Chapter 36

When I walk into the lab the next morning, my belly flutters as I remember what happened here last night. I shake my head in an effort to chase the memories away, and head straight for Ari's station. I want to share with her the idea of switching to torque control.

But as I approach her desk, it's hard not to be reminded of how I kissed Thomas for the first time against her worktable, or how he flipped me onto the tooling bench next door.

My flashbacks aren't the only unusuality today. There also seems to be an odd amount of chatting around the lab. My normally quiet, introverted engineers are buzzing with a weird energy.

Or maybe I'm just projecting my over-excited mental state onto them.

I reach Ari and attempt to concentrate on work and nothing else.

"Hey, Ari," I greet her.

"Morning, boss."

"Listen, I had an idea last night to solve our calibration problem. What if we switched to a predictive method based on torque control?"

"You mean instead of using sensors?"

"Exactly. Use the dynamic and friction models coupled with the motor current to predetermine the user intentions."

"Why?"

"So that the inertia of the operator will stop messing our readings?"

"The operator." Ari's eyes widen. "The inertia, of course."

I'm about to ask how long it will take us to develop the new model when a burst of chuckling explodes at the nearby station. I didn't make that up. That's definitely abnormal behavior.

"Hey, what's going on?" I ask Ari. "Did something happen?"

Ari shrugs. "There's gossip going around that someone made a sex tape in the lab last night."

My cheeks drain of color while also flaming up at the same time.

"A-a s-sex tape?" My eyes dart to the ceiling where, sure enough, tiny dome security cameras dot the corners. Oh. My. Gosh! How did I never notice those?

"Yeah, someone heard from someone who overheard it from the security guards on duty last night talking at the vending machines. They've been trying to bribe K-2P all morning to tell them who it was, but so far, he hasn't budged."

They don't know it was me. Or Thomas. Or me with Thomas. Still, I panic. But I can't have a meltdown in front of the entire floor.

I do my best to keep my voice steady as I say, "Please, work out some projections on what it'd take to switch to torque control."

Ari eyes me sideways. "Are you okay, boss?"

I don't know what distress signals I'm sending, but it must be something if she's picked up on it. I'd better hide and not show my face around for the rest of eternity.

"Yeah, I'm super." I force a fake smile that I hope doesn't make me look like I'm having a stroke. "I'll be in my office if you need me."

I speed-walk across the lab and shut myself into the private space of my office. In a panic, I check the ceiling. No cameras here, thank goodness. Next, I take in the crooked desk that seemed so romantic last night and that now only screams reckless and stupid at me. Its helpless listing incriminating me all by itself.

How could I have let myself be so careless? I could lose my job, my reputation, everything I've worked for. My heart pounds in my chest as I attempt to come up with a plan to cover our tracks.

Does Thomas know? Who knows? Who's seen the video? Were our faces recognizable?

Oh gosh, oh gosh. I stripped right in the middle of the lab.

I'm pacing the office, hands in my hair, when the door bangs open and Garrett, face red, contorted in rage, accuses, "It was you, wasn't it? With him." The way he says "him" drips with hatred.

I play dumb. "I've no idea what you're talking about."

"The sex tape. It was you. I've seen the way you look at him, like a bitch in heat."

The violence of the words shocks me. "D-Don't be ridiculous," I stutter.

Garrett slams his fist on the door, making the glass rattle in its frame. "I'm not an idiot, Reese. Everyone is whispering about it."

The reaction is so unexpected I don't know how to react. I'm full-on panicking when Maria appears next to Garrett.

She takes in Garrett's angry stance, my shocked one, and asks, "What's going on here? Are you okay?"

I think she's talking to me, but Garrett answers her, spewing more venom, "No, I'm not okay. Unless you think our boss sleeping her way to the top is okay."

My jaw drops in shock as I stare at Garrett in disbelief.

Maria's eyes widen at his accusation before she glares at him and chides, "That's enough, Garrett. You have no right to make such accusations."

He scoffs and storms out of the room, leaving me reeling from his outburst.

"Reese, are you okay?" Maria asks as she steps into my office fully.

"I don't know," I reply. "Please close the door."

Maria does as I ask, and then she studies me, leaning against the closed door with her back.

I look at her. "What are the chances no one heard him say I'm the one who made the sex tape?"

Her jaw slacks. "Oh my gosh, it was you?"

I nod.

"Thomas?"

Another nod.

I'm expecting judgment, or scorn, or at least a disapproving look. But Maria's face breaks out into a huge grin. "Well, good for you."

"What?" I ask incredulously.

"I mean, it's not like you did it during work hours or anything. It's your personal life. And if I had a chance to nail such a hot piece of manly ass, I would." She waves at the surrounding space. "I wouldn't care much about the premises either. Sometimes passion can't be contained."

I'm floored. "But what about the implications for my job? My reputation? Everyone will say I'm a slut trying to sleep her way to the top. Garrett already did."

"Garrett's a jealous idiot." Maria shrugs. "Honestly, if people want to talk, they'll talk no matter what. And if you're good at your job, that's what matters in the end."

I stare at her, still reeling from Garrett's accusation but also comforted by her unexpected response. For a second, I even let myself believe everything will be all right.

But then there's another knock on the door and Lizzie comes in.

"What can I do for you?"

She hardly meets my gaze. "I need your signature on these mechanic parts orders." When she's done talking, her lips press into a hard, disapproving line.

I sign the purchase order and hand the documents back to her. "Thanks, boss," she says, the word "boss" definitely dripping with condescension.

"Did you hear that?" I ask Maria once Lizzie is gone.

"Hear what?"

"The way she said boss, like she despises me."

Maria tilts her head. "I didn't notice anything. You're projecting."

I'm about to reply when another knock resounds on the door, and I might very well lose it.

I definitely lose it when I say, "Come in," and Thomas walks into the room in a light-gray suit, looking like salvation and damnation all at once.

A bunch of contrasting emotions explode inside me: solace and despair, want and rejection, regret and longing, and a need to simultaneously claim and deny. I can't believe that everything has turned so upside-down in the few hours since we said goodnight.

Maria takes this opportunity to make things a thousand times more awkward by saying, "I'll leave you two to it."

She scoots out of the office and is about to close the door when K-2P angrily whizzes in. "Those nerds tried to hack me to show them my recordings from last night."

Thomas tilts his head. "I take it the cat is out of the bag?"

I point a finger at him, rage finally overpowering all other emotions. "Don't you dare make a joke about this."

He raises his hands, one of which is holding papers. "I wasn't about to."

"What's that?" I say, pointing at the documents.

Thomas closes the door before answering me. "HR forms, stating our relations of last night were—uh—consensual."

"Oh my gosh." I cover my face with my hands. "Everyone knows."

"No one knows."

"At least someone knows if they've already given you papers to sign. Who?"

Thomas drops the papers on my desk, taking a moment too long to reply. "Well, HR, obviously, the security guards who were on duty last night, the head of security and… my father."

I whimper. "Please tell me your father didn't see the video."

Thomas clears his throat. "Err…"

I finally collapse on my chair, hiding my head under my arms. "This isn't happening."

I sense the air shift and Thomas's presence next to me. "Would you like me to share the good news with you now?"

I lower my arms. He's perched on the desk next to my chair. "What good news?"

"My dad has agreed to move me out of Mercer Robotics."

A tiny spark of hope flickers inside me. "Are you serious?"

He beams at me. "Cross my heart."

"So, you no longer work here?"

His smile falters. "Yes, I do, but only for another six months. My father has asked me to stay on until he can present a new candidate to the board."

The flicker of hope in my chest is promptly extinguished by an icy draft, and I shake my head.

Thomas takes hold of my hands. "Why are you shaking your head? This is good news."

I pull my hands back. "No, it's not. Can't you see what your father is doing?"

Thomas's jaw tenses and he crosses his arms over his chest. "What?"

"He's rolling the ball into the future."

"And why would he do that?"

"He probably hopes we'll have either broken up in six months or gotten used to working together as a couple. It'd be easier for him to give us a special waiver to date than to pick a new CEO. But I can't be with you if you're here. Especially not after what happened last night."

"Are you serious? It's only six months."

"I am serious. People already suspect us, and I've been getting the side-eye all morning. My reputation is in tatters. Everyone in my team is gossiping about me."

"We can keep things on the down low at the office. I'll be moving on with my rotations to production soon and then I'll be out of Mercer Robotics for good."

"Not if your father has his way." I fiddle with a mechanical pencil. "I can bet you everything I have that in six months another reasonable request is going to come up. ‘We still haven't found anyone for the job. Please, son, stay on a little longer.' And then it's going to be you becoming Interim CEO or some other scheme. Your father wants you here, and he's making sure you stay exactly where you are."

"I can make it extra clear to him that he only has six months and not a day longer."

"That's going to be useless; he's going to say yes now only to say no later."

"You're acting as if you know my father. He wouldn't do that to me."

"And you're acting like a boy who's afraid to stand up to his daddy."

The air suddenly turns thick as Thomas's eyes grow cold. He stands up, ferociously slow. "A man-child." His jaw ticks. "Claro."

My jaw drops as I remember how his ex-girlfriend left him accusing him of being immature. And I just accused him of the same thing.

"Thomas, I?—"

He raises a hand. "No, you made your point perfectly clear." Then he adds something in Spanish that I don't understand, but that sounds ominous enough, and storms out of the office, banging the door on his way out.

And I don't even care that the scene is probably going to fuel the office gossip. All I care about is the fact that I either have to quit my job or quit seeing Thomas, and I'm not sure I can do either.

"What did he even say?" I ask out loud.

"You don't want to know," K-2P offers from the corner where he's been keeping oddly quiet.

"And since when do you speak Spanish?"

"Thomas is teaching me."

"Teaching you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I told him I wanted to learn it like a person and because he's a good man."

With that last scathing remark, K-2P goes to his station and, even if it's the middle of the day, he powers down just as another crack spreads down my heart.