Aria stared at the petri dish in front of her like it had personally betrayed her.
It hadn't, of course. The cells were dividing beautifully—orderly, predictable, controllable. Unlike certain people.
She sighed, tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and jotted a note into her lab journal. Everything was back to normal. Just another Tuesday at Genetek Labs. She had science to do. Viruses to modify. Interns to terrify. Men to forget.
Then her phone buzzed.
Julian Westwood: So… about last night.
Aria blinked. Then blinked again. Her brain made a sound like a dial-up connection struggling to load rage.
She snatched the phone off the counter like it had insulted her mother.
Aria: We agreed it never happened.
Julian: Pretty sure your mouth agreed. Your body said something different.
She made a strangled noise.
"Everything okay, Dr. Monroe?" asked Brandon, one of her interns, peeking in with a clipboard.
"Fine," Aria snapped. "Just… cell mutation."
"Oh. Scary."
He scuttled off. She resumed texting, thumbs flying like she was defusing a bomb.
Aria: Delete my number. Then delete your phone. Then delete yourself.
Julian: Admit it. It wasn't that bad.
Aria: You left your socks on.
Julian: They're cashmere.
Aria: You're a disgrace to cashmere.
She tossed the phone face-down on the counter and tried to return to her experiment, but her brain had gone rogue.
Why was he texting her? Why did he get to be charming and smug when she was the one who did the walk of shame out of a five-star hotel like a science gremlin?
She stabbed a pipette into the sample tray.
Maybe she could edit his genes. Just enough to make him allergic to sex and sarcasm.
Her phone buzzed again.
Julian: Still thinking about me, huh?
Aria: Only as a cautionary tale for my future children.
Her hands froze. The words hit different this time.
Children.
She shook it off. No. It was just banter. It meant nothing.
Except for the part where she hadn't had a period since… oh God.
Her stomach dropped. The room spun slightly.
"Dr. Monroe?" Brandon poked his head back in. "Should this rat be glowing?"
She stared at him blankly. "What?"
He held up a cage. "The rat. It's kind of… neon?"
Aria closed her eyes.
This day was going straight to hell.