Chapter 25
NOVA play: Someone To You by BANNERS
‘The Future Lives in Your Mind.’
I reverently ran my fingers over the sharp Helvetica font on my clean white employee orientation pamphlet.
I couldn’t believe I was here.
Nearly tripping on one of my shoelaces, I stumbled onto the Neurovance Tech campus for the first time.
I was still in shock over the fact that I’d somehow scored a job at the global leading biotech company for memory therapy. Fresh out of my master’s program… It was unheard of…
Me.
Milo Murphy.
Neurovance Tech’s newest MRT.
Employees whizzed by on Neurovance-branded hoverboards and scooters, and I found myself clumsily stumbling out of the way to avoid getting clipped by a couple of women zooming off to what I could only assume was a meeting of some kind.
I needed a map before I could even begin to get my bearings, which, conveniently, I had. On page four of my employee manual was a detailed illustration of the campus’ layout.
There was a large, black location icon indicating where orientation began, with instructions on how to input the coordinates into my Neurovance app. The link to the app had been emailed along with my contract, and I had diligently downloaded it onto my phone a week before my start date.
Pushing my round frameless glasses up my nose, I fumbled with my phone, doing my best to type in the directions without losing my grip on my thick orientation packet.
Stuffing the packet between my teeth and holding my phone up to squint against the sun, I was nearly done typing in the coordinates when another scooter whipped by, catching the strap of my messenger bag and sending me sprawling out across the pristine, black pathway that cut through the manicured green space.
“Arrrghhh!” I cried out, and my pamphlet dropped, spilling my papers all over the pathway. I groaned as the documents exploded out of the folder, scattering around me in a big mess that basically signaled me as the biggest klutz to ever grace this gorgeous campus.
Somehow, I lost both my glasses and my phone in the fall, and my vision went blurry as my chin smacked into the asphalt.
Dangit.
I sighed, irritated with myself for already living up to the name of Murphquake in my first five seconds on campus.
So much for leaving that version of myself behind.
No matter how many times things like this happened, it never ceased to feel humiliating, and my cheeks burned as I got up on all fours, patting the space around me in search of my glasses.
“Way to go, Murph…” I grumbled to myself, blindly crawling through the loose papers in search of my specs.
A shadow appeared, and I blinked up at the dark figure that was now looming over me.
“Hey,” said the shadow. “Looking for these?”
The shadow handed me what I assumed—hoped—were my glasses, and I blinked up at him.
My clumsy fingers fumbled for my glasses, and I let out a shaky laugh as I pushed them back on my nose, relieved as the world came back into sharp focus.
“Thanks…” I mumbled as my gaze adjusted, and I was able to take in the face of my savior.
Jiminy Christmas!
The man looking down at me was way too hot to be talking to me.
Which usually meant I was about to be thoroughly reminded of my permanent status at the bottom of the social food chain.
Terror rolled through me at the sight of him. He was just the type of guy who would love to make my life a living hell.
He had a messy explosion of chestnut hair that stood out in all directions in an effortless ‘I’m too cool to care’ kind of way that would take most people hours to achieve if they tried.
I followed the sharp cut of his clean-shaven jaw down to the lean cords of his throat that disappeared into his white collar.
His skinny black tie was in a haphazard knot far too low down his chest, and his black suit jacket looked like it could use a good iron.
Honestly, his slim-fit black suit pants weren’t in much better condition, and instead of dress shoes, he was wearing black and white high tops.
Anyone else would have just looked like they got dressed in the dark. He somehow made it look like some weird, quirky academic spread you would see in Vogue.
I squinted up at him, and he gave me an amused smile before bending down to gather up some of my lost papers. As he reached past me, I caught a whiff of his woodsy cologne.
He smelled like a complex mix of birch and oak. The scent made my mouth go instantly dry.
He was so pretty and cool… and he looked just like the type of person that would take the name Murphquake and freaking run with it.
Please don’t work here, please don’t work here, please don’t work here.
“Are you new here?” he asked.
FRICK!
My face was burning.
“You don’t have to help me…” I said, scrambling to gather up my orientation sheets, doing my best to snatch them out of his hands before he could get to them.
He frowned, cocking his head to the side.
“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, his voice rolling over me and causing me to shiver.
Dammit.
I was attracted to him.
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.
Painful memories of the last time I developed a crush on someone this far out of my league smacked me in the hippocampus, and I kept my gaze down so he wouldn’t see it in my face and ridicule me further.
“That asshole who clipped you should have at least stopped. You went down pretty hard.”
“You saw me go down?” I groaned before I could stop myself.
I still wasn’t looking at him, so it took me a moment to realize he was holding a big stack of my papers and reaching out to offer me a hand up.
I ignored it and got to my feet on my own, awkwardly accepting the papers from him.
His face appeared in my line of sight, and I blushed harder as I realized he’d twisted his torso at a weird angle to force me to look at him without touching me.
He was smiling.
“Yeah, I saw. Don’t be embarrassed. It wasn’t your fault. You had the right of way. Anyone on a motorized device is supposed to yield to pedestrians. You okay?”
“Yep!” I squeaked, shoving my glasses so hard up my nose they poked the inner corners of my eyes. “Thanks for your help. I really gotta get going. I’m going to be late for orientation,” I murmured, shuffling away from him.
Oh, god. Why was I like this? Why couldn’t I go one day without making an idiot of myself!?
A low, amused chuckle rolled out from behind me, and I nearly whimpered from humiliation.
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“What?” I asked, finally glancing back at him. He had his hands shoved in the pockets of his slacks, and he was watching me with a surprisingly kind look on his face.
“Orientation is that way,” he said smoothly, jerking his head to the left.
The complete opposite direction I’d been scampering off to.
“Oh… shoot, yeah, I knew that,” I lied, and he chuckled again, the corners of his eyes creasing.
“I’m headed that way. We could walk together?” he offered, and my mind went into a panicked tailspin.
I didn’t see a way out of it. I would look like a psycho if I said no and then started walking in the same direction as him.
“O-oh… okay,” I stammered, and he gave me a horrifically attractive smile.
“Come on… Murph? Is that what I heard you call yourself?”
The blood drained from my face.
Crap.
He thought my name was freaking Murph.
IDIOT!
“N-no… Milo. Milo Murphy.”
I winced, waiting for the inevitable flash of amusement that tended to cross people’s faces when I told them my name.
Instead, his expression softened.
“Milo,” he hummed.
He said it slowly, breaking out each syllable like he was savoring them as my name rolled off his tongue.
My-loh.
Oh my god.
My name coming out of his mouth should not have sounded as hot as it did.
Jeebus.
What the heck was this day?
“Nice to meet you, Milo,” he said in that soft, velvety tone that was making me worry I might pop the most inappropriate boner of all time.
Think of vomit. Chunky, disgusting, smelly vomit… Oh no.
I’d scrunched my nose like I smelled something bad.
Dangit! Now I probably just looked deranged.
I tried to school my expression as I waited for him to introduce himself, but he didn’t. He just cocked his head in the direction of the path that apparently led to my destination.
“Let’s get you to orientation.”
“Uhm. Okay,” I mumbled, scrambling to catch up as he turned away, that amused smirk still playing on his full lips.