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It had been a year. She was certainly over him.
She stared blankly at the blinking computer screen in front of her, unable to concentrate on anything as thoughts of her ex-boyfriend Brian flooded her mind.
Today would have been their 3rd anniversary. They would have planned something special, like spending the night at the beach and having a candlelit dinner by the shore. She should have been walking barefoot in the sand, happy and contented as she held hands with the man she loved.
Suddenly, she shook her head vigorously in frustration and annoyance, her shoulder-length brown hair flying in all directions.
Shut up, Jen. You’re way over him! He’s a thing of the past.
She felt stupid imagining such things. He was long gone, and in fact she had just gone a full month without checking his social media accounts or and looking at their old photos... or at least, digging them up. She’d actually buried those in her backyard.
But throughout the past week, she’d been dreading this day – the day which would have officially marked three years together. She knew the power of this day alone would be enough to drive her back to misery. She should have been more prepared. All she’d planned was to bury herself in her work, but she found she could not do that because her mind kept drifting.
“Earth to Jen Smith!” somebody called from behind her, making her whip around in surprise. It was her good friend Melissa, a lab assistant like her at the Barrington Research Center.
“Hey, Mel,” she said, forcing a smile. The sadness in her hazelnut eyes, though, gave her away.
Melissa gave her a disapproving look. “What were you thinking about just now?” she asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
Jen immediately raised her hands in apparent surrender. “Guilty as charged,” she muttered. Then sighing, she said, “Sorry I couldn’t help it.”
Melissa’s expression turned to one of concern and sympathy. “I know it’s hard not to think about him, but you’ve got to keep yourself distracted with other things. That jerk doesn’t deserve any more of your attention or thoughts! He treated you like garbage, Jen. Or do you want me to remind you again of the sordid details?”
“Mel!” Jen protested. “Of course not.” Then sitting up straight and squaring her shoulders, she smiled again and smoothed her shiny brown hair, showing off her small beautiful face. “Okay, let’s go. What did you have in mind?”
“Well...” Mel started. “For one, we can go check out that dragon shifter skeleton fragment that they recently uncovered up in Alaska...”
Jen stood up at once, her face filled with shock and awe. “Oh my gosh! They didn’t!”
“They did,” her friend confirmed. “The DNA matches the previous one they found in the same area. But this recent bone actually makes up part of the wings!”
“Wow,” Jen breathed. “So they’ve brought it in here?”
“Yes,” Mel answered, lowering her voice. “Bernard just called me to let me know.”
Jen laughed. “Pays to date the head archaeologist huh?”
Mel laughed too, but her bright blue eyes were twinkling. She flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder and strutted out the door of the office. “Come on, Jen!”
Jen followed her out into the pristine white hallway. As they walked together, they discussed the recent discoveries over the last year involving dragon shifters. The existence of these half-human half-dragon creatures had been established and proven some years ago. But they were believed to have become extinct around 12000 years ago. However, the newest unearthed remains were unbelievably dated in the 1800s!
“This is really exciting,” Mel said, talking animatedly. “I mean, what’s going to be next? Are we going to find bones that are just ten years old?”
Jen’s eyes widened. “Would that mean that there are still some dragons lurking in our midst?”
Mel grinned. “Yeah, that would be awesome.”
“Or scary...” Jen whispered, picturing a monstrous dragon hiding in an alley and suddenly attacking people. She shuddered.
She was so lost in her thoughts that when they rounded the corner, she almost crashed into someone else. Looking up, she found herself staring into the intense gray eyes of one of the lab managers. She immediately blushed. “Oh, I’m sorry!”
The slightly older man standing in front of her looked harsh for a moment. But upon seeing her face, his features relaxed. “Hello, Jen,” he greeted, the sides of his eyes crinkling a bit. He ran a hand through his dark hair, which fell to just below his ears. He didn’t even seem to notice Melissa.
“Uh, hello, Jack,” Jen said hesitantly.
“How are you?” he asked. “Where are you headed?”
Melissa was quick to answer. “Just meeting a friend. We’re on break.”
Jen didn’t say anything. She wasn’t really used to lying, especially to a manager! He hadn’t always been her manager. They’d started in the company about the same time, but over the years, he’d kept moving up the ladder and was now a highly respected authority.
“Have a good day,” Jack simply said with a smile. His eyes lingered a bit more on Jen before moving off.
“That was close,” Jen said, breathing a sigh of relief. They weren’t really prohibited from going to the storage area but they were supposed to fill in a form and ask for permission, from one of the superiors.
“Not a big deal,” Mel said with a wave of her hand. Then in a more eager tone, she said, “You know what’s a big deal, though?”
“What?”
“The fact that Jack Roberts is obviously into you!” Mel gushed. “He’s really cute, although too serious for me. But for you... Well, someone that responsible and manly and a little more mature is probably what you need.”
“You’re imagining things, Mel,” Jen pointed out. “He’s not into me. No way.”
“No, listen. You ought to talk to him more instead of avoiding him so much. You’ve been too caught up thinking about Brian even after that stupid jerk was long gone, and that’s why you’ve been missing out on the real goodies!”
Jen actually laughed. “Goodies?”
“Yeah,” Mel said. “Just start flirting again, Jen. Have some fun! Go out and enjoy life!”
Jen was silent for a while. Mel actually had a point. It might be a good way to heal her broken heart.
Finally, they reached the storage area at the basement, where Bernard ushered them in. He looked handsome in a pair of slacks and his usual knitted vest over crisp white long sleeves. He dressed a little formally in the office, but his goofy, adventurous nature was what had attracted Mel to him.
They followed him into a cooler, darker, and bigger steel room that had a ceiling that was probably about two stories high.
Jen gazed at the oddly shaped bone structure in the center of the room. It was about the size of a small car. She circled it slowly, seemingly mesmerized as her imagination ran wild with images of colossal modern-day monsters.
“We’re guessing that’s about one-fourth of one wing,” Bernard told them as he and Melissa joined Jen near the bone. “I still have to run some tests and try to fit it with the older dragon shifter DNA we have on record.”
“It’s quite bigger than most, I think,” Jen murmured.
“Yes, it is,” Bernard agreed. “It’s a rare breed, probably.”
“What if this indicates that they’ve been evolving over the years and have not really gone extinct as we originally thought?” Jen wondered.
Bernard thought hard. “That’s a possibility,” he said, nodding.
“Jen’s really fascinated with dragons, you know,” Melissa told him. “She has been doing a lot of research about it.”
“Planning to return to graduate studies, Jen?” Bernard inquired. “I think you’d be able to nail it without any problem.”
“Yeah, Jen,” Melissa urged, linking her arm with Bernard. “Now that your jerk of a boyfriend... I mean, ex-boyfriend... is out of the picture, there should be no major distraction anymore. You can go back to school and land that promotion you’ve been vying for.”
Jen nodded pensively. They were right. It was about time she refocused. Her depression from that break-up had sent her spiraling downward. She had to get up now, not later, not sooner. It’s time to work on my own dreams, she told herself silently with conviction. Then for the first time that day, she smiled genuinely, hope filling her heart.