Jay was watching me examine the device with a gentle smile on his face.
“If you’re comfortable with it, I’d love to give it a test run on you and show you the parts that need work.”
“Is it safe?” I asked, and he nodded.
“Yeah, it’s not set to fire off any actions right now; it just scans and latches onto memories. I haven’t been able to figure out how to switch from extraction to manipulation. I’ll show you what I mean.” He gestured to the chair, and I eagerly climbed in.
Jay lowered the back down, so I was horizontal, and took up his station behind my head.
My heart started to hammer in my chest as he brushed his fingers through my hair just as he had the day before, gently exposing my forehead to him.
I shivered as my scalp tingled beneath his soft touch, and our eyes met for a brief moment. He had that strange look on his face again, and he gently stroked his thumb over my eyebrow, causing me to shudder.
“Just relax,” he murmured, and the air felt like it was sucked out of the room. “You always get this little crease here when that noodle of yours goes into overdrive.” He chuckled, and I tried not to think too much about the fact that he was still stroking my eyebrow with the hand that wasn’t holding the device.
He pressed the NeuroManipulator to my temple, and the screens on the wall lit up.
The NeuroGlyphs manifested on one screen, but the screen next to it erupted into bright, fuzzy splotches of color.
“I’ve been working on advancing the memory processing tech as well,” he explained. “I’m hoping to get more of a movie-like translation in time. It’s proving to be a challenge because not all people think in full pictures. It looks like you do, though.”
I swallowed and nodded, feeling nervous that my thoughts and memories might be played out in full technicolor for him to see.
“Don’t be nervous, it’s just you and me,” he said, as if I should not be embarrassed about him being able to see the anxiety-ridden mess that was my brain.
“Can you feel the transmitter fields trying to latch onto your thoughts?” He asked.
I tried to focus on where he had the device pressed to my head, and then I felt it.
It was a tiny tug, as if my thoughts were rushing up to meet the device like a magnet.
“Yeah, whoa. That’s crazy…” I breathed.
Jay smiled. “Bring up a memory. Why don’t you try remembering the breakfast I brought you?”
“I thought you said we couldn’t work with recent memories.”
Jay’s head leaned over mine, and our eyes met, that playful smile of his curling on his lips.
“Yeah. I lied. I just didn’t want to erase your first memory of me.”
“Wh-what?”
“Sorry.” He grinned, though he was clearly notactuallysorry.
I narrowed my eyes, despite the fact that I wasn’t really angry. My chest felt tight and warm, and butterflies were erupting in my stomach.
Was he… flirting with me?
I almost shook my head.
No.
What was wrong with me that I always thought guys this far out of my league were flirting with me? I was a glutton for punishment.
As my anxiety and self-deprecating thoughts kicked in, Jay looked at the screens. The NeuroGlyphs whirled around in a plain display of my emotional distress, and Jay’s brows furrowed.
“You’re always so hard on yourself, Milo,” he whispered, stroking his thumb gently over my temple.
