After joining Daniel Hayes‘ research team, Sienna’s world became consumed by experiments, data analysis, and academic papers.
The lab became her second home. Sometimes she’d look up from her laptop and realize it was already past midnight, the campus completely dark outside the windows.
Daniel‘ office was right next to the lab, and he seemed to keep the same insane hours she did. They’d often be the last two people in the building, working side by side until the janitors started making their rounds.
One night they were calibrating some complex statistical model, both hunched over her laptop screen. Moonlight filtered through the blinds, casting patterns across her scattered notes and coffee–stained printouts.
Sienna reached for her mug and totally misjudged the distance.
“Shit!” Coffee went everywhere – all over her hand–drawn diagrams, the ones she’d spent three sleepless nights perfecting.
She grabbed for napkins, but that just smudged the ink worse. Her elbow was bleeding from where she’d scraped it on the desk edge, but all she cared about was the ruined artwork.
“Hey, breathe.”
A warm hand closed around her wrist, stopping her frantic dabbing. Daniel had appeared beside her chair.
Instead of looking at the coffee disaster, he was examining her elbow. “You’re bleeding. Let me fix that first.”
He pulled a first aid kit from his desk drawer – because of course the perfect professor kept medical supplies on hand – and started cleaning the scrape with surprising gentleness.
“But my diagrams-”
“I scanned everything yesterday,” he said, not looking up from bandaging her arm. “I’ll print new copies tomorrow. No big deal.”
When he finished with the first aid, he handed her wet wipes for her coffee–stained fingers.
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Chapter 10
Sienna stared at him, caught off guard by how naturally he’d taken care of everything.
He was sitting really close now, close enough that she could smell his cologne mixed with that particular lab smell of paper and electronics.
“Here, let me help with the cleanup.” Daniel took the soggy napkins from her hands and started gathering the coffee–soaked papers.
Their shoulders brushed as he leaned across her to reach some scattered notes. When he turned to throw something in the trash, his face was inches from hers.
Sienna felt her cheeks warm, this weird flutter in her stomach that had nothing to do with caffeine.
When was the last time someone had just… taken care of her like that? No drama, no conditions, just quiet kindness.
A few days later, Daniel texted her: “There’s a medieval architecture exhibition downtown – they have some manuscript illuminations that might be relevant to your research. Want to check it out?”
Sienna texted back “yes” before she could overthink it.
The gallery had this soft, contemplative lighting that made everything feel peaceful. They wandered from piece to piece, Sienna completely absorbed in the intricate details.
She stopped in front of this stunning painting of a Gothic cathedral – the stained glass windows seemed to glow with their own inner light, and even the ivy creeping through the stone cracks looked alive.
She was unconsciously tracing the architectural curves in the air when Daniel appeared beside her.
“This one caught your eye?” He was holding the exhibition catalog, smiling at her obvious fascination. “I had a feeling you’d connect with these. The structural elements are actually really similar to what you were analyzing in your last paper.”
He’d remembered some random detail from her thesis proposal.
Sienna looked up, surprised, and their eyes met for a moment longer than necessary.
Her heart did this weird little skip.
She quickly focused back on the painting’s information plaque, but she could feel her face getting
warm.
Dating Ryan had been like being in the center of a hurricane – constant drama and intensity. This felt
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completely different. Quieter. Like safety.
“Look at this support system here.” Daniel pointed to a section of the painting. “Doesn’t it remind you of those hidden buttresses you were studying? Same engineering principles, centuries apart.”
They leaned in to examine the brushwork, their shoulders almost touching. Every accidental contact made Sienna hyperaware of how close they were standing.
When they finally left the museum, the sky was turning pink with sunset.
“There’s a good coffee shop around the corner,” he said casually. “I brought that book on pigment analysis I mentioned – thought you might want to flip through it.”
Sienna nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear as the evening breeze picked up.
For the first time in months, she felt genuinely excited about something. Not anxious, not stressed – just happy.
Chapter 11
Chapter 11
