“That’s… That’sinsane!”
“I know. He wants you to lead the demonstration.”
My mind was racing, and my heart pounded in my chest with anxiety. Outside of the fact that we were nowhere close enough to present anything particularly impressive, the thought of standing on a stage in front of nearly two thousand people was sending me into an anxious spiral.
Jay’s expression softened. He made his way around the counter and cuffed me softly around the back of my neck, tugging me in and dropping a kiss on the top of my head.
“Don’t worry, baby. We’ll figure something out.”
“I… I don’t think I can present in front of that many people,” I whispered, and he kissed my forehead.
“Don’t worry. We’ll pull something out of our asses to appease him. It’ll be fine.”
I bit my lip, glancing up into his dark, comforting eyes.
“You’re always so confident all the time,” I muttered, and he laughed, shrugging.
“It’s all a show. If you act like you know what you’re doing, people tend to believe you. And you, Milo, aren’tacting.You know what you’re doing better than anyone. You have nothing to be nervous about.”
“If you say so…” I grumbled, and he ruffled my hair, nudging me toward the door.
“Let’s get to The Cave. If we have to present something by Friday, we have our work cut out for us.”
NOVA wishedus luck on our way out and locked up after us.
The bright morning sun was casting dappled patches of sunlight across Jay’s green front lawn as we made our way onto Amygdala Ave, side by side.
I was laughing at some stupid joke Jay had made in an effort to cheer me up when a sharpgaspcaught my attention.
Glancing up, I saw Melanie staring at us with a shocked expression, and my blood went cold.
Her eyes were darting back and forth between Jay and me, suspicion crossing her features as she absorbed the fact that I was clearly leaving his cube with him at 8:15 in the morning.
Jay stiffened next to me, and he took a casual sip from his to-go coffee cup, eyeing Melanie with annoyed eyes,
“Good Morning, Ms. Larson.” His voice rolled through the bright morning air, sending chills up my spine. His tone wasn’t friendly. It was challenging, as if he were daring her to comment on the fact that we were leaving Jay’s cube together to go to work.
“Mr. Reynolds!” she squeaked. “I was just coming over to see if you would like extra assistance in The Cave today. I saw Mr. Stevens’ email and thought you might want some support.”
“I appreciate the offer, Ms. Larson, but I’m all set. Milo has been helping, and he’s already made significant advancements with the prototype.”
“Surely an extra pair of hands would be?—”
“As I said, we’re all set, Ms. Larson,” Jay cut her off firmly. His voice was cold and dismissive. It was easy to forget he was technically a C-level executive when we were sprawled in bed together, and he was lazily bringing me to orgasm over and over again.
But now, he was every inch the professional, authoritative man you would expect to be leading the Memory Therapy Research Department.
“If you’re looking for additional responsibilities, I suggest letting the floor manager know that you have bandwidth for new projects. They can always use help with Nexus optimizations,” Jay drawled, placing a warm hand on my back and gently pushing me forward.
“Y-yes, sir,” Melanie stammered, and I glanced back over my shoulder to find her glaring at me. She wasfurious.
She would never say anything to Jay, but I knew she wasn’t going to let this go. If she’d hated me before, sheloathedme now.
“Jay…” I whispered as he continued to steer me away. “Jay, maybe we should let her help. She’spissed.”
Jay snorted. “You think I give a fuck if she’s pissed? She’s fucking rude to you all the time. Maybe if she were less of a bitch, I’d be more willing to give her growth opportunities. But no. She can stick to optimizations, and if she doesn’t like it, she can quit for all I care.”
“I just… she saw me leaving with you…”
