Page 5 of A Lab Rat’s Guide to Fated Love

Two

The Canadian Prodigy

Nori

N ori had never convinced anyone to let her experiment on them. Nor had she imagined in her wildest dreams she might ever have to.

Her experiment offered a cure, not a temporary retrofit like the other team’s bionic heart.

But they were resident researchers at this university and much further in their human trials than she was.

To a layman, their artificial-heart would be an obvious choice over her nano-mites with zero human precedents to show.

She’d have to dumb things down and explain everything to him in over-simplified terms, so he really understood the gravity of what she was offering.

She wiped her clammy palms against the sides of her pants, heart hammering inside her chest as she reminded herself she had absolutely no reason to be nervous. She was here to offer this man a cure, and really, he should be the one scouting her, not the other way around.

Squaring her shoulders, Nori glanced up as Vir set her coffee on the table in front of her.

She took a discreet whiff, letting the strong acidic aroma clear her head.

He took the seat opposite her, and her gaze instantly shifted to his too thin face.

An untidy stubble of dark hair marked his boney jaw, with the deep indents under his eyes yelling sleep-deprivation. He looked sick.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at herself. Of course, he was sick. That’s why she was here.

As she continued to stare at him, the tightening in her chest began to ease, little by little, till it was gone completely. As if she hadn’t been a nervous wreck only moments ago. Bizarre. Maybe her pep talk had worked better than she’d hoped.

Vir visibly sighed before glancing up from his cup. His dark eyes widened on meeting hers, the intensity in them making it hard for her to look away. He glared at her like he was trying to intimidate her or something. Or… like he was intimidated by her. What was wrong with this guy?

Fehim cleared his throat as he elbowed Vir in the side, making him blink rapidly before dropping his gaze back to his coffee.

Whatever. She had a human lab rat to acquire.

“Hello, Mr. Varma. My name is Nori Arya,” she said, looking directly at him.

Vir’s eyes lifted to hers again at the mention of her name, and the glare was back. And it was distracting.

Focus.

“I’m assuming you haven’t decided on your treatment option yet. I’d be happy to discuss and answer any questions you have before you do.”

He seemed to take a moment to process her words.

“Treatment… right,” he finally said. “The nanotech one? You’re the Canadian prodigy?”

Blood rushed into Nori’s cheeks right as Fehim coughed out the bite he’d just taken, making bits of tortilla and tomato fly off from his mouth. Pushing his large rectangular glasses up to the bridge of his nose, he elbowed Vir again.

Ryan eyed her sideways with a snort.

She ignored him. “Umm… Yes. Nano-mites. Combined with a newer microchip version of the ICD—an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator, if you’re familiar with those—that would be attached to the outer wall of your heart.

Th e procedure is minimally invasive, and with the mites, I’m offering you a real cure.

It’s not a temporary fix. I’d be happy to discuss it in more detail and—”

“Yes.”

“—I am confident that—wait, what?”

“Yes. Okay. I’ll go with your option.” Vir leaned back in his seat; arms crossed against his chest.

Had he hit his head in the restroom earlier? Or was this a prank of some sort?

“Just like that?” She frowned at him. “Have you even seen the documentation? Aren’t you concerned I don’t have any human precedents to show? What if the mites fry you?”

“He said yes.” It was Ryan’s turn to elbow her.

“Will they?” Vir asked with a curious tilt of his head. “Fry me?”

“No,” Nori replied. “I mean yes, there’s a tiny chance, a miniscule one, but not on my watch, no.

It’s either going to work, and you’ll be fine, or if it doesn’t, you’ll be dead in a year’s time, which you’re going to be, anyway.

So, you don’t have much to lose. It’s still a win-win.

” At least, it was for her. She was dying to get her hands on some live human data for her mites.

She had to have him. Who knew how long she might have to wait for another subject to come around.

Ryan elbowed her again. “You’re being too blunt. The guy has already agreed.”

Nori waited for Vir to speak while he slowly took a sip of his coffee, his eyes still fixed on her. Seriously, what was with the glaring? He seemed to be even worse at blinking than Nori was, and that was quite something.

He lowered his gaze. Nori blinked. Another quiet moment passed while she waited for him to respond. Or to look at her again.

“Okay.” He finally nodded.

“Okay?” she asked, unsure if she’d heard him correctly.

“Okay,” Vir replied. He set his cup down and leaned back with his arms crossed over his chest again, head tilted to the side.

“Okay!” Nori beamed with a wave of relief washing over her.

Vir’s relaxed demeanor switched, and his eyes widened into shocked circles, strangely reminding Nori of kittens with their pupils dilated into giant glassy orbs.

It was almost comical to watch. She would’ve laughed had the man not paled a few shades lighter, looking like he’d just seen a ghost. A millisecond later, he slumped in his seat.

“Please don’t die,” Nori whispered under her breath while they rushed him to the emergency room.

Vir

W aking up at the emergency room—again—Vir pushed himself upright to find a dull green curtain drawn halfway around his bed, giving him a partial view of the space. He seemed to be the only patient in the otherwise vacant room.

Vir sighed, glancing at the IV stuck into his arm right as the nauseating smell of antiseptics mixed with rubbing alcohol assaulted his nose.

He despised hospitals with every fiber of his being.

He was so sick of being a patient. But that’s what he was going to be for the rest of his days alive.

The fainting spells were only going to get worse as his heart progressed further into failure.

Right . He groaned again. The experiment .

He pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes, recalling the atrocity he’d agreed to moments before he’d passed out. And the woman who had presented it to him, calling it a cure. A cure he hadn’t believed in. Not in the slightest.

Why, then, had he agreed to be Dr. Nori Arya’s lab rat?

Maybe because she’d sat across from him looking like a live-action replica of the woman haunting his dreams every night? Hauntings that were oddly welcome. Hauntings that he’d grown so accustomed to, he longed for them all day, just so he could see her again in his sleep come nighttime.

Dr. Nori Arya. It was her .

From the shape of her face, the curves of her small mouth, the subtle way she’d bobbed her head while speaking, right down to the loose shoulder length ringlets of her hair matching the soft brown of her eyes. It was her .

But how was it possible? There was no way they were the same person. He wasn’t even sure if the woman in his dreams was a person and not a figment of his imagination.

Vir shook his head, recalling the eerie dreams that had begun soon after his final diagnosis a few months ago.

Every night, as soon as his head hit the pillow, he’d find her waiting for him.

There, at the edge of the stream near his childhood home, or saving a table at his favorite café or tiptoeing between shelves at the library he frequented.

They’d talk for hours, sometimes days on end, before he had to wake up.

And every single time that he did, he’d forget her name and all of their conversations right away.

The only indication of them having met the previous night would be the lingering warmth in his chest, the memory of her small hand in his, and the image of her cherubic face imprinted in his mind.

He was convinced his brain was making things up as some sort of twisted coping mechanism. A futile, last-ditch attempt at self-preservation, maybe. He didn’t care. None of it was going to matter in a few months’ time, anyway.

Nori, though… she was real. Not a dream. Nor a figment of his imagination. But she hadn’t shown any signs of recognition towards him.

Of course she hadn’t.

The resemblance was just a coincidence. Uncanny. Outrageous. Batshit crazy. But a coincidence, nonetheless.

Vir swore under his breath, letting his hands drop to the sides.

What had he done? Nano-mites? Have tiny robots crawl through his bloodstream, hoping they’d somehow force his body to stop rejecting his heart?

He must’ve gone temporarily insane. Then again, he had a feeling had the woman asked him to offer his neck for her portable guillotine right there at that booth, he would’ve likely agreed to that, too.

An amused chuckle huffed out of him as he recalled her shocked expression. Maybe he did need psychiatric help after all.

Assuming he were to go through with her offer, and it did work out… he might actually get to live. Finishing the thought alone made him want to roll his eyes all the way back into his head .

Alternatively—realistically—he’d die within the year like he was supposed to, as Nori had so bluntly put.

Only there’d be no rotting-away-on-a-sunny-beach for him.

Though it would make Adi stay off Vir’s back for a bit longer.

Prolong his coming to terms with the inevitability of his brother’s death.

Was it a fair bargain? Likely not. But Vir could live with that… for however long he had.

He caught himself mid-chuckle again and shook his head. He was doing an awful lot of chuckling for a guy speeding towards his own funeral.

“You’re awake.” Fehim appeared at the foot of his bed, his face showing a familiar mixture of concern and relief Vir was used to by now.

“Sorry, I passed out again.”