Falling in Love With A One-Night Stand

528 Are You Afraid?

At noon, Anna went back to her office for a break after finishing her shift. Soon, Patrick appeared at the door, asking, "Mrs. Wright, may I come in?"

Anna glanced at him and replied, "You've already entered my office before I can answer you. What happened?"

"I finished the poster you asked me to work on this morning. I printed the first draft, as well as some flyers. I'll make some changes if you find anything wrong with it," Patrick raised the stack of papers in his hand and said.

"Take a seat," Anna said, pointing to the seat beside her. Patrick, you can be rude sometimes, but I got to admit that you're a hardworking guy as you never failed to finish the tasks lassigned you. Anna thought to herself.

Taking a look at the posters, Anna said, "Great! You can later post them on the bulletin board. Send the flyers to your coworkers and collect the list as soon as possible."

"This is just a first draft. Don't you want to make some changes to that?" Confused, Patrick asked.

"That's not necessary. Besides, you did an excellent job. Those who want to go will sign up, while those who don't will not, regardless of how good your flyers are. Tomorrow afternoon, the dean will tell everyone about this at the pep rally."

Standing there silently, Patrick opened his mouth a few times but

eventually shut it. As sharp as Anna was, she knew what Patrick was 527 Are You Afraid? - thinking, Then she dropped the posters in her hand, saying, "You can go there with Nancy if you want. I'll speak with her about it later."

"That... That's not what I meant," Patrick said after a brief pause, "I came here to apologize to you, Mrs. Wright. I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have said those words to you in the morning. Dr. Moore told me you hadn't taken a vacation in a long time and you have been so preoccupied that you

didn't even have much time to spend with your family. Again, I sincerely apologize for what I said to you. I shouldn't have judged you like that."

"It's okay," Anna nodded, "I didn't take it personally."

"How about take you out to lunch, Mrs. Wright? There's a new Spanish restaurant nearby, and my friends say the food there is excellent.** "No, thank you. I've got plans for noon."

"Are you still upset with me?" Patrick didn't leave, as if he needed Anna to forgive him badly.

After a brief pause, Anna said, "Okay. I'll take you somewhere later"

"Sure!"

"Don't you even want to ask where I'm taking you before answering me? Aren't you worried I'll kidnap you?"

"You'd never do something like that! Besides, I totally trust you."

"allright, pack your belongings and come with me," Anna said with a smile.

Half an hour later, Anna stopped in a building in a medical school

"What are we doing here?" Patrick asked. He had many doubts in his head; nonetheless, he got out of the car and helped Anna with her stuff, a

"Thank you, but I can take these myself. I need to get some stuff from

527 Are You Afraid?

the lab and give it to the volunteers," Anna said, pointing to the laboratory building in front of her, "Actually, 've been preparing for the volunteer thing for years. And recently, 've been visiting the lab for six months to conduct experiments to study Fleosil's infectious disease virus. Although I decided not to go there, I still want to do something to help you guys. And I want to share with you the information I gathered with my other colleagues. In any case, I want to be a part of the action."

Astonished by what he heard, Patrick gasped and said, "Why didn't you tell me earlier, Mrs. Wright? If you had told me earlier, none of the misunderstandings would've happened. I..."

"Just let bygones be bygones, okay? There's no point talking about it now. Go get my stuff and follow me," A bit impatient, Anna interrupted Patrick and said. "Alright! I'm on itt"

As she entered the lab, Anna waved to a gray-haired man, greeting, "Hi, Dr. Foster!"

"Anna! Hello!" Dr. Foster greeted back as he placed the paper in his, hand. Following that, several other students in the lab greeted Anna.

"This is Patrick Dawson, my intern. This is Dr. Foster, Patrick." Anna then introduced them to each other.

"Pleasure to meet you, Dr. Foster. I took your class last semester," Patrick said in excitement.

Dr. Foster said coldly after surveying Patrick, "You were Dr. Burton's student, weren't you? I certainly remember you."

Anna immediately knew Dr. Foster meant wasn't satisfied with the young man he was looking at, and she looked at Patrick thoughtfully. She 527 Are You Afraid? s thought to herself, Patrick must be a nuisance at school as well. Someone as lenient as Dr. Foster could not have treated him any other way. No wonder the dean's wife tried to get Nancy drunk so that she would promise to look out for Patrick. "Lcame here to see the experiment's results, Dr. Foster," Having collected her own thought, Anna said.

"The results haven't come out yet because the experiment is only halfway through. Are you preparing to leave for Fleosil?" Pushing his glasses upward, Dr. Foster asked Anna.

"The outbreak is serious there, and it has not been widely publicized. My colleagues who went there gave us firsthand feedback, so the dean planned a pep rally for us. I think the second medical team will depart this weekend."

"Fine. You can go directly to the lab."

"Okay."

Before entering the lab, Anna said to Patrick as she pointed to the men's locker room, "Change your clothes and disinfect yourself before entering the lab."

Patrick smiled wryly and said,"! know the procedure, Mrs. Wright. Thanks for the reminder, though."

Awhile later, they began to check the virus. The virus in the petri dish was spreading much faster than Anna had predicted. However, its mutation worried her more than the virus's spread.

"Mrs. Wright, in my opinion, in the current situation, the most important thing Fleosil should do is isolate the patients," Patrick said seriously.

"It would be difficult to put it into action. Most people there live in slums, and some still work in factories. Every day, they must travel back 527 Are You Afraid? and forth between the outbreak origin and the factory."

"But we can't even keep up with their infection rate!" A little frustrated, Patrick added.

"Don't worry about it," Anna said as she recorded the most recent data and handed the book to Patrick, "The document of the experiments here. I need experimenters now that the first batch of medicine is, ready."

"You mean..." Patrick hesitated.

"We don't have much time left, so we have no other options. I need you to deliver these medications to the patients."

"Should we report this to the government?"

Anna said, shaking her head, "It will take a long time to file for approval, and don't forget about the clinical data analysis results. In that case, the drug may be rendered ineffective. What's the problem? Are you scared?"

Finally, Patrick realized why Anna had brought him to the lab.