Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
We’d studied at The Drift Café a few times already, but I put the brakes on meeting in person when Ethan started to push to come over to my apartment instead. I’d only known him for a few weeks, but he’d already raised more than a few red flags. And even though my brother was on his honeymoon, I wouldn’t put it past him to still find out I’d let a guy I barely knew into my place. He had serious skills behind the keyboard, and plenty of club brothers who’d back him up by coming over here to kick Ethan out.
This actually checked the plus column for inviting him over. Because maybe Jaxton would send Chance—I meant Drift—to my apartment, and then he couldn’t avoid me. Except that would mean allowing my creepy study partner into my personal space, and I wasn’t quite that desperate. Not yet, anyway.
Forcing my gaze up to the screen to meet Ethan’s, I shook my head. “Sorry, but the café was so loud last time we were there. I didn’t want the added distraction today.”
“Which is why I should’ve just come over.”
I tucked one leg under me and ran my finger along the edge of my trackpad to give my hands something to do. “Like I already told you, I’m still getting settled. Boxes everywhere. It’s not exactly guest-friendly.”
He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “And like I said, I don’t mind a mess.”
“But I do.” I forced a smile. “And we’re losing even more time having this disagreement again.”
“Fine.” He huffed out a breath, his cursor reappearing on our shared document. “We were on the methods section.”
“Yes, your variable definitions look good, but the last paragraph implies causation. We should soften it to correlation.”
He blinked, then his eyes narrowed. “It doesn’t imply causation. It suggests potential causality pending replication, obviously.”
“Right.” I kept my tone light. “Which is why we should say it that way.”
Another sigh. “Word it however you want.”
The keys clicked under my fingers.
“‘Indicate’ is weak,” he interrupted. “Use ‘demonstrate’ instead.”
I kept my gaze on the keyboard as I continued to type. “But they don’t.”
He stayed quiet until I finished typing, then muttered, “You’re overly cautious.”
“Accurate,” I corrected, adding a period with a neat tap that felt like a small victory. “Let’s jump to the survey language. The revised consent statement—”
“Can you move closer to your camera first?”
I froze, my brows drawing together. “Why?”
“You always sit so far back. Makes it hard to see you while we’re talking through things.”
My scalp prickled with unease as I shifted an inch closer to my laptop. That would have to be enough.
“Consent statement,” I repeated, scrolling. “I changed ‘may’ to ‘might’ and removed the extra ‘voluntary’ since it’s redundant with ‘opt-out at any time.’”
He skimmed, then nodded. “Fine.”
By the time we reached the bottom of the section, my cheeks ached from being polite. Ethan’s creepy factor kept increasing each time we worked together.
“There, all caught up.”
His jaw flexed. “If we fall behind again, it’ll be because you refuse to meet in person. Send me your address, Alanna. I’ll swing by tomorrow. We’ll get the rest knocked out, and you can stop worrying.”
“I’m not worried.” I exported a copy of this version to my hard drive. “You’re using a password on your local copies, right? In addition to having one on your laptop? I don’t want to inadvertently violate IRB rules since we’re using human subjects.”
He smirked at me. “So you like to keep files on your personal device.”
My cheeks heated, but from irritation instead of embarrassment. “Yes, for redundancy. Like any responsible researcher would.”
“Same.” He clicked his pen a few times. “And of course my files are password-protected.”
“Good.”
He leaned closer again, his face getting bigger on my screen. “You seemed distracted tonight. Looking off-screen a lot. Were you texting someone? New boyfriend?”
I wished I could honestly say yes…and that Chance was the man in my life. But the reality was that I didn’t even have permission to use his real name. Out loud he was Drift.
“I thought I was quite focused,” I disagreed. “We got through everything we planned for tonight, and it only took a little more than an hour. And I’m sure we’ll make good progress again tomorrow.”
“Even more if we meet in person.”
I was getting tired of him pushing to see me, but I was stuck with Ethan until the end of the semester, so I forced myself not to bite his head off. “I’ll let you know what my schedule looks like, but for now, another video call works better for me.”
“Whatever,” he mumbled before signing off.
When the screen went black, I exhaled, my shoulders slumping. “Finally.”
I closed the laptop and pushed to my feet, padding barefoot to the fridge. Yanking open the freezer door, I decided that eating my feelings sounded like a good plan and pulled out a pint of caramel-swirl ice cream.