Love, Lust 'n Geology (1ST DRAFT)

Chapter 19: The best laid plans

This chapter is dedicated to @l0vinrandoms for her support, her encouragement, & her sassy PM ;-)! (I like sassy ;-)!

She is an author as well & has 2 novels on WP. Please check them out!

_____________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 19: The best laid plans

For the next two days, she went utterly quiet, the burden of the task she had set for herself, with all its attendant uncertainty, weighing her down. Her feelings vacillated between conviction that Tom loved her and desperation, even depression, that he only liked her. Everyone noticed the change. Chris, who was finely attuned to her moods, on the very first morning following her epiphany; Phil and Grant in the evening, when they observed that not only had she stopped talking, but she had also stopped eating and drinking. Well, not exactly stopped, but she did limit herself to a single helping at dinner and turned down Phil's offer to get her a second beer which, when one was in the field, pretty much amounted to the same thing! Oh, and she also skipped dessert, which was perhaps the most telling sign that something was amiss!

Grant didn't go so far as to ask her what the problem was, but he did immediately set about making tea after dinner. While his track record of graduate students who'd gone on to complete their degrees was pretty good, like most professors, he'd had to endure a few drop-outs. Students almost universally arrived in the field in a high state of excitement, as Samina had. But a percentage wearied of the hardship and tedium of field life or lost interest in their project. He hoped the same wasn't happening to Samina. Being an early riser, he decided that if her mood didn't improve, he would begin making tea in the morning, too!

Unlike Grant, Phil had no hesitation in asking her if she was alright. When she replied, unconvincingly, that she was, he began to make silly jokes, trying to get her to laugh. She played along, but it was obvious that it was an effort for her to smile. And laugh? She never came close, although he thought that his jokes weren't half-bad.

Chris kept an eye on her and remained solicitous ... as usual. Unfortunately, his own mood didn't allow for any attempts at levity. Finally, on the second day, the day she was to meet Tom, feeling concerned, he inquired over lunch, "What's wrong?"

She shook her head, "Nothing."

"Oh, c'mon, Samina. You look as if you're dying. What's going on?" he muttered.

"Nothing, Chris," she mumbled, lowering her eyes.

She wanted so badly to talk to him, indeed, to anyone with experience in the romance department! She wished that the old Chris was still around so that she could bounce her plan off him. After all, he'd had at least one girlfriend — more, for all she knew. And he had come to herself for advice — for all that it had been worth — so that he owed her, (in a sense). But he was so irrationally, so deeply hostile towards Tom that there was no point telling him what she had in mind, not to mention what was in her heart.

"Is it Tom?" Chris asked in a quiet voice, his eyes fixed penetratingly on her.

She smiled wanly at the insight. It seemed that Chris and Tom not only shared good looks, but they were both mind-readers too! Grimacing and closing her eyes momentarily, she nodded and whispered, "Yeah. But not in the way you think."

"Ah," he remarked, his own heart beginning to feel heavy.

As the time for Tom's arrival approached, she lingered around the (island) dock area, alternating between standing out in the open and wandering behind trees. Did she want Tom to know that she was anxiously awaiting him or didn't she? She didn't know. She honestly didn't know! Could anyone say confused with a capital C?