10. Jenna

10

JENNA

" A re you excited?"

Vas's question jolted me out of the quiet moment I'd fallen into. I hadn't meant to let the conversation die on the drive to the Perfect Match offices, but it was hard not to let my preoccupation get the better of me. The sleek interior of his luxury car felt a world away from my usual bus rides.

"Definitely!" I said, but I could tell from the slight quirk of his eyebrow that he wasn't quite sold. "I really am, I promise. I'm just a bit distracted."

"Mind if I ask why?"

Part of me didn't want to reveal my personal issues to a student, but then, he wasn't a student anymore, was he? He was a successful, attractive, incredibly kind guy I was off to have a one-of-a-kind experience with before he moved on to greener pastures while I was stuck here grubbing in the dirt.

Way to be morose about it, Jenna. Still, it couldn't hurt to share a little of that with him. "Reddington College is cutting my classes back next semester."

Vas frowned, his dark eyes flicking between me and the road. "How many were you expecting to teach there?"

"Four."

"Four. That's a lot, isn't it?"

"It's a pretty good number, but not full-time." Not enough to get benefits, certainly. I tried not to let the bitterness seep into my voice.

"And you teach other places as well, right?"

"I teach seven classes total at the moment."

He looked like he was doing some math in his head. His eyes widened. "That's a huge amount of work!"

"It is," I agreed, feeling a strange mix of pride and exhaustion. "But I need every one of those classes to stay afloat, and losing two of them out of the blue is tough."

"That sucks. I'm sorry." His voice was soft, genuine.

I shrugged, trying to shake off the weight of my worries. "Me too, but I'll figure it out. It's been on my mind a lot, but..." I exhaled deeply, shook out my hands, and put on a smile. "I'm fine! I really am looking forward to this. Like I mentioned before, I have a friend who's done it several times, but I never thought I'd get the chance myself."

"I hope it lives up to your expectations," he said as he pulled into an underground parking garage. The sudden dimness made his features look even more chiseled. "I admit that I don't fully understand how they do what they do, and I'm supposed to be an expert, but the truth is that I'm more of an entrepreneur than a software engineer. Still, Declan assures me it's fantastic and a hundred percent safe."

That was a surprise. I'd assumed that Vas knew how everything in Perfect Match worked. "Well, that's reassuring. I might be a little nervous now."

"What? No, I..." Vas parked the car and looked closely at me, then shook his head, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "You're messing with me."

"Yep."

"How rude."

"That's me. Super rude. You were shielded from it while you were my student, but now? Beware because the real Jenna is coming out to play."

The look in his eyes became heated, making my breath catch. "Tell me more about her."

"She's inclined toward sarcasm."

"Good start, so am I."

"She sometimes says things that are true but not necessarily kind."

"Sometimes we all need to hear those things."

"She gets buried in her own head sometimes."

"I'll have to ensure I'm here to help dig her out."

I appreciated the sentiment, even if the reality would never happen. "She hates being late."

"So do I... oh, shit, we'd better get going."

I laughed at his exaggerated hurry and let him take my hand as we ran to the elevator. The warmth of his fingers intertwined with mine sent a thrill through me. We were still laughing when we got off at Perfect Match's office.

"Hello, and welcome." A bubbly blonde came over to greet us, her smile dazzling. "You must be Mr. Singh and Miss Carter!"

"Yes," Vas said, his professional fa?ade firmly back in place. I missed the playful guy from moments ago.

"Wonderful, so lovely to meet you." She introduced herself as Amanda and then led us down the hallway, stopping in front of the first door on the left. "Mr. Singh, this is where you'll be set up for the experience. Miss Car?—"

"We're not going to be in the same room?" I asked, my nerves flaring anew. The thought of being separated from Vas made my stomach twist.

"Oh." She looked nonplussed. "We do have several rooms that contain two of our setups for couples, but they're both in use right now. I wasn't aware you were a couple. I'm sorry."

"We're not," I said quickly, feeling heat rise to my cheeks. "I just... it's fine." Now I'd gone and made everything awkward. I turned to Vas and put my smile back on. "I guess I'll see you soon... kind of."

"Absolutely." He put his hands on my shoulders then pulled me into a hug.

I let him, almost melting against his warm, firm body. God, he smelled so good, like ambergris and vetiver and something subtle and smoky.

"You're going to be fine," he told me, and I believed him.

"Yeah, I am." I squeezed him, then stepped back, already missing his warmth. "All right, let's do this."

He winked at me and then was escorted into the room by a technician. Our hostess led me a little farther down, where another technician was waiting for me. "Christine, this is Miss Carter."

"Please, call me Jenna," I said, trying to quell the butterflies in my stomach.

"Nice to meet you, Jenna." Christine had thick brown, curly hair and a friendly face. "Come right in." She explained the setup to me—the chair, the IV, how she would monitor me, and then pointed out the bathroom. "If you need to go, now is the time."

"I'm fine." I sat down and stared up at the ceiling as she reclined me back, then swabbed my arm with rubbing alcohol. The sharp smell made my nose twitch.

"This is a unique experience you have planned," she said as if knowing she needed to help set me at ease with things. Heck, of course she knew, this was her job. "Who came up with the idea of making Aladdin into a futuristic, post-apocalyptic thing?"

"Vas did," I said, falling easily into teacher mode. "He wanted to explore the story from a very different perspective than the strictly traditional one, and he thought this was a good way to do it."

"I love the sound of this new city. Londabad, right?"

"Right." I smiled.

Vas had turned his story's setting into a combination of his two hometowns—London and Ahmedabad. I wasn't sure how true to either it would end up, but I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I'd never traveled outside the US.

"And there's magic and technology at the same time?" She inserted the needle that would deliver the sedative with a slight pinch. "Sorry."

"It's fine. And yeah, the idea is that it's so far in the future that magic and technology have become almost interchangeable. Sometimes it's possible to differentiate them, and sometimes... actually, huh." I looked at Christine. "The script can't possibly cover all the details, and there's a lot we don't know about this world. How are we going to fill in the blanks?"

"The mind takes care of that," Christine said. "I know it sounds trite, but it's true. All we have to do is point your brain in the right direction and give you a premise, and then your mind will run with the story in a collaborative way. We can't exactly see what's going on out here, but we can monitor things carefully enough to intervene if the story starts going off the rails. Not that that's ever happened," she added as she tapped a few keys on the keyboard. "Safety measures are built into the screening process."

"That's good to know." I was starting to get sleepy.

She lowered the helmet over my head, and as I closed my eyes, I felt a warm blanket cover me.

"I'll count back from ten." Christine's voice sounded distant.