A Stitch in Time

Lunch and a Party

The pair stepped from the Medical centre. Macey led Professor Glade out onto the footpath. The Bandage wrapped around his head was already beginning to appear a little red towards the back of his head but the doctor insisted the bleeding would stop.

"It's lucky that fall didn't actually crack your skull," Macey pointed out, hoping to start a conversation.

"Yeah, your telling me." The professor winced a little at the pain in both his spine and the back of his head. "Thanks for helping me out today, I'd probably still be back there drowning in a pool of my own blood if not for you."

"Oh please, the reason you were in that position in the first place is because you were trying to impress me." She said with a sly smile that struck his heart like cupid's arrow.

"So cute." He thought.

"So, there's still an hour or so before I've got to be anywhere so let's go get some lunch," Glade said rubbing his hands together.

"Wait, what?" Macey asked, a little confused. "Your head looks like Tutankhamen, you can't go into a restaurant like that. Can you?" 

"Oh, she'll be right. They didn't cover my mouth thankfully so I'll still be able to eat, besides I'm starving."

Macey Nodded, "Alright, but I'm paying, you already covered the bill for the doctor.

"Alright," Glade agreed. "So miss Dunning, how long have you been here, until this morning I'd never seen you before."

"Oh, I've only been here since this morning," Macey Laughed. "And please call me Macey."

"Oh ok, Macey," he raised an eyebrow. "So where were you before today?"

Macey had to think about that, he couldn't know the truth. She searched and saw a deli across the street. "Fairmaine Deli, huh?" "Fairmaine, it's a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific, my parents owned a villa there and we pretty much lived there. I moved here this morning to start university, there's only so much an island can offer, I guess." Macey gave a nervous laugh before looking up at Glade.

"Wow, you're parents must have been pretty well off to be able to afford something like that." The man seemed intrigued. "It must be pretty different here than there, yeah?"

"Yes, we had a beach there but it's very nice here, I like what I've seen so far." She flicked on the sly smile and glanced at him. Sure enough he noticed and again he felt a chill run down his spine.

The pair soon found themselves out the front of a restaurant called Porteno on Cleveland Street and headed inside. They had their usual special, slow roasted suckling pig, which the pair promptly ordered. It didn't take them long to eat their fill and leave. Once back at the university he bid her ado and they parted ways. As he stepped away he noticed her give him a cute wave. He waited for her to get around the corner and he started dancing. He felt as though his lungs had just been pumped with helium and he was going to float away. The usually literal man didn't even bother to note that in that case he'd be dead. He skipped all the way back to his lab, where he found Davis waiting.

"Hey Glade, I got word back from CERN, we've got all of France's power grid to..." At that moment Glade slid into the lab and leaped onto the chair sending it spinning under his weight. "What's with you, you look high?"

"I am," he possessed a grin from ear to ear. He threw his head back and started shouting. Without missing a beat Davis shut the door in order to prevent the entire rest of the science building from being aware of Glade's new found love.

"Professor!" Davis shouted. The professor stopped what he was doing and slumped back into his chair. "Calm down," Davis sat down himself. "It's great your in love or whatever but the rest of the world doesn't really need to know."

"Yeah, you're right, I'm a professional." Glade took a breath.

"What's with the...?" Davis gestured towards his head.

"Oh, I fell over." Glade said as though it were not even a problem. "Macey helped me to the medical centre up the road."

"Ah, so that's her name." Davis grinned. "Well, we're all sorted for the Hadron Collider, we've been granted permission to use it to attempt to send a photon at faster than light speeds, we've been given a 5 minute window on 21 July when all the power in France and Belgium will be diverted into the collider. That's 6 days from now."

"Yeah, sure."

"Now, call your girlfriend, I'm gonna have a party tomorrow night, Summer Hill, starts at 7:00. You two are both now officially invited."