“Huh. What’s the hypothesis?” Adrien leaned forward, excited interest playing on his handsome face.
“Sea ice,” Marcus quipped.
I nodded at him. “Unlike other species, Adélie penguins need sea ice for their hunting.”
“Ahh, I understand now,” Adrien nodded. “That’s something that has affected the leopard seals as well. The shrinking sea ice around here due to the warmer climate.”
We talked some more about our studies while we all ate the delicious food cooked by our chef, Theo. Marcus left our table after a while.
“When do you guys leave?” Grant asked, glancing at Sam and me.
“Saturday,” I replied.
“We can drop you off,” Grant offered.
“Thanks, man.”
Later, Sam and I went down the stairs to the clinic on the first floor, also known as my roommate’s office. He was the only medical personnel on the station, and as such we all treated him with a certain reverence. He single-handedly took care of all kinds of aches, pains, colds, and god forbid the occasional serious injury. He also ran his own NASA research, which was the coolest thing.
“All right, I am going to ask the usual pre-departure questions,” Daniel said, looking at both of us. “You know the drill. Have you experienced any recent changes in weight, appetite, thirst, or urine output?”
We both looked at each other. Then said no at the same time. Daniel tapped on his iPad.
“Excellent. Any mood changes?” He gave me a meaningful glare.
I glared right back. He knew exactly why my mood had changed. It had nothing to do with any medical problem and everything to do with Grant, who had gone and found himself an awesome boyfriend. I replied no, mulishly.
When I turned to Sam to hear his answer, he was staring at me with a questioning expression. Maybe I was acting more moody than my usual baseline.
The thing was that Sam did not know about Grant and Adrien. And he of course did not know about my unrequited feelings — feelings that had been going on longer than Grant’s had. I was twenty-five. That was a whole ass decade.
“Sam, what about you?” Daniel asked him.
“I’m fine, Dr. Park.”
Of course he was fine, I thought sullenly. It was not him who had to hide his feelings at every turn. Why did he have to be all handsome and brooding like this? Why couldn’t he be a dick? Why couldn’t he be someone who had no interest in my penguin studies?
But no. Instead he had to be all invested in my Adélies.
I needed a bit of time and a bit more distance from Grant and Adrien. I was glad I was going away for a week. I would get my head on straight while I was happily cataloguing my penguins. I would just get over Sam, I decided. This was it.
“Viktor, did you get that?”
Shit. I had zoned out. “Uh, sorry. No. What did you ask again?”
Daniel blew a breath and then with visible patience mustered, repeated himself. “I was asking about your pre-departure kit. Is it all stocked?”
“Oh yeah. I checked and double checked and triple checked,” I assured him.
He opened his mouth but I cut him off.
“I know, I know. I tend to forget stuff and that is why I triple checked. But if you want I can bring it to you and you can check for yourself.”
“No, that’s fine. I trust Sam.” Daniel looked down at his iPad and tapped away. But I caught the hint of a smile. He was teasing me.
“You’re a prick,” I told him.
He ignored me and proceeded to take our blood pressure and all kinds of different baseline data. Once he was done he turned to the two laptops set up on one side of the clinic.