I Broke My Heart Read Free Page A

again, I don’t want anything to take you back into that dark place again.”
    “You are afraid that I might have my heart br o ken again?” Was all I could say at that moment.
    “Addie, all I’m trying to say is that we could have prevented your relationship with Tyler if you had a l lowed me to run a background check on him. Tyler was wanted for murder and you didn’t know. Who knows, maybe this Cleve is also a criminal or maybe he’s even married and he’s just playing with you.”
    I sighed. “Max, I understand what you are saying, but if I allow you run a background check on him, it means that I don’t trust him.”
    “Trust has to be earned, Addie. Besides, it doesn’t mean you don’t trust him, it means you are just trying not to get hurt.”
    I nodded and shrugged. “Okay. Go ahead and run a background check on him.”
    We finished cooking the pasta and the sauce, and then we sat down to eat our dinner together. After dinner, we talked into the night. It was well past 12:00 am when I left Max’s place. We lived few blocks away from each other, so it took me less than three minutes to drive home.
     

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    I slightly opened the door to Cleve’s office and peeped in. He was clearing his desk and getting ready to leave for the day. “Cleve, do you have a minute, please?”
    “Sure. What is it?” He dropped his portfolio on the desk.
    “Come with me, please.”
    He followed my lead as we walked out of his o f fice. “Where are we going?” he asked.
    “To the courthouse, to get married,” I jested.
    “Perfect, but I think we could do better than ge t ting married wearing a laboratory suit,” he played along.
    I laughed.
    We entered the main laboratory and I took the Petri-plates out of the incubator. Holding one of the plates, I began, “These Petri-plates were inoculated with different strands of bacteria that we are aware have resistance to antibiotics. This plate in my hand was ino c ulated with Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA to be specific. After inoculation, we added a piece of the new antibiotic that we invented. Now, S. aureus is known to be very good at resisting antibiotics. But because there was no growth on this Petri-plate, I want to believe that S. a u reus could not resist our antibiotic. MRSA is totally su s ceptible to our newly invented antibiotic.”
    Before I could finish my explanation, he spread his arms and wrapped me up into an exuberant hug. “We did it. We did it. We did it,” he said.
    “Yes, we did it,” I said as he finally let go of me.
    He took another of the plates and took a good look. Satisfied, he stared back at me. “Now, before we can go public with this, we will have to replicate this experiment again. If we arrive at the same positive r e sult, then we can go public with it.”
    “Alright, I’ll start the procedure immediately.”
    He grabbed me by the arm. “You can start the experiment tomorrow. Go home, Addie. It’s late.”
    “Are you sure?”
    He nodded gently.
    I took off my gloves and threw them into the a u toclave trash. I grabbed my cell phone and began to dial.
    Cleve gave me a questioning look. I mouthed, ‘ calling a cab’ in response.
    “I can give you a ride home,” he said.
    I quickly hung up. “Really? Thanks.”
    “What is wrong with your car?” he asked as we stepped out of the Lab.
    “I had a flat tire this morning. I wanted to get some air, but I was running late for work, so I called a cab.”
    “Are you sure you didn’t burst your tire with those high-heeled shoes of yours?” he jested.
    I laughed. “How is that even possible?”
    “I thought I told you to quit trying to look beaut i ful in them heels ,” he teased.
    “I’m a woman, Cleeve. It’s in our DNA to want to look beautiful.”
    “Really? And why…?”
    I cut him off. “Remind me again, Cleeve Reeves. Why are we talking about my high-heeled shoes?”
    He gave a sarcastic look. “That’s because I’m a microbiologist.