Milo shook his head, pretending to be baffled. “Isn’t that strange…?”
“I was afraid I’d have to go in on Monday and attend the mandatory meeting to see you,” Elio said with a grimace. “I don’t like Mondays or mandatory meetings.”
“Right. Me neither.” Milo had nothing against Mondays but he was glad Elio wasn’t at the meetings and hoped he never changed his mind. It would be extra mortifying to be the butt of another Mean Guy joke with Elio in the room. “I’d skip them if I could get away with it.”
“I’m sure you could,” Elio said but Milo waved it off.
“Was there a particular reason you were looking for me?”
“A few. What are you working on at the moment?”
“Me?” Milo blinked back at Elio, not sure why he would care. “Nothing special. I’m pretty sure Hector’s about to put me on Tyler’s team again and I think I might quit,” he said, even though he’d never have the nerve.
“We’ll see,” Elio replied, then stepped aside so Milo could pass. “Until later,” he said and pressed the 6 before giving Milo a jaunty salute.
“Later.”
Milo waved back as the doors closed and remained, staring at the metal panels and wondering whatthatwas about. Why did Elio want to know what he was working on? Milo didn’t thinkhe’d made much of an impression before and while he hadn’t humiliated himself this time, his performance in the elevator wasn’t exactly stellar.
All was quiet when Milo let himself into 8B, thankfully. Everyone was downstairs, at 6C, for pizza and movies. Milo had the option of joining them but he’d had enough peopling for one day and needed to decompress. He headed back to his bedroom, dropping his backpack on his desk before falling face first onto his bed. A long row on the machine in his parents’ suite and a hot shower would settle Milo’s frazzled nerves, but he screamed into the mattress, purging the day’s frustrations.
Feeling slightly better, Milo flopped onto his back and pulled one of the pillows over his face. His brain sufficiently muffled, Milo pondered his next course of action, now that the plan to avoid Elio had been discovered and foiled. His conscience twinged because despite Elio’s temperament, he had always behaved reasonably well at family gatherings and respected his brothers’ spouses and their families. Leo and Theo went to great lengths and often issued dire threats to ensure his cooperation, but it seemed to have worked and Elio was still behaving around Milo. And Milo should have been more welcoming as a fellow physicist. Elio might have been counting on a familiar face at Starlight as well.
It was Elio’s brashness and chaos that made Milo wary and had him gravitating to the opposite side of the room. Even with Elio on his best behavior, being close to him was extra unsettling for Milo. While he had been fascinated by the idea of another physicist in the family, Elio’s personality was the exact opposite of Milo’s and so much bigger and more combustible.
Most personalities were the opposite of Milo’s because he didn’t really have one, other than: loves physics and is obsessed with snacks. Deep down, Milo was still a shy middle schooler and Elio wasthebad boy of the scientific community. There werelots of edgy professors and charismatic scientists on TV, but Elio was as intellectually gifted as he was a menaceandhe was a prince.
The House of Hessen was more of a ceremonial entity and was controlled by a foundation, but Leopold was the last in a long line of Austrian margraves and Elio and his brothers were the last of the von Hessens.Noneof the brothers seemed to care about the title itself, only about each other and their parents’ legacies. Elio, Milo had learned, wanted nothing to do with the foundation and had spent most of his life in England.
Now, Elio was in Manhattan at Starlight and the Olympia, and he would probably be at most family events. Everyone, including Milo’s parents, had promised to look out for Elio and make him feel at home in the city. Except for Milo, he had planned to shirk that duty and preserve his peace but Elio had sought him out and seemed to be interested in his work at Starlight.
With any luck, Elio would get bored at Starlight and fed up with life in New York City. That was the most likely outcome, given Elio’s short temper and his history. Milo just hoped it wouldn’t take too long and that his nerves would survive the siege.
Three
Aweek later, a troubling picture was taking shape as Elio settled into his new office and got the lay of the land at Starlight. Everyone was absurdly kind and patient. Sometoo kindand Elio found their fawning repulsive. Sycophants never failed to irritate Elio so he was the rudest to them, ejecting them from his presence with a cutting critique or a withering look and guaranteeing they’d keep a wide berth.
The one person hewantedtime with was still nowhere to be seen and Elio worried that Milo had actually quit.
“He’s somewhere around here, I’m sure…” Hector Lawson had murmured while scanning the institute’s second floor and shrugging. “Ashby’s an odd one and you never know what will send him into hiding. You might ask Tyler.”
Tyler had rolled his eyes and snickered and Elio felt a strong urge to beat the stuck-up shite with one of his loafers before he opened his mouth to answer. “Haven’t seen Mild Ashby since this morning. Not sure what you’d want him for, but you mightcheck the nursery.” He laughed and held out his hand so another stuck-up shite named Bryan could slap it.
“The nursery?” Elio said flatly, not appreciating the joke or the fact that they were wasting his time. “Do I look like I’m in the mood for stories and games?” he barked loudly, causing Tyler to pale and shake his head.
“Sorry. I have no clue where Ashby is.”
“What the hell is going on here?” Elio said as he stalked off to continue his hunt, gripping the tennis ball in his pocket tight to ease his bubbling temper.
The Starlight Institute: Leading the way into a brighter future.
The slogan and company logo was on every coffee mug and pen and was etched onto the glass windows and doors. But Elio wasn’t impressed with his coworkers or very optimistic abouthisfuture at the institute. He’d had TAs at university who were more qualified and Hector was more of a hall monitor than a mentor.
Then, Elio’s temper flared when he found one of the institute’s brightest minds in a bathroom,workingin one of the stalls. Elio had just about given up his search and went into the bathroom because it was the only place he hadn’t looked. A soft hum came from the last stall and Elio spotted a pair of red Converse when he ducked to look under the walls. Elio listened for several moments to make sure Milo wasn’t conducting a different sort of business, then mouthed a swear when he heard pages flipping and a pencil tapping.
He gave the door a knock and coughed softly, causing the occupant to gasp and jump. “Just a moment,” Milo answered shakily before opening the door. A notebook and several print-outs were hugged against his chest, a red rash spreading under the collar of his gray sweatshirt. “Can I help you?”
“What are you doing in here? Don’t you have an office?” Elio demanded but Milo shook his head.
