Bit by the Bug (Matthews Sisters 1) (6 page)

Glancing around, she determined her first order of business would be to replace the burned out light bulbs and maybe dust the rows of drawers. Though dust added to the dingy atmosphere, and she’d be sure to get a picture of the room as was, it took away some of the scientific feel to the place. Scientists were supposed to be clean and tidy and she didn’t want to work around dust all day. She made a move to walk behind him, only to stop as a big brown spider ran across the floor. Kat gasped, instantly crushing the insect under her boot. She shivered in disgust. There was nothing nastier than spiders.

Make that first order of business to get some bug spray, she thought, as she scraped the bottom of her boot on the edge of the table to get the spider’s remains off.

‘So what kind of pet are we looking for?’

‘Pet?’ Vincent asked. ‘No, no. I’m looking for the
loxosceles reclusa
. I was milking it when I was distracted and it got loose.’

‘I’m sorry, what am I looking for?’ Kat craned her neck, looking around the laboratory.

‘Oh, ah, the
loxosceles reclusa
, the brown recluse,’ he answered, sounding distracted. ‘It’s a spider about a half an inch long with eight legs, six eyes in a semicircle on its head and a fiddle-shaped mark on its cephalothorax.’

Kat tensed, glancing back to where she’d scraped off the squished spider. ‘Say what?’

‘Cephalothorax. It means upper body, like where you’d expect to see a neck.’

‘No, I’m sorry, I’m still trying to get the fact – did you say you were milking a spider?’ Kat would’ve laughed if he didn’t look so serious.

‘For the venom, yes. It’s a hobby. It helps me relax so I can concentrate better, only I sometimes think too hard and lose hold of them and they get loose. The current antivenom isn’t available on the market because of the possible side effects.’ Vincent sighed heavily. ‘This is taking too long. I have work to get done. I don’t have time, I don’t have time.’

Kat shivered. He said the whole milking thing like it was normal. ‘Why would you even have a spider? Don’t you . . .? I mean, your door says you work with old words and stuff, right?’

‘My door?’

‘Yes, your door.’ Kat crossed over and pointed to the glass where it said ‘Entomology’ backwards.

‘You’re thinking of an etymologist. I’m an entomologist. Etymologists are linguists who research the origin of words. I study insects.’ Vincent’s beard shifted and he sounded amused, if not a little condescending. Was he laughing at her?

Wait, more importantly, did he actually think she’d keep a job working for a bug guy? Ugh! Let alone date Mr Bug Guy? Suddenly, it all made sense. His parents hadn’t wanted to get into details about his job. In fact, it was quite possible they told her the wrong word on purpose, knowing she’d look it up before meeting him.
Didn’t Mimi even mention he talked to his dates about bugs?

This was too much.

‘If you see it, just trap it under a beaker and I’ll do the rest. Don’t let it bite you,’ Vincent said, glancing around. ‘Try looking in the corners. They like dry, dark locations, some place that can’t be easily disturbed.’

‘Like under my boot?’ Kat asked, arching a brow. His face fell and his mouth dropped open as if she’d slapped him. Almost regretfully, she said, ‘I think I squished your little friend.’

Vincent didn’t move as he stared at her boots in disbelief. ‘But, why would you do that? The bite is rarely fatal, especially in healthy adults.’

‘It’s a spider. I’m a girl,’ Kat answered. She wondered if he even noticed the last fact. Maybe she needed a tighter shirt and a better padded bra. She thrust her shoulders back slightly to make her breasts stick out more. It was actually a little irritating that he didn’t seem to check her out the way a normal man checks out a pretty woman. She didn’t claim to be the be-all and end-all of gorgeous women, but she knew she was easy on the eye.

Already she could check gay off her list. She was pretty intuitive about those things and this man didn’t give her that vibe. From what his parents had said, he hadn’t been romantically involved with anyone for a while. Surely flying solo had to be losing its appeal. According to Jack, men could only masturbate for so long before going a little crazy.

So then, why wasn’t he checking her out and trying to think of clever ways to get into her pants?

It didn’t matter. This was all a mistake. Girls and spiders didn’t mix – especially poisonous spiders that escaped their cages on a regular basis. No wonder his assistants quit on him. Just thinking about bugs made
her skin crawl. She hugged her arms to her waist and slowly backed up. Glancing at the ceiling, she made sure nothing was going to land on her head.

‘Listen, I don’t think I’m the right person for this job. I mean, it’s my first day and I already killed your, ah, test milker bug.’ Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the money he’d given her and put it on the table. ‘Here’s your cash back. Sorry about the spider. Have a nice life.’

Kat turned to go, reaching for her camera bag as she moved past it.

‘Wait,’ Vincent said. She heard him moving behind her but didn’t stop as she opened the door. Every urge she had screamed to get out of the spider infested room. ‘You can’t leave. I need you.’

Kat stopped walking and slowly turned to him. If any other man had said those words in such a desperate, pleading voice, she would’ve thought it romantic. This man needed her to play spider hunter with him.

Ick. No thank you.

‘I can’t work with spiders,’ Kat said emphatically. ‘Sorry.’

‘But, why?’

‘Because I’m a girl.’ Kat shook her head. She never in her life thought she’d be saying those words aloud. ‘Girls don’t like bugs. We scream like maniacs and stomp on them.’

‘What’s that?’ he asked, glancing down to her camera bag.

Kat followed his eyes. Was this man always this distracted? She suppressed a long sigh. ‘My camera. I’m a photographer.’

‘Perfect. I can use a photographer. You can’t leave. I can’t put in for another assistant and I can’t handle the workload on my own. You did say you needed a job.’

‘First you need an assistant and now you need a photographer?’ Kat arched a brow. If he asked her, she’d tell him he needed to get some sort of a life – perhaps
one that included padded walls and a neurosurgeon. No wonder his parents resorted to playing matchmaker. He’d probably forget he was asking a woman out before the sentence was even finished.

‘No, I need an assistant who can help me categorise specimens while I work. Photographs would be perfect and would make the museum directors very happy, which in turn would get them to leave me be.’ Vincent watched her hopefully. ‘I’ll even move the live specimens to a completely different room. You’ll work here in the collection room and I’ll be in the other lab. Please, I really do need the help. I’m swamped as it is.’

‘So, no live bugs?’

‘Insects,’ he said. ‘I prefer the word insects.’

‘So, no live insects?’ She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. Insects. Bugs. Same thing. All gross. All creepy-crawly.

‘No, I promise. At least give this a try. I’ll even give you photo credit on all the pictures. The museum might even want to use them in brochures or in a book or something. That has to look good on a resume, right?’

‘And I get permission to keep, sell or display copies of whatever I photograph?’ Kat asked, already planning a new idea for an art show in her head. She wondered if she should point out to him that he hadn’t even seen her work. He might not like it. Then again, to him one photograph was probably like any other. She decided to keep her mouth shut on that point.

‘Yes, I’ll get you a waiver from the museum or whatever it is you need to make it happen.’

‘Which museum?’

‘AMNH.’

Kat smiled. The American Museum of Natural History. ‘Can you get me permission to photograph inside the museum so I can sell the prints?’

‘Yes, I might be able to. Does this mean you’ll stay?’

‘And I get that six hundred a week you mentioned
earlier?’ Kat tilted her head to the side. She flashed him her cutesiest little smile – a look most men couldn’t resist. To her great surprise, the look actually worked. He smiled briefly as if at a loss for words and glanced away. Was that a blush on his cheeks? It was so hard to tell under all his facial hair.

‘Fine. Six a week. In cash.’

‘You got yourself an assistant, Dr Richmond,’ Kat said. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow. Nine too late?’

‘No, wait, tomorrow? But, you’re already here. There is so much to be done.’

‘And you have live bugs to move. If I see them out on the loose again I’ll squish first, ask questions later.’ Kat turned and made her way down the hall. Lifting her hand, she wiggled her fingers without turning around and said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Dr Richmond.’

‘Oh, fine, fine. Until tomorrow, then.’

‘Tomorrow,’ Kat repeated, not turning back around as she walked away.

‘Bugs? Oh, that is so cool, Kat!’ Ella’s voice came through the phone, full of the gritty tomboyish charm the youngest Matthews was known for. ‘You say he actually milks live spiders. I saw this special on television about . . .’

Kat wrinkled her nose at the telephone, as she wound the cord around her fingers. Ella would think milking bugs was a cool job. She knew it was outdated to have a corded, rotary dial phone, but her last roommate, Kiki, had been terrified of getting brain cancer from the electrical waves emitted from a cordless – or some such nonsense. The poor woman wouldn’t even use a microwave. After she moved out, Kat kept the phone because she was too lazy to go get a new one. She just called it vintage and left it at that.

Her sister kept talking, but she only half listened as Ella went off on a tirade. ‘. . . and with snakes, they grab their heads and stick the fangs through plastic and make them squirt the venom into a container . . .’

Kat lazily pushed back and forth in her office chair. As Ella continued to lay out the entire nature show she’d seen the week before, Kat idly adjusted cut pieces of photographs on her drafting table to create a collage. Deciding she liked the haphazard design, she held the phone with her shoulder and glued the pieces down on a small canvas.

‘. . . anyway, it’s so hot that you’re working for a scientist. I wish I could come down and see the spiders. You are so lucky! I would give my left arm to have a job like that. I hate working at the restaurant. Waiting tables is so not cool.’

‘You’re the only girl I know who thinks bugs are cool. Let me work there for a couple of weeks and see what he’s like. Maybe he’ll let you come hang out.’ Kat rolled her fingers rubbing off the excess glue from them. Strangely, her newest collage resembled a jagged heart with two cut up faces in it. It wasn’t intentional, but neat just the same. ‘Though, I’m warning you, he’s odd.’

‘Cool,’ Ella said. ‘Odd is definitely hot.’

Kat was inclined to agree, though with Dr Richmond she wasn’t so sure. Maybe it was because he held her dreams in his hands and he didn’t even know it. Or maybe it was because she’d had an instant, lustful reaction to him and he didn’t seem to even care she was a woman. Any other normal guy would’ve been easy. Vincent was different. He was odd. There was no other way to put it.

‘Kat, are you there?’

‘What? Oh, yeah, I’m here,’ she answered. ‘I just drifted. Sorry.’

‘Want to talk to mom?’ Ella asked.

‘No, I called for you. I’m going to go now. Hey, see if you can’t come and stay with me next weekend.’

‘Can’t. There’s this Academic Decathlon thing going on.’

‘Weekend after that? Mr Bug Man wants me to work on Saturdays and I’ll tell him you have to come with me. He’s so hard up for help I doubt he’ll care either way. That is if he even notices there’s another person in the building with us. I tell you, the guy is very strange.’

‘He sounds interesting to me.’

‘He would.’ Kat chuckled. ‘Say you’ll come, Ella. My apartment is too quiet. I pawned my television to buy some chemicals for my darkroom and there is no sound whatsoever. Well, unless you count the toilet.’

‘You pawned your TV again?’ Ella laughed. ‘So, I take it you haven’t found a new roommate yet? Need me to work on mom to get you some cash? I can tell her you
haven’t eaten in a week or something, but you’re too proud to call home. I guarantee she’ll be over there stocking your fridge and hiding twenties in your underwear drawer.’

‘No, not again,’ Kat said, chuckling. ‘I was supposed to interview someone the other day, but they never showed.’

‘That sucks.’

‘It happens.’

‘Let me check with mom, but I’m sure she’ll let me come stay with you,’ Ella said.

Kat grinned into the phone, excited to see her little sister. ‘Call me tomorrow?’

‘Yep.’

Kat hung up the phone, knowing Ella wouldn’t expect a goodbye. She glanced around her lonely studio apartment. One wall was filled with pictures she’d taken of her and her sisters over the years. The smiling faces stared at her and Kat stared back. She didn’t put them into frames, but instead glued them into a giant collage on the biggest piece of canvas she’d ever seen. The younger years started in the middle and spiralled out as they grew. It was a testament to their lives and she was still adding pictures around the edges.

The apartment was quiet. For what it was, the place was nice and only cost her 1600 a month. The building was a brownstone in a great location between Central Park West and Columbus, within short walking distance of the park.

Her kitchen and bathroom were small. She had a wood-burning fireplace in the living room, high ceilings and wood floors. There was only one bedroom, but she hung a thick curtain down the middle and called it two. The pipes were noisy and she had to jiggle the toilet handle or else the water would run – like it was doing right now.

Kat didn’t mind being alone, but she liked the feeling of someone in the other room better. Picking up the
phone, she dialled her older sister and got voice mail, ‘You have reached Detective Megan Matthews’ personal line. If this is about a case, please contact the department and they will page me immediately. Otherwise, leave a message. Thank you.’