Stuck with You (The STEMinist Novellas #2) by Ali Hazelwood

            I don’t know why I accept his 2019 NYC Amateur Soccer League water bottle. I don’t know why my fingers brush against his for the briefest of moments. And I don’t know why, as I drink small sips, he studies me with something that resembles concern.

            He’s not really concerned, because Erik Nowak is just not that kind of guy. The kind of guy he actually is? A backstabber. A liar. A sentient human McMansion who values only his own professional success. An F.C. Copenhagen supporter—which, it pleases me to say, is a mediocre soccer team at best. Yes, I said what I said.

            “Better?”

            “I told you, I’m fine. I’m totally great.”

            “You look pale.” His head tilts, as if to observe me better. “Are you claustrophobic?”

            “No. I don’t think so.” Am I, though? It would explain a lot. The walls closing in. This greasy, barfy feeling in my stomach. The way I’d love to claw at this place because it’s so small and Erik takes up so much room inside my head and I can smell his soap and I just want to forget everything about him and maybe I thought I had but now he’s here and it’s all coming back and I—

            “Sadie.” Erik is looking at me like he knows exactly what kind of spiral is currently unfolding in my brain. “Take a deep breath.”

            “I know. I am. Taking deep breaths, that is.” Or maybe I wasn’t. Because now, with some air in my lungs, my brain is getting a tad quieter.

            “Is it your first time?”

            I blink at him. “Breathing?”

            He smiles faintly. Like he doesn’t mind that we’re going to die in here. “Being stuck in an elevator.”

            “Oh. Yes.” I think about it for a moment. “Wait, is it not yours?”

            “Third.”

            “Third?”

            He nods.

            “Are you . . . cursed, or something?”

            “I see your superstitions are going strong,” he says, clearly teasing, and the idea that he thinks he knows me, the fact that after everything that happened he’d feel allowed to joke with me . . .

            I stiffen.

            And judging by his expression, Erik notices. “Sadie—”

            “I’m fine,” I interrupt him. “I promise. But could we please just be quiet? For a little bit?” I hate how weak my voice sounds.

            I set down the water bottle and hide my face back in my knees. I listen to his sharp exhale, to the tense, uncomfortable silence that falls between us, and try not to think about the last time I was with him.

            When I never wanted to stop talking, not even for a second.





Chapter 4


            Three weeks ago

            I have my pitch meeting in one hour, a little mountain of gigabytes of files to review, and I’m pretty sure that my interns are currently eighteen floors above, trying to decide whether I abandoned them to join a cult or have been abducted by an urban Sasquatch. But I cannot help staring at Corporate Thor’s mouth as he tells me, matter-of-factly:

            “Money laundering front.”

            “No way!”

            He shrugs. We are sitting right next to each other on a bench in a pocket park that, as it turns out, is just behind my building. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, I’ve spotted at least three butterflies, and yet I remain vaguely intimidated by his size. And his cheekbones. “It’s the only possible explanation.”

            I bite my lip, trying to think it through. “Couldn’t Faye just be, you know . . . a really bad baker?”

            “She certainly is. Her coffee is also questionable.”

            “It is very reminiscent of brake fluid,” I concede.

            “I always thought of plasma coolant. Point is, she was here ten years ago, when I started working in that building, and she’ll be here long after you and I are gone. Despite that.” He points at the croissant I’m still clutching. Honestly, I should just bite the bullet and choke it down. My hand sweat is not going to make it any tastier. “There is no valid entrepreneurial reason for her to still be in business.”