Is biker guy.
Even from this distance, I can feel the weight of his gaze as it rakes over me. His mouth curves into a knowing smirk, and his dark eyes are fixed like he’s already halfway through my story.
He shouldn’t be here—in this building, in my orbit… in the carefully gated corner of the world I’ve buried myself in. The equations say it’s unlikely, and the system says it’s sealed.
He’s the particle that shouldn’t make it through the wall.
And yet… he’s here.
Like a glitch in the matrix of my life.
“Dr. Cormier?”
My attention snaps down to the student in the front row with her hand tentatively raised. “What?” I snap.
Then my eyes flick to the back row again, watching as biker guy casually slides into an empty seat.
“If the barrier’s high enough, shouldn’t the probability basically be zero?” the student asks.
I let her question hang in the air for a moment as I watch him lean back in his chair, arm draped over the one beside him, and legs spread just enough to look effortless. And his eyes haven’t left me yet.
I shake my head slightly. “No barrier is perfect,”I say, dragging my attention back to the front of the room.“Nothing is ever perfectly sealed. There’s always a little give, and some weak point in the structure.” I pause for a moment, resisting the urge to look at him again. “Boundaries are only absolute until they’re not.”
His presence presses into me the longer I try to ignore it, like a frequency I used to know but forgot how to tune to. Like the rules bent just to let him in.
And as my gaze slides back to him, the low current I’ve been chasing since that night in the bar finally sparks.
“Class is over,” I say, not looking away from him even as a few hopeful hands linger in the air.
Laptops snap shut, and bags rustle while a few students exchange murmured guesses about why we’re ending early. But no one dares to ask.
I remain where I am, perched on the edge of the table with my arms crossed as students file out of the room.
Until it’s just me and him.
The silence seems to tighten around us as he remains seated for another moment, just staring at me. Then he stands and starts down the stairs. And with every step, something stirs inside me… like the static before the charge.
“Dr. Cade Cormier,” he says as he approaches, his deep voice dragging out the syllables like he likes the taste of them. “For a quantum mechanics professor, you’re not easy to find.”
“Seems like you managed just fine,” I reply, letting my gaze drag over him, taking in his loose hair around his shoulders, the leather cut that hugs his frame over a black hoodie, and that quiet defiance that radiates off him.
He stops before me, and the corner of his lips tilts up slightly. “Your friends in the physics department don’t know too much about you.”
I arch a brow at him. “No. They don’t.”
He tilts his head as his eyes flick between mine. “Ok, so maybe not friends.” Then he shrugs one shoulder. “But they were helpful enough when… asked.”
I nod slowly, letting a small smirk tug at the corner of my lips. “I see that.”
His gaze slowly roams over me, and I just watch him as the spark inside me seems to flicker brighter at the thought of him hunting me down.
“Hm,” he hums as his gaze lingers on my sweater. “Maybe it just takes the right particle at the right time.”
My eyes snap to his, and he smiles darkly.
“You’ve got walls even thicker than that potential barrier,” he says, nodding towards the screen still glowing behind me. “But no barrier is perfect…”
His attention shifts to my mug sitting on the table beside me, and he reaches out to pick it up. My eyes track his movements as he sniffs it, and curiosity flashes in his dark eyes.
