The Romance Revival(16)

“Okay,” Annie says, straightening. “Now what?”

“Now we wheel him into the building and act normal.”

“Normal. Right. Oh—” She hands me the lab coat. “Put this on. You’re a mess.”

“Thanks,” I say, slipping it on over my dress. “And if Carl asks, we just tell him it’s a Great Dane.”

Annie is my hero, the most competent person I know, and the one I look up to most, but she does have one flaw: She laughs at the worst possible moments. I get it; it’s how her brain copes with stress and impossible situations. Like now, when she bursts into a cackle before snapping her mouth shut again. Silence hovers between us. “Sorry,” she says. “I feel a little like I might be hallucinating all of this right now.”

If only.

Together we push the gurney up the ramp and through the loading dock door. I grit my teeth and do my best to look overworked and stressed as we pass the first security camera. It’s not a stretch.

“Please tell me everyone else has left for the day.”

“I was the last one here,” she says.

Well, that’s one thing in our favor. Walking from the back of the building and through the lobby to the second elevator on the left, we wave at Carl behind the broad marble security desk.

“Late night, eh, ladies?” he calls out.

“This is a Great Dane!” Annie says too loudly before letting out another ill-timed laugh.

I glance at her out of the corner of my eye as we keep walking. “Jesus Christ, Annie,” I mumble. “Take it down like a hundred notches.”

“I’m fucking nervous,” she hisses back, pressing her hand to her forehead. “Five years at this place. You’d think I’d be better under pressure.”

We get the gurney into the elevator, and I push the button, my fingerprint silently being read. “Safe to say you’ve never rolled a dead pers—”

An arm reaches in, stopping the doors from closing. “Hey, I had a quick question.”

My stomach lurches as Carl stands there. I can feel Annie’s panic beside me, hot and humid, like a boiling kettle. She stifles another laugh. My heart is a screeching beast.

“We’re actually in quite a hurry,” I say, trying to smile.

“Yeah?” He leans forward, angling to see what’s under the blanket. I can only pray that Luca’s arm hasn’t slipped out again. “Hey, what do you have—”

“A Great Dane,” I interrupt, leaning to catch his eye. “What was your question?”

Distraction seems to work, and he straightens, grinning at us. I’m sure being a night security guard is a lonely job, but my God, Carl, your timing is abysmal.

“I’ve always wondered, why do y’all always use this particular elevator? There are six of them here, but you always go in this one,” he says. “Don’t they all go up to the tenth floor?”

Beside me, Annie swallows audibly. “We like this one best?”

“Sure, but you press the button and this one always comes.”

“Just lucky, I guess!” My voice is high and loud. I feel the window for resuscitation slipping away. “Sorry, Carl, this poor pooch needs our help!”

To my relief, he steps back, hands up in apology. “Sure thing, sorry! Just occurred to me how strange it was that the—”

The doors close and we don’t attempt to stop them. Annie falls back against the wall. “Oh, my God. This is hell. We are in hell.”

The back panel opens. Annie and I steer the gurney down the hall, and we each swipe our security passes, scan our retinas, do every goddamn tiny security maneuver, and mentally I am screaming my face off about how unnecessary this all is. Isn’t one retinal scan plenty? They never do this much in Mission: Impossible.

I linger back at the final door as Annie slips through, but I’m able to catch a glimpse inside. Sure enough, Michelle is at the BioNEX security desk and beside her, to my overwhelming relief, is her enormous fifty-ounce Stanley mug. Purple with a sticker of a giant Stanley stuck to the side that says, ALL OF THIS IS IN ME. Fuck, I hope so, Michelle.

The door swings heavily closed, and I pray to whatever dead scientist is listening that Michelle is still religious about hydration and really needs to pee. She’s great, but sharper than Carl, and would absolutely check under the blanket.

Ten thundering heartbeats later, the door swings open and Annie rushes me inside. “Come on, come on, she’s a fast pee-er.”

She helps me move Luca through and then watches the desk until Michelle returns before joining me in the dark BioNEX corridor, where we begin to sprint. The hallway always seems long, but tonight it’s nearly comically so.

“I’ve had this nightmare before,” I say, gasping for breath as the gurney rolls over the concrete.

“Luca dying?”

“No, like, running somewhere and not actually making any forward progress.”

Annie’s laugh is shrill and bounces off every wall, but then she stumbles beside me. She holds me back with a hand on my upper arm. “Fuck, Emery.”

“What?”

“Robert Pattinson.”

“What about him?” I ask. “Come on, keep pushing.”

“He’ll see us coming in.”

“Which is fine, right? We work here.”