City Vibes - Complete Series (BWWM Interracial Billionaire Romance) Read Free Page A

department doesn’t have the funds necessary to back a project of this magnitude.”
    Reese dropped her eyes until they were level with Alexis. She glowered at her, taking in her wrinkled skin covered in pancake powder, her fading red lipstick, her stringy blond hair, and the determined set in her jaw. “But, that doesn’t make any sense. You just started a project on cell signaling.”
    Alexis pursed her lips. “Comparing yourself to your peers is not going change my mind.”
     
    Reese’s eyebrows furrowed and she uncrossed her legs. Her feet dropped to the floor like two cedar logs. She rested her elbows on her knees. “I’m not comparing myself-”
    “Then you understand that we just don’t have the money.”
    “Yes you do.” Reese pressed.
    “Are you questioning my authority?” Alexis demanded.
    Reese rolled her eyes. She hated it when Caucasians in positions of authority pulled the rank argument. Being a strong curvy African American woman, it just didn't sit right with her. She hated that they would sink so low as to condescend in a situation such as this, and more than that, she hated that pulling rank meant not only that they were aware that they were wrong, but that their decisions were not going to be swayed with reasoning. “No. I’m questioning your judgment.” She muttered.
    Alexis sat back and slammed Reese’s research binder shut. “Well, I am not going to sit here any longer and listen to this.”
    Reese’s jaw dropped. “But!”
    “Come back in six months with a different attitude and a new persuasive strategy.” Alexis stood up, buttoning her suit jacket.
    Reese ejected from her chair and stood indignantly with each arm tensed from her shoulders right down to her clenched fists. “But I don't have six months!”
    Alexis shrugged. “If the project was so urgent, you should have thought twice about your arrogant approach.”
    Reese bit her lip in the continued attempt to keep her tears at bay, then replied with, “This isn’t about me!”
    The old woman raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
    “You know this is a good thesis. It’s a hell of a lot better than the one’s I’ve seen. Alexis, this could change medicine as we know it.” In the back of her mind she wondered if Alexis was holding her back because she was black, but she stopped herself, after all this was her mentor.
    Alexis’s chest rose as she sucked in a deep breath, then released it, slowly and painfully. “You haven’t thought this through.”
    “Yes, I have!”
    Alexis shook her head. “You want four hundred subjects. Do you realize how much that could cost, and for an experiment that isn’t even guaranteed to be conclusive?”
    “Of course it isn’t guaranteed. If we knew what was going to happen, we wouldn’t need to do it in the first place.”
    “And what then? After you’ve systematically murdered four hundred mice, cultured trillions of bacteria… then what? You still don’t know if the organs will be viable. You still don’t know if they will even be functional. You’d need four hundred more subjects, and not to mention multiple trials and repetitions of this experiment before you can even move on to human subjects, which is a whole different financial burden.”
    “That’s complete nonsense!” Reese exploded. “Bacteria go for fractions of cents and their easy to grow. And I can breed more mice. I can breed as many as I want. If people thought like you did, the human genome never would have been sequenced.”
    Alexis narrowed her eyes and shoved Reese’s binder at her. “Your research. isn’t. good. enough.”
    Reese stared at Alexis through her watery eyes. Her mouth opened and closed with fractions of phrases, because she didn’t want to give up just yet. Reese believed that somehow, she could convince Alexis, if only she said the right thing. Confidence had not worked, facts had not worked. She had researched and read up on this for almost a year now, and this idea was not one that had come