How About No

The first time they speak—as pre-assigned lab partners, as strangers, as presumed equals—the conversation ends in an overturned Erlenmeyer flask and a creatively weaponized Bunsen burner; his butter-soft, Italian-leather satchel is covered in scorch marks, and the collar of her lavender cashmere cardigan has been eaten through by a particularly virulent form of benzilic acid.

It is an inauspicious beginning to their working relationship.