No Sex until chapter 7 - VirtualAtheist
CHAPTER THREE
It was getting on for six o'clock and there only a few people wandering around on whatever business they were on. When I reached Building G5, I stood outside and looked at the double doors that were still wide open.
Don't ask me why, but I was suddenly quite scared. What did I think I was doing? I had no idea who he was and I was just inviting myself into his world. I knew that I had no business being on campus. That bus had passed three years ago when I had to drop out of school... But still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I took a deep breath, steeled myself and marched in through the doors. A sign inside on the wall directed me to the offices of the various doctors and professors who worked here. Under the heading Palaeontology I found the name Dr N Smethwick with an arrow pointing down the corridor to the right.
I made my way along it until I reached an area that opened out with a desk with a computer sat on it and several doors leading into several offices, only one of which was open. I could see Dr N Smethwick inside. He had just tipped his briefcase on to the desk and was searching through the contents.
Before I could make my presence known, he glanced up at me as I held out his notebook.
Those eyes. Those
fucking
eyes!
I stammered slightly, "I... I think you're looking for this."
When he realised what I was holding, he sighed with relief, "Thank you."
I handed it to him and then looked around the office. To be honest it was in a right state. Books and papers were just dumped in piles all over the place with no rhyme or reason. There were a couple of large bookcases covering the far wall, but they too were just piled haphazardly with books. I could see a very old wooden clock high on the other wall. It had a large brass pendulum that swayed to and fro with a gentle tick tick tick. His desk had a computer on it, but it didn't look like he had ever turned it on and his in and out trays were piled with neatly typed pages of script, hastily scribbled notes and more than a few stubs of flight and train tickets.
As he skimmed over one of the pages in the notebook, I said, "You're not terribly organised."
He nodded, "I know. I suppose I should try and sort it all out, I just don't have the time."
"Being a Dr of Palaeontology is hard graft is it?"
He glanced up at me quite sharply, but his expression softened when he saw the grin on my face, "I need an assistant really. It's not just the University stuff. I work in the field as well."
I moved further into the office and glanced down at one of the papers on the desk, it was the first page of a treatise entitled, '
The Miocene Mammal Necrolestes Demonstrates The Survival Of A Mesezoic Nontherian Lineage Into The Late Cenezoic Of South America
' whatever that meant.
"What's this?" I asked, pointing to the paper.
He glanced at it and said, "Oh that's a PhD paper. I was on the board for his defence of it... I keep meaning to file it. Just never have the time."
"I see."
I pointed to another pile of papers, "And these?"
"That's my script for a presentation tomorrow... Or at least part of it."
"Where's the rest?"
Once again he looked directly into my eyes, pinning me in place. His hand reached out and waved towards the computer on his desk, "Somewhere," he said, "In that fucking thing!"
I laughed, "I'm guessing that computers aren't your speciality."
He joined in with my laughter and replied, "Definitely not. Give me a dig site full of specimens over a computer any day."
The laughter stopped and an uneasy silence followed as we remained staring into each other's eyes. I don't know about him, but I simply couldn't look away. His eyes wouldn't let me.
I murmured, "Maybe..."
"Maybe what?"
"Maybe I could find it for you?"
"Feel free to try."
I sat at the desk and fired up the PC. Once it was booted up, I asked, "What's the talk about?"
"It's called the The Architecture of Ediacaran Fronds."
My brow furrowed, "Can you spell Eddie Karen for me?"
He did.
Then I used the Windows search feature to see if that would find the document. After a few minutes, it did. I said, "Got it. You seem to have placed it in the recycle bin. I've retrieved it back to My Documents and it's printing out now."
I smiled at him and he stared back thoughtfully. I got shivers down my spine again.
"What?" I asked eventually
He looked around the room and then returned his attention to me. He sat down opposite me and rested his elbows on the desk tapping the heels of his hands together rhythmically and gazed at me earnestly, "Tell me," he said, "If I asked you to sort this office out, what would you do?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean. If you had to organise this space, tell me what you'd do. Step by step."
I managed to drag my eyes from his, which I freely admit was fucking difficult and looked around the room. I said, "Would I be allowed to use the area outside the office at all?"
"Temporarily I suppose, as long as you didn't inconvenience the other members of staff."
I rested my my elbows on the desk as well and placed my chin on my fists. I blew out heavily as I looked around. Before I could say anything he added, "Also, think about how you would fit an extra desk in here."
I giggled, "Do I have to stand on one foot as well?"
Once again I received that little smile, "No. But I'm interested in your thoughts."
"Right. First thing, I'd get all the books out of here and stack them against the wall outside the office so they didn't get in people's way. Then I'd collect all your papers up and stack them on your desk. Question. Are all of your documents on the PC or are some of them just paper copies?"
"Why do you ask?"