Elena smiled despite herself. "She does. Too much, sometimes." A moment of silence stretched between them. Finn took a small step closer, close enough that Elena had to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact.
"Elena," he began, his voice low and serious, "about what happened?—"
The lab door swung open, Laura's voice cutting through the moment like a knife. "If you two don't hurry up, I'm going to make assumptions about what's taking so long!"
Finn stepped back, his professional mask sliding back into place so quickly that Elena might have imagined the vulnerability she'd glimpsed. He gestured toward the door.
"After you, Dr. Herrera."
Elena hesitated, then reached out and touched his arm lightly. "Just Elena tonight. Please."
His eyes met hers, surprise giving way to something warmer. "Elena," he repeated.
"Let's go before she comes back," Elena said, her voice not quite steady.
A smile tugged at Finn’s lips. "Probably wise."
Chapter Twenty-Two
FINN
The dive bar Laura chose was dimly lit and smelled like spilled beer. As they walked in, a few of the regulars sized them up. Finn felt out of place in his lab clothes.
"Isn't it perfect?" Laura beamed, spreading her arms in blissful ignorance. "Best nachos in the city, and the bartender doesn't water down the drinks."
Elena shot Finn an apologetic glance that sent an unexpected warmth through his chest. "One drink," Elena reminded Laura, who was already scanning the room for a table.
"Absolutely! One drink is our max, okay guys?" Laura agreed, spotting an empty booth in the corner and making a beeline for it. "Ooh, that one's perfect."
Finn followed them. Elena walked just ahead of him, the familiar scent of her shampoo drifting back when she turned her head.
"Here we are!" Laura declared, sliding into one side of thebooth. She patted the vinyl seat across from her. "You two sit there so I can see both of you. I need freedom for my hand gestures when I talk."
Elena hesitated, clearly seeing through Laura's transparent maneuvering. "Laura?—"
"What? It's a conversational necessity. My stories require space." Laura wiggled her fingers demonstratively. "Plus, Finn is too tall to be trapped against the wall. His legs need room."
Finn opened his mouth to protest that his legs were fine, thank you very much, but Elena was already sliding into the booth with a resigned sigh. He had no choice but to follow. The booth wasn't tiny, but it was small enough that his thigh pressed against Elena's. The subtle contact sent heat through his entire body.
"Perfect!" Laura clapped her hands together, clearly delighted with her orchestration. "Now, what's everyone drinking? First round's on me."
"Beer is fine," Finn said, trying to sound casual while aware of every millimeter where his body touched Elena's.
"No, no, no. We're not doing 'fine' tonight," Laura insisted. "We're doing shots. Celebratory 'we survived a week of impossible deadlines' shots."
Elena groaned. "Laura, we have work tomorrow."
"One shot won't kill your brilliant brain cells. Besides, we're celebrating my friend's incredible scientific breakthrough that's going to help trauma patients!" Laura waved down a passing server. "Three tequila shots, please. Decent stuff, not the well garbage."
As the server left, an awkward silence settled over the table. "So," Laura broke the silence, her eyes dancing between them with poorly concealed interest. "How's the research going? In fifth grader terms, please.”
Finn noticed Elena’s eyes light up a bit. Evenwith her employer actively sabotaging her work, the research itself still made her come alive. “Actually, we're seeing promising results. Eric, our first patient, his anxiety markers are down by nearly forty percent after six weeks.”
Laura let out a big smile. “That’s amazing. You’re so smart babe.”
Finn joined in. “The protocol is working even better than we initially hoped. The problem is the timeline. We have patients that started the protocol two weeks ago, some last week-”
“They won’t have completed enough sessions to show measurable improvement by the deadline. We need over a month of data per patient to show statistical significance,” Elena finished for him.
