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“Actually, I have a date.”
I almost drive into the car in front of me.
“I’m keeping this super-hot chick company while she drives home for the weekend.”
Seriously, I’m going to kill him.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack.”
He chuckles through my car’s speakers. “Sorry about that. Hold on a sec.”
I don’t drive enough these days to be totally comfortable with the amount of zigzagging going on around me. As I enter the tunnel, I can’t be sure if I’m still on hold or if I lost Hayden.
“Still there?” he asks.
“Yep.”
I glance at my navigation and follow signs for I-95 South.
“You said you wanted to talk about something?”
Yes and no. Truthfully, I’ve been dreading this all day.
“So . . . I know we said no work talk, but . . .” My insides quiver, thinking of it.
“My boss called me into her office this morning, just before my mom called.”
“You sure you want to tell me about this?”
No, actually, I’m not. I know I’m crossing another line, but knowing what I know about Hayden’s agreement with his father, I can’t keep quiet about this.
“Yes. I mean, maybe. I don’t know. But we have to talk about it anyway.”
The phone goes silent.
“She flagged a potential problem in the tox report.”
This would be so much better in person.
“It’s actually not an unusual problem, but . . .”
“But?”
“Without getting too technical, there’s both good news and bad news.”
“It sounds mostly like bad news.” Understandably, Hayden’s tone has changed.
I take a deep breath. “We can talk about it more next week. She wants to convene the team to discuss a Phase IV study.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, there’s a possibility approval, if granted, could be contingent on an additional study based on the toxicology results. She wants to talk about the study design and inclusion criteria and possible follow-up length and outcome measures.”
“In English?”
“Depending on the scope of the study, there could be a delay.” I rush to add, “Or not.”
I’m not making any sense.
