“Yeah, sometimes. It can be important in understanding exactly how long someone has been deceased, since, of course, the climate is going to impact how active insects are.”
“Are blow flies cool?” Luca asked, looking skeptical. “They’re, like, the first bugs after someone dies, right?”
The topic wasn’t funny, but Audrey almost laughed. These guys, who didn’t know her and weren’t required to show any interest in her at all, had heard what she did from their sister and immediately done more research on her job than anyone in her family ever had.
She nodded, jumping very slightly when she felt Hallie’s knee press reassuringly against hers under the table. “I mean,Ithink so, but I’m an entomologist. As a group, we tend to be pretty pro-fly.”
The others laughed, and everyone seemed genuinely interested. On the few occasions she’d ever tried to talk about her job at the dinner table, her family had shut it down so fast she’d simply gotten used to brushing the topic aside. Except with Hallie. And her very sweet family, apparently.
Audrey hesitated, wondering whether they’d want to know the point that came to mind. But, hey, they’d asked for information on her job. “Blow flies are actually more important in pollination than most people think too. They get a bad rep.”
Wes laughed and reached across the table to whack Hallie. “You sure you should be hanging out with this one? She’s out here defending death flies.”
“Yeah, death flies that are pollinating your food,” Hallie shot back, and Audrey wasn’t truly worried about his comments. He didn’t mean it. He was just teasing.
Although, Audrey’s mind wasn’t so fraught that she didn’t realize it would be weird to tease your siblings the way he was overjusta friendship.
The place Hallie’s knee still rested against her own seemed to glow bright and warm and attention-grabbing.
Wes chuckled. “Really, though? Pollination? Like, I see a lot of bugs in my job and they don’t bother me exactly, but I definitely don’t love them like you do.”
Audrey’s smile was wide and genuine. “Yeah, it takes a very specific kind of person to love them like I do. Especially given that I spend a lot of my time around necrophages.”
“It’s so fucking awesome hanging around a doctor,” Luca said, bafflingly impressed. “Like, have you seen how smart she is? Dropping words like that? I don’t even know how to spell that word!”
“Right?” Hallie breathed, and her gaze was impossibly mesmerizing as she looked at Audrey like she was the only person in the room.
Already overwhelmed by Hallie’s family thinking she was cool for knowing words like that—and not simply accusing her of showing off or trying to make them feel unintelligent, which she absolutely wasn’t trying to do—Audrey wasn’t sure how to process Hallie’s look or the feelings that shot through her.
Shereallyliked being here, around Hallie and her family.
Wes laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I definitely didn’t know they were called that.”
Audrey shrugged. “It’s just about what they eat, but a lot of insects are much more instrumental in pollination than people realize. Bees obviously get a lot of the credit.”
“Bees are very cool,” Hallie said, shooting Audrey a secret, knowing smile.
“What’s a fun fact about bees?” Isaac asked excitedly.
“They have five eyes,” Audrey said with a laugh. People tended to like that one. “Or, more technical, they have about one hundred and seventy odorant receptors, compared to about sixty on a fruit fly.”
“Odorant? That’s for, like, smell?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“How many do blow flies have?” Luca asked, clearly having taken a liking to the little creatures.
“About fifty.”
“You teach classes, too, right? About bugs?”
Audrey laughed again. “I do, yes.”
“Shame you’re not closer. I’d sign up for that.”
“That’s very sweet—”
“Pretty sure we all would,” Hallie said, and Audrey barely registered the way the rest of the table was agreeing through the sweet look she was giving her.
