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"Wait..." Realization dawned on him. Jack remembered that a while back, a guy had been admitted with a mild concussion who had said something about getting a "violent make out with a cute redhead," but he never would have connected it to Abbi of all people. "A little too much espionage just to get in, don't you think?" he said with a laugh. "You could have just asked me to take you or something." But that method was...more interesting, definitely.

Still keeping a neutral air about him, Jack reached out and took the box. "Talk about what exactly?"

He tucked the box under his arm carefully, brows raised. "What about?" he asked. "I have a girlfriend, AK, one I like so far. I can't control how Craft feels about it, but that's how it is."

He continued to survey Abbi with high brows. Had Chel put her up to this? No, that didn't seem her style. So Abbi was just being her usual nosy self then.

"I'm very aware of how she feels," he said slowly. "We've discussed it." So to speak. "And we're still friends, even if she wants something else. But you do understand it's ludicrous to suggest I stop dating someone just to make her feel better, right? I'm not trying to rub it in her face or anything, I know what it feels like."

He was frowning now, hedging around Abbi's observation. "I'm not sabotaging anything. I'm just annoyed my own damn friends can't seem to be happy about the fact that I'm with someone with similar interests instead of being, to paraphrase all of your sentiments, a lonely hermit."

"I did say I liked her not five seconds ago," Jack argued. He pinched the crooked bridge of his nose, sighed, fixed his glasses, and gave Abbi a look. "Are you really going to nitpick this? I don't need someone else to feel better, I never have. I'm dating Hanna to try something new with a co-worker I have some respect for," he said, and then before he could stop himself, "So maybe you should lay off and stop projecting your own beliefs on me."

He scoffed and was pleased to have her back off. "Uh huh. Keep telling yourself that." But he did find himself curious what it was, so without further ado he slipped the box out from under his arm, undid the ribbon, and opened it.

He had almost expected a ring, the package being so small. But it was just a thin gold chain with a...Jack held up the charm closer to examine it...a coffee cup with an atom model inside the shape. "S'cute," he said as he palmed it. "But not something to make a huge deal out of, much less make someone else deliver it."

Hadn't he and Chel made things level last time they talked? Or had she just been lying to make things easier? Jack didn't like having to deal with a nosy third party over a simple gift, though, and it showed.

"A molecule of caffeine," he corrected her patiently in spite of her obvious anger, dangling the necklace in front of Abbi. "In the center, nitrogen. The outer ones here are clusters of carbon surrounded by three elements of hydrogen. The lone branches are oxygen." Unsurprisingly, he had memorized this particular model easily in school.

At her comment, Jack scoffed and continued to make a face. "I don't understand why she couldn't just drop it off herself," he said. "Back then when we didn't know if she would get sentenced or not, sure, but she didn't. She's still around." It was frustrating that Abbi was now trying to involve herself in what he had thought was just a personal matter between them. "It's confusing is what it is: she won't see me in person, but she'll still give me presents? I thought we were as fine as we could be considering her situation, but I guess she'd rather toss sassy errand girls my way."

"How am I being the bad guy here?" Jack asked, growing indignant in return. "I didn't ******** cut her out of my life or anything. What's your problem, Abbi? This isn't even your god damn business."