Chapter 18

The next morning I'm sipping the traditional pumpkin spice latte—every year I have them delivered for the entire office alongside breakfast treats—and chatting with Maria at her station while K-2P is distributing the anonymous forms to vote on the best costume.

But my brain is only half into the conversation. My gaze keeps shifting to the lab's entrance, waiting for Thomas to make his appearance.

Maria distracts me with a question. "Boss, do you think we can improve our linear time-invariant control algorithm?"

"And how do you propose to do that? We spent a year perfecting it, how can we get it any more perfect?"

"Change the matrix of the set system output in future time."

"How?"

"If we change the control increment as state quantity, we could get an optimized target function."

Now she has my full attention. "We could set constraints," I reason. "And then solve the matrix with quadratic programming."

Maria's eyes brighten and she drops her latte to jot notes on a pad. "So that after solving the equation for the control increment sequence in future time, the system could predict the future output based on current information. That's brilliant."

I'm alerted to a shift in the festive lab's mood by the room plunging into a sudden silence. Even Maria drops her pen and stares at the door, mouth gaping.

I turn to the lab's entrance where a tall, dark, cloaked figure is striding into the lab, heading straight for me. He's wearing an all-black costume composed of a padded long-sleeved shirt, high-waisted pants, and a hooded cloak billowing behind him. His face is concealed by a battered black combat helmet inlaid with silver. The battle gear of the Knights of Ren.

Thomas is Kylo Ren… and I'm Rey.

I wait for his approach, unable to swallow, my throat cotton dry.

As he gets closer, my heart beats faster. He stops in front of me and removes his helmet, revealing his handsome face. My eyes widen as I drink him in—the intense gaze, the chiseled jawline, and those full lips. He smirks at my reaction, most probably too aware of the effect he has on me.

"Rey, huh?" he says in a low voice, barely above a whisper. "What are the chances?"

I immediately glare at the droid shuffling through the lab. Pretty darn high if a cyber mole is involved.

"Kylo," I respond, trying to keep my voice steady.

"Nice costume," he says, his eyes scanning me from head to toe.

I blush at his words but quickly recover. "You don't look so bad yourself."

Then, rather anticlimactically, Thomas smiles and asks, "Is there a latte also for me?"

"I'll get it for you, hot shot," Maria hurries to say.

As she brushes past me, she whispers in my ear from the side of her mouth, "I've nothing against superheroes, but if he doesn't look darn sexy in that villain costume."

Even if I couldn't agree more, I still roll my eyes.

Then she goes to fetch a pumpkin spice latte and hands it to Thomas, teasing, "Is that a lightsaber in your pocket?"

For a split second, my gaze drops to his crotch before I realize Maria is talking about a pocket on the inside of his cloak. I'm a total pervert.

I quickly avert my eyes as a hot flush rises to my face.

Thomas just chuckles, taking a sip of his latte. "Sorry to disappoint, it's just my phone." He pulls the phone out from his cloak and holds it up for us to see.

"Pity, lightsabers are so much more fun," Maria deadpans.

I take that as my cue to leave. "I'll go check where K-2P is with those cards."

Thomas raises one perfect eyebrow at me, which I bet he doesn't even have to pluck. "What cards?"

"The ones to vote on the best costume."

"Do I get a vote, too?"

"Here, take mine." I hand him the card so that I won't have to circle back to him. I won't pretend I'm not a huge Reylo fan. Seeing Thomas dressed up as my biggest sexual fantasy is testing my self-control.

I reach K-2P and hiss, "You're a snitch."

The robot turns to me, and even if he doesn't possess facial features, he looks offended. "Why are you doubting my loyalty?"

"Did you tell Thomas to dress as Kylo Ren?"

"Why would I?"

"Because you knew I was coming as Rey, you meddling piece of metal."

"Ah! But did I know? Nope, because you never actually told me."

I drop my jaw, trying to remember if I ever discussed my costume with K-2P. I don't remember having an actual conversation with him about it. So, I close my mouth and just glare at the droid.

"That's what I thought." It's his last comment before he wheels away. But I can still smell his metallic fingerprints all over this. I might not have told him directly, but he knows me. He must've picked it up somehow, if not from full-scale espionage.

I drop my hands, fed up with smartassed robots and fineassed bosses and make a round of the lab to talk with all my team leaders to see if anyone needs my input on anything before I leave tomorrow.

The lab's festive mood continues throughout my rounds. People are walking around in their costumes, taking pictures, and getting into character. I'm impressed with some of the get-ups. Ari, who looks like a life-sized Lego character, and our head of programming Salim, who's a giant Rubik's cube.

But despite all the distractions, my gaze keeps flitting back to Thomas in his Kylo Ren outfit. No matter that for the entire day, I try to put as much space between us as possible. Even at a distance, he looks so good in that black cloak, it's totally unfair. He even has the height to pull it off.

Regardless of how gorgeous a villain Thomas is, the first prize for best costume goes to our robot controllers specialist, Tabitha. She came in as Mystique from X-Men in a skin-tight blue wet suit, her face and hands painted blue. It can't have been comfortable, but at least the effort has been worth something. I voted for her, too. After I give away the grand prize, it looks like everyone in the lab is ready to call it a day. Me too. I also still have to pack for tomorrow's trip.

But when Thomas pops into our shared office to get his things and gives me a simple goodbye, I'm deeply disappointed.

Doesn't he know we won't see each other until next week? Wait, does he know? I don't think I mentioned the conference to him other than in the parting note I hid in his messenger bag earlier, which is the closest I've allowed myself to get to him today. But other than that, I haven't talked to him about the trip to Rome. As I'm racking my brain, scanning the entirety of our past conversations—sometimes I wish I were an AI and that all I had to do was insert a keyword like "conference" to access all my past interactions on the topic—Maria enters the room, mock-fanning herself.

"Well, well, well. Aren't we looking flushed?" the head of mobility teases with a grin.

I shake my head, exasperated.

"Aw, come on. Don't you think the force is trying to send you a message?"

I shoot her a warning look. "Don't even get started."

"Fine, fine. I come in peace."

"Meaning?"

"Just wanted to test the temperature after our villain left and ask you for any last words before you're off to Italy."

"Actually, yes, can you babysit Thomas while I'm away? Tomorrow is his last day of shadowing and he's supposed to follow Garrett?—"

"Uh, and you conveniently chose to flee the country for that."

I won't lie and say that I didn't cowardly wiggle out of seeing how spectacularly awkwardly that goes. I smile a sweet smile. "Perks of being the boss."

Maria's smile is even more viciously sweet as she mock curtsies. "In that case, it'll be my pleasure to look after the hot shot. Have fun in Italy and eat a lot of gelato."

Maria leaves, and, for the first time since my secret correspondence with Thomas started, I don't have the self-control to wait until I'm at home to read Thomas's note, the one where he'll be replying to my offer of installing a flattery drive dedicated to him in K-2P.

I rip the blue Post-it right off the bottom of my bag and smile like an idiot as I read:

If creating the drive will force you to research all my best qualities, sure, why not?

PS. Did you think Ben Solo deserved better?