Chapter 6 "Speculation" (the next day)

(Song suggestion (I'm not in love" by 10cc)

Dr. Egon Spengler

When our secretary fainted last night, it alarmed me quite a bit. I had thought Janine ( as I granted myself to think of her during this time) as fetching since I had met her, but I would never admit this to my co-workers.

My heartbeat rose swiftly as I crouched over Ms. Melnitz after admonishing Peter for spinning her too forcibly, causing her to pass out. She appeared to me angelic-like while lying on the floor, and I felt a sharp pain in my heart that made me concerned for her welfare.

While my friend revived Ms. Melnitz that night, I noticed that her shiny auburn hair complimented her round-shaped face. Janine also had high cheekbones that made her youth more noticeable, and her luminous eyes were an enchanting shade of blue.

Based on her features, I estimated that Ms. Melnitz's age was late twenties, and she was six years younger than me. Janine maintained a slim figure and had a small bone structure with well-rounded hips that only accentuated her beauty. She always dressed professionally in a traditional way- wearing solid dark colors such as black, navy, and dark gray skirts that were short enough to display her very shapely legs tastefully. Often, I found myself lazily admiring her long, sexy legs.

Ms. Melnitz wore a blue jean skirt with a red short sleeve shirt along with a silver locket around her neck. I recently realized that I was desirous of her physically, and she, unknowingly, tempted me with her plump, sensual lips when she spoke to me. I could admit now that Janine aroused my body in ways I didn't want to acknowledge within the first couple months of her employment.

My thoughts regarding our Brooklynite secretary had also undergone a significant metamorphosis. At first, I thought she acted trivially because of her constant giggling and smiling paired with her attempts to flirt with me. Now, I perceived those actions as endearing and part of her charm.

Ms. Melnitz also carried this "x" factor that made me feel captivated by her. When I spoke to Janine, I always thought that I was the most important person because of the way she intently listened. Her smile was warm like the sunshine, and often I felt like I had been outside working on a pleasant day.

Janine had abandoned all attempts at nonwork conversations with me after she overheard my insensitive comments that I made in March. Plus, it was now scarce when she engaged me in a lengthy discussion. I genuinely felt disheartened when Janine ceased flirting with me even though I initially thought I would be pleased, but I even missed her gentle touches on my arm occasionally.

Her soft Brooklyn voice interrupted my happy reverie by whispering, "I think I'm ready to go back to my desk, Dr. Spengler."

Feeling dazed, I stood up and held my right hand out for her to grasp. Janine took my outstretched hand with her small one, gratefully, with a pretty half-grin. When our hands touched, I felt an electric shock and gave her a surprised look. Ms. Melnitz seemed to feel the same jolt when I did and glanced in my face, perplexed.

Our eyes met for a moment as I pulled her up from the floor, and she lost her balance, falling onto my chest. This disoriented her as she had trouble balancing herself, so I grabbed her waist with both of my hands firmly to steady her.

Janine's sweet perfume delighted my nose, and my body started to tingle when she accidentally lost her balance.

Afterward, I scolded Janine very lightly for not taking care of herself after she admitted to skipping lunch. I requested that she take better care of herself because we needed her to be well. Our secretary thanked me for helping her, and I heard Venkman walking nearby. Grinning, I found myself gazing at her beauty as we had that short conversation.

My efforts to assist her were in the hopes that Ms. Melnitz would forgive my rude comments about her, and I then realized that I wanted her to think positively of me. With Peter approaching her desk, I felt that I had given her too much attention, and I fled to my office like a scared child who was about to be reprimanded. Once there, I noted my increased pulse rate and rate of breathing. My heart also boomed noisily in my chest after my exchange with Janine. The dual combination of her closeness to me and the smell of her perfume stirred up emotions of longing for her.

"The first law, an object will not change its motion unless a force acts on it. In the second law, the force on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. In the third law, when two objects interact, they apply forces to each other of equal magnitude and opposite direction," I repeated to myself, feeling a bit fearful, and noticed that my hands were sweating, too.

Without hesitation, I grabbed an earlier version of a PKE meter that hadn't quite worked and left my office with it in my hand. Peter waited for by Ms. Melnitz's desk, but purposely kept my gaze ahead of me to avoid her.

During dinner, I read Tobin's Spirit Guide to avoid being too captivated by Janine. She still managed to capture my attention a few times with her plucky responses to Peter's teasing, which I quietly enjoyed. I even found myself pondering the type of man she dated after she left for Coney Island.

"Her dates, the ones that have picked her up at the firehouse, didn't seem very impressive," I thought inwardly.

"Ouch," I winced, peering up from the broken PKE meter to discover who was the perpetrator.

"Egon, are you listening to me?" Peter haughtily demanded, and I knew it was he who pinched me.

Then the balding Ghostbuster searched into my blank face knowing he had caught me thinking about Janine in the guise of working on the PKE. Fortunately, she was off today.

"Uhm, no…sorry, I was trying to solve the problem with this meter," I lied poorly. Both the unworking meter and the functioning one both sat on the table in front of me. The former was in my hands before I recalled my observations of Janine, but I didn't realize I hadn't put it down. Picking it up again, I switched the defective meter on, forgetting that it was broken.

Peter gave me a skeptical look as he lowered himself down on the seat next to me, drinking another beer.

"Or was your mind pondering how attractive a certain redhead beauty in a low cut shirt and a short denim skirt appeared before she left for a date," he jovially corrected, with a visible smirk on his lips.

"My interest in Ms. Melnitz is entirely professional, " I stated, a matter of factly, keeping my focus on the meter.

"Wait, wait, Spengs, you seemed concerned when she fainted," Peter claimed, a minute later, instigating an argument.

"I believe we were both preoccupied with her health earlier," I countered.

"Didn't I hear you call her Janine?" Peter suspiciously asked.

Eventually, I gave up posing to fix the meter and put it back down. My yellow notepad sat next to me, and I picked up the pencil to write something down.

" I believe that you and Raymond call her by her given name. Why is it an issue if I do?" I responded, raising my eyebrow and emphasizing the word "I" in my deep voice.

"Spengler, you seem defensive about your interactions with Janine all the sudden," Ray chimed in, cheerfully, from the sofa, glancing up from a book that he was reading. I gave him the cold shoulder about his comment.

"Let me get this straight. If Janine walked through those doors right now, walked up the stairs, and planted the most sensual kiss on you, you would say, 'Sorry, my interest in you is only professional,'" Peter hypothesized.

"A very likely scenario," I snapped back, in an exceedingly arid tone and reached for the nearby yellow notepad to write an idea.

"Is that what you would do? Even if Janine offered to screw your brains out. You wouldn't kiss her back and carry her off somewhere so she could 'do you,'" Peter dubiously posed, his blue eyes twinkling with a prankish sparkle in them.

Without looking at our company's resident psychologist, I scribbled out a part of a new idea down on the paper then replied, without a change in my voice, "No."

The first ludicrous scenario was still playing out in my head before he mentioned the more insane second one. My mind wandered to kissing the irresistible fair-skinned woman and caressing her soft skin. That storyline invigorated my body enormously, bringing a rush of blood down below to the most sensitive area in my groin. As I felt a surge of desire roam my body, I contemplated how her luscious lips would feel pressed against mine as they seemed to coax me into reflecting on the idea recently.

"Einstein's Energy-Mass Equivalence. A consequence of Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity and the most famous equation in physics. This equation states that mass (m) and energy (E) is equivalent," I mumbled in my head, attempting to shut down the other thoughts.

"You are a liar," my closest friend argued, scrutinizing my face. Repeating the theories was not helping me feel less exhilarated by our enchanting secretary.

"Excuse me?"

"It's all over your face, Spengler," Ray countered after watching the facade play out from the sofa.

"How is it 'all over my face as you claim'," I inquired belligerently.

"Was my attraction to her that crystal clear?" I thought to myself. Nervously then, I began to sketch out the invention as I envisioned it in my head.

"The way you look at her when Janine isn't paying attention, and your body language when you are talking to her," Ray elucidated, laughing then sipping his beer.

"Oh, and that time that you and our dear secretary had a conversation right here at the kitchen table about her career goals like we weren't there," Peter added.

"When was that," I suspiciously asked, gazing at my friend for a second.

"After she proved to me that she knew the categories of the Nobel prize, remember? You were just as shocked that she knew that information as I was," Venkman replied warm-heartedly.

"Yes," I concurred, recalling being impressed that Janine chose Alfred Nobel to write a paper for her chemistry class. For a short time, there was silence, and I focused on my task at hand.

However, my friends weren't done speculating on my interest in Janine as I attempted to retrain my mind.

"Ray, did I tell you that Iggy is catching up on his reading on computer programs such as BASIC," Peter joked, grinning. He stood up from where he sitting and retrieved some of the library books that I had borrowed on computer programming that sat on an end table.

I felt my cheeks change to a pinkish hue, and I stood from my seat to go into the kitchen to conceal it.

"Why? I'm sure Janine could put a program on our two computers if we needed her to, even if they are older," Ray wondered, baffled when Peter showed him the titles of the books then put them down on the end table.

"No, Stantz, you are missing it. Our genius lost his challenge to Brooklyn, remember? Now he is either going to challenge her to a quiz bowl tournament, or he is going to employ this information to flirt with her," Peter explained, noticing that I hid my face by going to the fridge to retrieve a drink, "right, Spengs?"

"I assure you are wrong on both accounts, Peter," I replied coldly, trying to convince myself inwardly that it wasn't a lie. I retrieved a Coca Cola can.

"Egon," Ray seriously urged, "come on, you can admit it to us. We are your friends."

" Did you even notice that Janine stopped flirting with you after you called her behavior 'silly,'" Peter questioned, grinning obnoxiously at me and taking a sip of his beer.

"No," I fibbed with indifference and wondered why my friend brought that up. As my face twisted into a frustrated look, unconsciously, I disregarded my friend's question, sitting back down at the table. Both Venkman and Stantz noticed the scowl on my face..

"I know I haven't known you as long as Peter, but Iggy, I have never seen you act the way you do with Janine," Ray argued.

"Did you even know that Janine observed you to see if you were jealous when I mentioned she had a date tonight?" Peter inquired, persisting in seeing if he could get my goad.

"No," I answered, disbelieving him with a shrug of my shoulders and then questioned, "why would she do that?"

"Egon,you are so dense," Ray exasperatedly exclaimed, " Janine has the hots for you, remember?"

"Iggy, that wasn't the only time tonight Brooklyn viewed you with interest," Peter added, lighting up a cigarette then grinned widely at me.

Pleased by the information, I could hide my facial expression behind a newspaper that I had started to read. I had thought Janine had gotten over her crush on me and I still doubted that she was interested in me in the first place.

"Why would she find a workaholic anti-social scientist attractive when she was so drop-dead gorgeous looking?" I thought.

"Janine could easily have any man that she wanted, I realized.

"Spengler, I have discussed you with several girls throughout the years, all co-ed's, mind you, and asked them about your attractiveness. They all said the same thing--Egon's very handsome but unapproachable because of his one-track mind on science," Peter revealed as I put the newspaper down on the table.

Agitated, I went into the kitchen in search of a sugary snack, finding twinkies in the cupboard.

"Jackpot," I thought but continued my search for something else on which to snack.

"I am not one of your social experiments, Venkman," I responded crossly, " what is the point of this kind of questioning?"

"Janine shows an interest in your work even though she's not a physicist," Peter interjected, happy to irritate me.

"She's too frightened to show any affection for you after your comments in the lab. You made it more difficult for yourself in the long run, genius."

"I assure you that my interest in Janine is professional only," I reminded them, pausing for a second to find something else to eat while I worked in the lab.

"Is that true," I wondered to myself and left the kitchen Remembering I wanted to test the slime on Venkman's jumpsuit, I asked him about it quietly.

When Peter handed it to me, he attempted to provoke me again by commenting, "Come on, Iggy, just admit you are attracted to Brooklyn and ask her out already. You need to give in to your base desires because they have been buried along with your needs for way too long. Let loose with someone you are interested in, Iggy. Take a chance on Janine, relax and enjoy yourself."

He wasn't going to let this go, so I frigidly responded without emotion in my voice as I walked to the lab,

"Since I'm only interested in her professionally, Ms. Melnitz will be waiting for a long time."

I slammed the door to the lab closed, effectively shutting out all conversations, thoughts, and feelings about her.

As one of my oldest friends, Venkman could easily see when I was bluffing, and tonight he called me upon it.

Everything that I knew about Janine fascinated me, from the fact that she talked to the potted plants in a nurturing way as she watered them downstairs in our offices to the fact that she was interested in computers and almost had earned a degree in the subject. I could easily see myself losing control with Janine both physically and emotionally, which horrified me. Until Janine, a woman had never awakened such emotions and desires in such a violent manner in me.

My life was divided into neat little compartments, and that is how I preferred it. Now I feared that by letting Janine into my inner circle that it would be destroyed. Right then, I consciously decided that I had to gain control of my feelings for her at once.

Unfortunately, when I went to bed that night, Peter's last statement about caving to my lusts, desires, and feelings for Janine rang in my head incessantly. My brain unmistakably pronounced that she was the woman with whom I desired to do those actions, to release myself from my self-imposed confines, both emotionally and physically. With that realization, I decided to withdraw from interacting with Janine. As much as possible and work on reprogramming my mind. My work and this business were too significant for me to be disturbed by Janine Melnitz.