“Yeah… I could definitely eat,” I said quietly, still feeling unnerved and confused over what I’d just heard.
Gesturing for me to follow him, Sebastian chirped a light, “Follow me, please,” over his shoulder, and I hurried to catch up.
The Annex in the Cortex was an even taller building than NeuroWell had been. The exterior of the high-rise was all white-organic lines, as if the skyscraper had been modeled after the shape of a kidney bean. Balconies had lush bushels of greenery spilling over the railings, and the glass exterior mirrored the blue, cloudless sky.
I tried not to gape at how beautiful it was as I followed Sebastian in, watching in wonder again as he scanned the sleeve of his suit jacket over several security checkpoints on our way to the elevators.
“Do you have a key pass sewn into your sleeve?” I asked, stifling a yawn as we stepped into the elevators. “Do I need one?”
Sebastian gave me a strange look that I couldn’t interpret. His perfectly manicured brows pinched together, and a muscle in his jaw pulsed. I was about to ask if I’d said something wrong when he shot me one of those dazzling smiles again.
I hadn’t known him for very long, but I was quickly beginning to figure him out.
Every time he smiled at me, I felt like it was to cover something up. I justdidn’t knowwhat.
And frankly, I didn’t know if I wanted to.
I was already in way over my head here. Pushing to find out Sebastian’s secrets was not on my bingo card for things to do while forcibly committing corporate espionage.
“Mm, no. Not right now. Until you get security clearance, I’ll need to accompany you while you’re on campus anyway, so let’s put the key pass off for now… it’s… a bit of a pain.”
“Oh… A lot of paperwork?” I asked as we arrived on the 20th floor. Seb shot me a smirk and shrugged.
“Sure. Everything here is a lot of paperwork. You’ll see.”
From the number of signatures they’d needed just for me to sell my soul to this place, I didn’t doubt it.
I followed Seb to what I assumed was my (hopefully) temporary condo. He scanned his wrist over yet another keypad to open large double doors that led into a living space so lavish, I couldn’t say I’d ever seen anything close to it in real life… outside of maybe Vegas suites characters stayed at in movies.
The space was massive, decadent, andmasculine.The ceilings felt unnecessarily high, and the entire far wall was glass, offering me a panoramic view of campus. The lighting was dim, and the living room in front of me had a sunken, tan leather sectional on the left, before a massive, mounted TV. To the right of the sectional was a heavy, red, velvet pool table. To the right looked like the hall to the bedroom, and to the left was an open-concept kitchen, complete with a built-in wet bar. The table could easily seat twelve people and was illuminated by custom pendant lighting that complemented the bold, abstract art covering almost every inch of the walls.
It wasn’t exactly how I would have chosen to decorate my own space, but there was no denying it was beyond beautiful.
“Jiminy Cricket,” I whispered, rubbing my fists into my eyes under my glasses to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.
“Do you like it?” Sebastian asked. I glanced back at him to find him leaning against the wall of the entryway, watching me with an almost hopeful look on his face.
“Uhm… yeah. Imagine I saidno?I’d have to be the most entitled person on the planet.” I laughed, and again, there was that flash of deep aching sadness in Sebastian’s eyes before he wiped it away.
“You’d be surprised,” he said so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him. Then he cleared his throat and shot me another one of his‘performance’smiles.
“Anyway, I’m glad you like it, Milo. I really want you to be happy here.”
I nodded absently, yawning again. I was so bone-achinglytired.I just wanted to shower and go to bed.
Sebastian seemed to pick up on that, and he ran a hand through his hair before backing toward the door.
“I’ll leave you to get settled. I hope it wasn’t too presumptuous of me, but I had someone pack up your apartment and stock the bedroom. All your clothes, toothbrush, and stuff should be in there. If you need anything else, just ask TECHA, the campus AI, and she’ll make sure I know about it.”
“Okay. Sounds good, thanks, Sebastian,” I mumbled, already stumbling toward the bedroom.
“Please don’t leave this condo without me,” he called after me. Considering I didn’t have a key pass to get back in, I wasn’t planning on it. Right now, all I could think about was how good a bed would feel.
“I’ll be back in a few hours with dinner. Sleep tight, Milo. See you soon.”
There was a soft click as he left the way he came, and I was too tired to feel concerned when the sounds of a lock mechanism engaging followed his exit.
‘Mr. Murphy, Mr. Stevens is here to see you.’
