---- Chapter 13 Ethan wasn't lying about pulling an all-nighter in the lab. The project had been approved, but the timeline was brutal We were gonna have to bust our asses to meet the deadline. Basically, it meant babysitting the centrifuge all night. Same procedure, over and over. An hour or so in, Ethan motioned me out of the lab with this secretive look. What he brought out? A bag of fried chicken. "Figured you barely touched dinner." "Lordered you something." "Let the undergrads take over for a while. Eat first, then we go back in." laughed. "Split it with them. I'm good." He shook his head. "Already ordered theirs. It's not here yet." ---- With that, | couldn't say no. We squatted in the hallway just outside the lab, sharing fried chicken like a couple of grad students again. Food wasn't allowed in the lab, so back in school, this was our trick-sneak dinner in the hall. Every single time, our advisor would catch us red-handed. Ethan had been there too. We bonded over the shared trauma of late-night lab grinds and empty stomachs. We laughed Reminisced more. Until a pair of dress shoes stepped into view, cutting through the warmth like a blade. Alexander. He held out a thermal container, gently offering it to me. "You didn't eat much earlier. You'll get stomach pains." So... he remembered. Back in those early lab days, Id skip meals constantly. ---- Eventually, it wrecked my digestion. When we were dating, he used to rub my stomach after every late night. "Lalready ate. Take it back." Alexander tensed. "Do you have to push me away like this?" "Can't you just give me a chance?" I shook my head, Ethan stood up, looked him up and down like he was sizing him for a fight. "Dude. Man to man? Cut the dramatic speech." 'Ive heard every excuse in the playbook." "If she gave you a hundred chances, you still blew them all." 'So do everyone a favor-leave, Or I'll call campus security." 'This is a closed lab. If my research data leaks because of unauthorized visitors-" That last part? Definitely a threat. Alexander might have had ways to get in, but Ethan wasn't messing Discover our latest featured short drama reel. Watch now and enjoy the story!