!”

Hope stared at him.

“And breathtakingly modest too.”

“That as well.”

“I think I get it,” she continued. “You think I’m more of a genius than you, so you want to get me on board.”

“That’s exactly it. You’re talented, open-minded. And you want to change the world, just like we do.”

“Maybe . . . But before I give you my answer, I want to be able to discuss how you plan on using your findings, if you manage to come up with something viable. I feel like there’s more to this than I’m seeing. And also,” she added, “you haven’t told me why you wanted to talk to me about this before Luke.”

“Because Luke agrees to your joining us, on one condition.”

“Which is?”

“That nothing ever happens between you and me.”

Hope looked on as the faint possibility of a romance between the two of them faded into the distance. She felt disappointed, but flattered, too, that they had chosen her. Most of all, she was annoyed.

“What’s the problem? Nothing’s going on between us; nothing ever has. And anyway, it’s none of his business.”

Josh moved toward her and took her in his arms.

Hope had never been one to make the first move, and most of her first kisses had been complete disasters, a whirlwind of dull, listless lips and overeager mouths. But her first kiss, standing there in Josh’s arms . . . She could barely find the words to describe the shudder that ran up her back, cresting at her neck, the gentlest kiss she had ever known. And gentleness was a quality that delighted her more than any other, evidence of a finely tuned balance between body and mind.

Josh looked at her and she prayed he would remain silent. She didn’t want words to spoil the heady rush of their first kiss. His eyes creased, making him all the more irresistible.

“You’re so beautiful, Hope.” He stroked her cheek. “Honestly. You’re the only person who doesn’t see it.”

It was as if she were in a dream. She would pinch herself, she knew it, and then wake up. It would be a rainy Sunday morning, and she’d be lying in bed in an old pair of wrinkled pajamas with a raging hangover or one of the migraines that plagued her existence.

“Pinch me.”

“What?”

“Please, just do it. I don’t want to hurt myself.”

The pair embraced and kissed again, breaking away every now and then to gaze into each other’s eyes in silence, drunk on the feeling that something new was beginning to stir.

Josh took Hope’s hand and began leading her to the harbor.

The pizza place was sadder than they would have liked, and so they decided to take their meal out to eat on the low wall that ringed the jetty.

After their picnic dinner, they wandered through the streets of the old town. Strolling along arm in arm, they looked up to see a bed-and-breakfast sign turn on with a buzz. Hope glanced at Josh, placing a finger against his lips.

“Don’t even think about slipping away early tomorrow morning and leaving me alone in Salem.”

“If we didn’t have exams coming up in a few weeks and if Luke wouldn’t kill me for not returning his car, I’d have suggested we stay here until you couldn’t stand me anymore.”

Hope pushed open the door to the guesthouse and asked for the cheapest room available. Climbing the stairs to the top floor, they both felt their hearts racing.

The bedroom was charming in its own way, with wooden beams and vintage patterned canvases lining the walls, framing a dormer window that looked out onto the harbor. Hope opened the window and leaned out, breathing in the fresh night air, but Josh pulled her back inside and began to undress her. He was clumsy, and Hope found that somehow reassuring.

She pulled off her sweater to reveal her breasts, and gestured at Josh to take off his shirt. Allowing their jeans to fall to the chair, the two of them sank back onto the bed, interlaced.

“Wait.” Hope clasped Josh’s face between her hands.

But Josh couldn’t wait, and their bodies came together amidst the tussled sheets.

When day finally broke, the sunlight felt like an affront. Hope dragged the cover over her face and turned to Josh. He was sleeping, one arm slung across her. Peeling his eyes open, he thought to himself that the woman beside him was the kind to surprise you, the kind of woman to keep you guessing. The kind that made you