Studies In The Trajectory Of Falling In Love

You can do this.” I say to myself in the mirror of this small room, even if I can still feel my heavy breathing from moments ago, my hands still sweating at the thought of this, I grab my courage to reassure myself. “I can do this.”

A knock comes to the door as a small framed young man opens it enough so his face can be seen. “Dr. Hildern, it’s your cue” I give a sigh as I turn around to face him “Thanks Philip.” I grab my lab coat on the table next to me and go in his direction as he opens the door for me. My head feels empty but at the same time, the most full I have ever felt in my life, I grab from my pockets some pieces of paper I hastily had written for myself to not totally lose my shit, but everything goes out the window as I hear it from the stage.

“And with that, I would like to introduce you, though you may have already heard of her, to our head physicist: Evellyn Hildern!” The full facility and guests from all over the world clap as my name is said, I look to Philip as he motions over for me to move unto the stage, I gulp as I try to make a friendly face, moving towards the stage as I finally get the courage to look at my boss, the man introducing me, that shows a big smile as I enter.

Mr. Patrick Silverstein, the CEO of the Euler Institute, a huge man that can always be seen with his signature silver suit, greets me as the audience claps and I sweat from my forehead, he gives me a very simple and professional congratulatory hug, I can feel his face next to mine as he says, loud enough so I can hear in the midst of the claps “I’m counting on you” as another sweat drops right next to where he is. He walks off stage after patting my back and smiling at the audience, leaving me all alone in front of the podium.

For the next thirty minutes I feel like a rambling maniac, trying to breathe between the presentation about our latest research into wormholes and how they would theoretically be made, it’s a lot of information for thirty minutes, and a lot more to handle in front of hundreds of scientists that would know if I said anything that didn’t make sense, so of course I spent most of the presentation in pure anxiety as I looked to the faces of my colleagues that ranged from having the same knowledge as me, or an even superior understanding of all this nonsense we call the world we live in. Most of their faces stayed blank as I talked about the intricacies of our studies, as if they themselves were studying what I said, but someone stood out for me in the audience.

A brown haired man with a slightly unshaven face, wearing a similar lab coat to mine, the whole presentation, or at least at the points I looked at him he seemed…Happy? As if my words and the way I said them gave him some sort of solace, as he smiled at me throughout what I felt like was just a pure regurgitation of information, and as he notices my look, he nods positively, as if saying “Go on.” It gave me the power to feel confident about what I was saying, so the last 10 minutes I had to talk, I continued on about our discoveries with the excitement I have to work on this field that I love.

At the very end, I could feel myself sweating, as I raised my hand to praise the research of my crew, the whole auditorium burst in claps as I looked to the side of the stage, Mr. Silverstein is giving me a thumbs up, smiling. I look at the crowd, some are even standing up, one of them being the brown haired man. I smile directly at him, he smiles back, and I feel relieved, as the longest thirty minutes of my life were finally over.

At the end of the presentations we all came to our cafeteria, where we, or at least I, could relax and grab some grub to calm ourselves. I picked up my tray of food and started looking for a table, a lot of scientist that presented today were sitting with large groups, still telling of their research and findings, I myself was called to joining some curious heads, “Tell us about this” “Tell us about that” was all respondent by a, quickly laughing, “Not right now” as I myself was exhausted by this whole ordeal.