Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

No sooner had she said it than she was out the door in a rush.

Roseanne felt numb all over.

Oh well, as long as they're happy...

In the lab-

Owen was poring over two sets of data from last week, spotting a discrepancy in the fourth column of the second set, just about to call Sammy over when his phone rang.

He answered it without looking-

"Hello?"

"Mr. Reynolds, it's Roseanne."

Owen paused, his gaze slowly drifting away from the screen, his voice softening, "What's up? Everything okay?"

"My dad, he... he wants to invite you over for dinner. He's cooking himself... If you're too busy, it's okay, I'll just let him know..."

"I'm free."

Roseanne stopped dead for a few seconds: "...Isn't the lab swamped?"

"It's manageable."

"So..."

tonight. And thank your dad for me, for going through the

it's no trouble

hanging up, Roseanne was slightly

Wait a minute...

texting her complaints about how swamped they all were with work,

"Who was that? Little Roseanne, right? I could hear her voice." Owen shot him a

I've pulled three all-nighters, and both Jen and Sammy have been moaning about the workload. Only you, Mr. Reynolds, can speak of it so lightly. Truly, a man with a date is a different

be told, Owen was pushing himself harder than

Vel

made it

and cheerful.

to do experiments,

you received the preliminary data yesterday. How much have you verified?

The deadly quadruple inquiry.

disturbed you, I'll

his workstation with a grimace, facing the mountain

times like these, Stoddard found

whip up a program in minutes, making sense of the data

from simplicity to luxury is easy, but the reverse

little Roseanne could permanently join their

...