“Do you love him?”

Mira glared at her father. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

Walter held her gaze. “You didn’t answer the question.”

“No, I didn’t.” Mira folded her arms and looked away. “Right now, I’m more interested in why your company treated me like a fucking lab rat.”

Walter stared at her. “Lab rat?”

“Oh, don’t give me that.” She came forward again. “The God-Almighty Walter Basehart doesn’t know what happens in his own company?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You sent me to Hawaiʻi.”

“To observe the lab. To analyze it.”

“They experimented on me.”

Walter’s expression changed.

Mira saw it and gave a bitter laugh. “You really don’t know.”

She moved to strike him, but he caught her wrist.

“As God is my witness, I do not know what you are talking about.” he looked perplexed. “I had you flown to Hawai’i to observe the lab. To analyze it.” He sighed. “I want you to come to the company.”

Mira jerked her hand back.

“Work for YOU?” She gave a bitter laugh. “Work for the shitty company that used me as a lab rat? I bet there wasn’t even FDA oversight! You should be thanking your lucky stars I’m not on the phone with Congresswoman Cortez.” She glared at him.

She sat back, lower lip in a pout, arms crossed. “You didn’t know. Of course you didn’t know. You know NOTHING. You knocked my mother up and tossed her out with the trash, you–”

Walter slammed his hand down on the armrest.

“ENOUGH.” The CEO came forth.

“Your mother wanted me out of your lives, and I was still there. You graduated with honors. Twice.”

Mira was shocked. “High school.”

“A pink dress under the robes.”

“You saw?”

“I was there.”

“College?”

“You wore your mother’s mortarboard.”

“You could not say hi? Congratulations?”

“I was as close as I could be and honor your mother’s wishes.”

“You couldn’t even send a fucking card?” Mira’s voice was anguished; tears streamed down her face. “You watched me from a distance my entire fucking life, and then the first time you actually bring me into yours, you send me straight into that place.” She put her face in her hands, sobbing. “They experimented on me.”

Walter palmed his phone.

“Get me Kealoha. NOW.” Walter pushed a button. “East 86th and York.”

He slowly reached toward Mira, not quite touching her, but offering support.

“I’ll get you home,” and then his voice grew cold. “Then I will find out what they did.”

The car came to a stop. The door opened, and Rick helped Mira out as the driver retrieved the bags.

Walter leaned out the window. “She trusts you. Take care of her. I will find out what exactly is going on and send a car for you tomorrow.”

oOo

​

Rick took her keys and opened the door. His eyes took in the sparse furnishings.

“Home sweet hovel,” Mira croaked.

“Could be worse,” Rick quipped. “No velvet painting of Elvis or dogs playing poker.”

Mira’s snort let Rick know he’d scored a point. He looked in the refrigerator and checked the cupboards. He hugged Mira, who had carried her bag to the bedroom. Her lips sought his.

He gently parted the embrace.

“Let me run you a bath.” While she was in the bathroom, Mira stripped off her clothes. Her body responded to Rick’s presence; her nipples grew hard, and she felt herself getting wet.

Rick tested the water and poured in the bubble bath from the shelf. He turned off the water and straightened up. He turned, and Mira was there, close, naked, sexy. They touched.

Again, Rick disengaged. Disappointment filled her eyes. Rick kissed her chastely.

“Bath. Relax.”

“You don’t love me?” she sounded lost.

“I do, and that’s why we can’t. Not yet.”

Mira descended into the bubbles. Rick closed the door behind him, opened the Uber Eats app, and ordered.

Rick took the moment to look at the apartment. He could tell the place was spotless; only the dust from the week’s absence betrayed cleanliness. There was really not much: a ratty couch and chair, a modest television, and a decades-old stereo system with a turntable.

The only items of value were racks of old vinyl LPs, the mandatory yellow brick road and white album, but mostly new wave artists from the 70s and 80s; there were the big names, Smiths, Duran Duran, but many others Rick had never heard of, Wire, Chameleons, Comsat Angels. He considered putting an album on but decided that might be too much of an invasion of Mira’s privacy.

The knock on the door ended the debate. Rick answered and took the food. The delivery man was staring. Rick turned and saw Mira, naked with a towel in her hand, an odd look in her eyes. Rick closed the door.

“Dinner.” he laid it all out on the table. Mira came closer, as if hesitant to act.

Then the smell hit her. “Thai?”

“A bit of everything,” Rick answered.

She picked up a spring roll, then stopped.

“Something’s wrong.”

Rick looked at her. “What?”

“I don’t know.” Mira bit into the roll. Her eyes widened. She reached for the pad Thai, then the curry, barely pausing between bites.

“Jesus,” she gasped, reaching for her drink.

“Good?”

Mira nodded, already reaching for more.

“I don’t remember Thai food ever being this good.”

Rick smiled. “You were hungry.”

“No.” She looked at him, puzzled. “It’s more than that. It’s like–The spice. Feels good.”

She got up and went to the bedroom. Rick put the leftovers in the refrigerator, then went to the bedroom. Mira lay on the covers, naked. She looked at him like a lioness looking at a gazelle.

“I, uh. I should sleep on the couch.”

“No.”

“Mira–”

“No.”

Rick sighed, took off his shirt and pants, and left his underwear on.

Mira’s eyes showed disappointment and confusion.

“No, honey. We can’t.”

“Fine.” Her voice was bitter.

oOo

Something hit Rick. He woke and sat up.

Even in the dim light filtering through the window; Rick could see Mira shaking. Her eyes were open.

Rick reached for his phone, but Mira pounced on him, ripping his shorts down, her mouth seeking his cock.

“I need you.” She went back to taste his manhood.

Her mouth was insanely hot. And Rick responded. Once he was erect, Mira mounted him. “YES,” she screamed over and over as she rose and fell, her whole body weight driving him inside her. She was crying; from pain or joy, he could not tell.

She stopped the up-and-down and swirled her hips, stirring him inside her. Moans became growls of pleasure. She dropped onto her hands, arms either side of his head. Rick didn’t recognize this side of Mira; her eyes were blazing, and if he had to find a word, it was animalistic. He realized something else. She smelled different somehow.

She cried out, an orgasmic scream, and Rick felt her clamp down on him, harder than ever before. She kept going; hips flailing, she pressed against him. “Now,” she whispered, and kissed him deeply. “Cum in me now.”

Rick gave in, and he came inside the white-haired woman, groaning as he did. She rolled off him, sated.

The clock radio flashed 3 am.

​

oOo

​

Walter’s office occupied the top floor of the building, overlooking New York City. Mira barely noticed any of it.

She walked between Rick and Walter, one hand gripping Rick’s arm. She looked pale, but composed.

Walter’s assistant met them at the elevator. “Mr. Basehart, Dr. Kealoha’s aircraft has landed. She’ll be here shortly.”

Walter nodded. “Put her on the helicopter. Right here to the roof.”

Mira stopped. “Here?” she shuddered.

“Where else? She needs to explain herself.” Walter said.

Mira looked at him. “You really did send a plane.”

“I told you I would find out what happened.”

Before she could answer, a man in a white coat stepped through the conference-room door.

“Mr. Basehart?”

Walter turned.

“Dr. Levin. Internal medicine. I was told there was a possible reaction to an experimental compound.”

“That’s our best guess,” Rick said.

Levin looked at Mira. “Tell me what happened.”

Rick gave him the short version. “She woke up around three, shaking and sweating. Chills. It lasted maybe twenty minutes before it started easing.”

“Anything else?”

“She was restless. Her skin was hot.”

Levin looked at Mira. “Loss of consciousness?”

“No.”

“Confusion? Trouble breathing?”

“No.”

“Anything since?”

Rick shook his head.

“Yes,” Mira said quietly.

He turned. “What?”

“It happened again in the shower.”

“You didn’t tell me?”

“I’m telling you now.”

Levin ignored the exchange. “Same symptoms?”

“Mostly. Shaking. Hot, then freezing. Except it was worse the second time.”

Levin made another note. “And now?”

Mira held out her hand. It trembled.

“You tell me.”

“Okay.” Levin looked at Mira. “Given the limited information we have, I’m treating this as an acute adverse drug reaction until somebody can tell me exactly what she was given.”

Hana’s voice came from the doorway.

“I can.”

Everyone turned.

Hana stood there, still wearing the clothes she’d traveled in. She looked exhausted.

Walter’s expression became glacial. “You’re late.”

“I came as quickly as I could, as instructed.”

“You have a lot to explain.”

“I know.”

Mira suddenly doubled over. Her hands began to shake, a sheen of sweat covering her face.

Rick caught her. “Mira?”

Levin was already moving. He took her wrist and looked toward the elevator.

“Downstairs. Now.”

Rick lifted Mira into his arms.

“Dr. Kealoha,” Levin said as they moved, “what exactly am I treating?”

Hana hesitated.

Walter stopped.

“Answer him.”

“The compound.”

Walter’s jaw tightened. “Explain.”

Hana took a breath. “We made a mistake.”

Rick gave a humorless laugh. “You think?”

The elevator opened. An orderly with a wheelchair was waiting. Rick carefully lowered Mira into it while Levin checked her pulse.

Hana followed them inside.

“The compound was designed to clear rapidly from the bloodstream. Our models showed a short elimination period.”

“Models?” Levin asked.

“Yes.”

Mira looked up at her. “Models?”

Hana didn’t answer immediately.

Walter did. “Keep talking.”

“We didn’t anticipate what repeated exposure would do. Her blood concentration should have fallen to negligible levels hours ago. Based on these symptoms, I don’t think it has.”

Levin frowned. “Accumulation?”

“Possibly. Or a hormone trend we didn’t identify during preclinical testing.”

Mira stared at her. “You don’t know?”

“No.”

The elevator descended.

“You gave me this shit and you don’t know what it’s doing?”

Hana looked down. “I’m sorry.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“No,” Hana said quietly. “It isn’t.”

Levin crossed his arms. “What do you propose?”

“Get it out of her bloodstream.”

“How?”

“Dialysis.”

Levin shook his head. “You don’t know that dialysis will remove it.”

“It should.”

“Should?”

Hana pulled a tablet from her bag and brought up the compound’s pharmacokinetic data.

“It’s a relatively small molecule with low protein binding and a low volume of distribution. Most of the circulating compound remains accessible in plasma.”

Levin studied the figures.

“So, it’s dialyzable.”

“Yes.”

“You’re certain?”

Hana hesitated.

Walter caught it. “That’s the second time you’ve hesitated.”

“I’m certain of the chemistry. I can’t promise how quickly her symptoms will resolve.”

Mira’s hand began trembling violently. She grabbed Rick’s hand.

“Don’t leave me.”

“I’m right here.”

Levin looked at Hana. “What happens if we wait?”

“I don’t know.”

Walter’s expression hardened. “You don’t know?”

“We’ve never seen this reaction.”

Mira stared at her.

“Never?”

Hana said nothing.

Mira understood.

“I’m your first.”

Hana looked at the floor. “I’m sorry.”

The elevator doors opened onto the lab level.

Levin took control. “Treatment room one.”

The orderly started pushing Mira down the corridor.

Levin looked at her. “Mira, I’m going to sedate you. If we proceed with dialysis, there’s no reason for you to be awake through the setup.”

Mira tightened her grip on Rick.

“He stays.”

Rick answered before anyone else could. “I’m staying.”

Levin nodded.

Once Mira was unconscious, Walter looked at him.

“Doctor?”

Levin studied Hana’s data once more.

“If these numbers are accurate, dialysis should reduce the circulating concentration.”

Walter turned to Hana. “And if they’re not?”

Hana didn’t answer.

Rick looked at Levin. “Do it.”

Levin remained silent for several seconds, then nodded.

“Prep treatment one.”

Walter watched as they wheeled his daughter away.

Then he turned to Hana.

“You’re coming with me.”

Hana nodded.

Walter’s voice dropped.

“You’re going to tell me everything you know.”

“Yes.”

“And you’d better start thinking very carefully about the things you don’t.”

oOo

​

Mira woke on her own bed. The nightmare of the past few days was over.

She no longer felt cold, sore, or tired.  She sat up in bed. She looked down; Rick was sleeping peacefully beside her.  Mira stripped off her T-shirt and panties, and kissed Rick lightly. Slowly, she kissed him more insistently until he roused.

“Morning.”

“Morning.”

Mira took his hand and placed it on her breast.

“I want you, Rick”

“God, it didn’t work,” he whispered.

Mira kissed him lightly.

“No, dummy. I don’t need you. I WANT you.”

Comprehension made Rick smile.

“In that case.” Rick lowered her down. It was long, slow, and gentle. Mira came twice.

After he finished, they cuddled. Her arm across his chest. She rose.

“For the record,” Mira said, looking into his eyes. “I can say absolutely, I Love You, Rick Kelly.”