Chapter Text
Ten months later
"Stand there. You were standing right there".
"Was I?"
Adam let her bossing him around. He remembered every detail, so he knew she was right. He was standing there.
Adam stood still as Olive took a step back to admire her work, winking at him as she took out her phone to snap a quick picture.
"Just stand there" she ordered. "Look antagonistic and unapproachable.
And say pumpkin spice".
He rolled his eyes. "What's your plan if someone comes in?"
She glanced around the biology building. The hallway was silent and deserted. It was late, and summer, and the weekend to boot: no one was going to come in. Even if they did, Olive Smith and Adam Carlsen were old news by now.
"Like who?"
"Anh might show up. To help you re-create the magic".
"Pretty sure she's out with Jeremy".
He frowned "Jeremy? The guy you're in love with?"
Olive stuck her tongue out at him and glanced down at her phone.
"Okay. In one minute".
"You can't know the exact time". He said, patient and indulgent. "Not to the minute".
"Wrong" she said proudly "I ran a Western blot that night. I looked at my lab logs, and I reconstructed both the when and the where down to the error bars. I am a thorough scientist".
"Hm" Adam folded his arms across his chest "How did that blotting turn out?"
"Not the point" his heart skipped a beat seeing how she grinned "What were you doing here, by the way?"
He blinked "What do you mean?"
"A year ago. Why were you walking around the department at night?".
Adam hesitated "I can't remember. Maybe I had a deadline. Or maybe I was going home" He shrugged, and looked around the hallway for help, until his eyes fell on the water fountain. "Maybe I was thirsty".
"Maybe" Olive sounded distrustful and took a step closer "Maybe you were secretly hoping for a kiss".
He gave her a long, amused look. His smart ass "Maybe".
She took another step, and another, and another. And he was dying in anticipation. And then her alarm beeped, once, right as she came to stand in front of him. Another intrusion of his personal space. But this time, when she pushed up on her toes, when she wrapped her arms around his neck, Adam’s impatient hands pulled her deeper into himself.
It had been one year. Exactly one year. And by now her body was so familiar to him, he felt complete when she was pressed against him.
Fuck the intruders. His control could snap and he would love his Olive in that hallway just as he wanted to fully love her every single day of his life.
She abandoned herself into him, let him support her weight, then her mouth was almost level with his ear.
She pressed her lips against its shell, something that made him die of pleasure.
Then her breath tickled his skin as she whispered softly
"May I kiss you, Dr. Carlsen?".