The Physics of Love

Chapter 21

It's the first time his bed is in order, with sheets neatly stretched over a round mattress and a bunch of pillows scattered around. Someone must have made it for him, I can't imagine Ted fluffing pillows. Where did they find fitted sheets for the round mattress anyway? Or maybe it's not fitted at all, maybe it's just perfectly stretched. Or whatever...

'Everything okay?' Ted asks without looking at me. I must have been acting really weird checking out the bed over his shoulder. It wasn't even in the same room, I literally had to arch back to see inside the alcove.

'Yeah, I just...I have a back pain.'

'Yeah?' He lifts his head from the notebook and gives me a surprised look. 'How come?'

'Er...I started to exercise.'

'Really?'

'Uh-huh.'

'You?'

'Uh-huh.'

'Hmm...Cardio or strength exercises?'

'Er...yeah, all that.'

He drops the pencil and rotates his chair to me.

'Bianca.'

'Eh?'

'Why are you checking out my bed?'

'I'm not! Why would I do that?'

'Exactly. Why would you?'

'Can we please focus on work?'

'I'd like to, but you keep checking out my bed and it gives me all kinds of ideas.'

I blush with embarrassment. Ted's laughing while I'm trying to stay composed.

'Your cheeks are the color of your shirt.'

This wasn't a compliment I was hoping for picking a fuchsia shirt in a store yesterday. Being a no-pink policy supporter and all, first I had to persuade Annie that fuchsia is not really pink, and then I had to persuade myself that it's allowed to give up your principles for the right reasons sometimes, which is a completely new territory for me.

'That's an old joke, Ted. And it wasn't even funny the first time around.'

He leans forward fixing his eyes on me. I roll back instinctively.

'You should've got over that shyness by now, being around college guys, I mean.'

My ears must be flushing too now.

'Or was it for show-off only? You wouldn't go that far to impress me, would you?'

I can't think of anything brilliant to support my defense, so I just keep staring at him. Maybe he'll get hypnotized eventually and fall asleep in his chair.

'Which one is it, B?'

I melt when he calls me that, even if he's scrutinizing me like he's doing this very moment.

'Believe what you want.' I say after a pause and turn around showing him I want to get back to work.

'I tend to believe in what I wish to come true.' His voice gets soft. 'And you know what that is.'

Every hair on my body bristles. He knows exactly how to get to me, like he has a map of my weak points. Or is this the way to get to every woman? I'll find that out when I'm more experienced, it's just that I won't need that information any more at the time I get there.

'Anyway,' he says after he gets no reaction, 'let's work.' He rolls back to the desk. 'And, yeah...can we make it short today? Stacy said she would drop by?'