“Huh?” Rowan snapped his attention back to his sister after having drifted off.
“I said—”
“Rowan, hello!”
Rowan flinched. Naturally, Milo chose now to interrupt them, suddenly appearing from behind Rowan around his workstation.
Alongside Troy, whose eyes were weirdly bulged, lips pursed in a straight line, and body tense, while he was visibly trying tonotlook at Raina.
“It is nearly the end of the day,” Milo continued, “and Troy said he was finished with me for the evening. He also said he might do more tests on Ray tonight, but I told him to remember his work-life balance.” Milo grinned and, in contrast to Troy, looked directly at Raina. “He is the diligent type who works too hard sometimes. Admirable, of course, but we wouldn’t want him to burn out when there is more to do in the days ahead.”
Troy fidgeted.
Raina scowled.
What was Milo doing?
“Oh, my apologies, Raina,” Milo said, as if just noticing her, despite having been making eye contact for several seconds. “I feel like I should introduce myself, since we haven’t officially met since, well…”
“Since you became a real boy?” Raina droned.
Rowan shot her a glare.
“Exactly!” Milo, however, kept his smile as if he thought it a compliment rather than the dig Rowan knew it to be. “Do you rememberDr.Troy Palmer, Raina? PHD, not medical, naturally, but a paragon in his field, to be sure. And attractive!”
Rowan resisted the very tempting urge to snicker.
But wait. Was Milo just saying that for Raina's benefit, or did he himself think Troy was attractive? Not that he wasn't! He was... fine. Milo didn't need to say it though. Or at least not when Rowan was around to hear it, because apparently the thought of Milo finding anyone else attractive twisted Rowan’s gut like a poorly baked pretzel.
Raina mostly just looked confused.
“Uh, sure, I think?” she said. “Sorry, Trey, was it?”
“T-Troy,” Troy stuttered, finally letting his eyes drift to her. He raised a hand like a grade school kid might wave at a parade. “Hi. We, um, met a few years ago. And see each other in the halls sometimes. Weekly. Daily,” he added under his breath.
Rowan failed to suppress his second snicker but covered it as a cough. If that was true, he could only assume it was because Troy made sure to cross paths with Raina, and she was thoroughly oblivious.
Raina looked between Troy and Milo with a narrowed gaze, both of whom were just standing there now, as if waiting for how she’d respond.
How she did was to scoot her roller chair closer to Rowan, hold up a finger toward Troy and Milo, saying, “One moment,” and proceeded to drag Rowan by his roller chair over to her side by kicking off his desk with a leg on either side of him. She dropped her legs again once they were safely out of eavesdropping distance and whispered, “Whatis happening right now?”
Rowan managed to not snicker but couldn’t help smiling. “Um, Milo is saying hi and brought Troy over to say hi to you too?”
“Do not bullshit me right now, Rowan.”
“I’m as in the dark as you are!” Rowan hissed. “Milo has a mind of his own, remember? Just go easy on Troy. He’s… nice.” Rowan tried to kick off the ground to roll back to his station, but Raina held fast to the edges of his seat.
To Rowan’s chagrin, she was back to looking serious and concerned for his sake as she said pointedly, “Be. Careful. Okay?”
Feeling the weight of Milo’s gaze on the back of his head, Rowan could only nod.
Raina released his chair, and he successfully rolled back over to where Milo and Troy waited off the side of his station.
“Ready to go home?” Rowan asked Milo.
“Very much so!” Milo beamed. “It was nice seeing you, Raina. And Troy, didn’t you have something to ask her?” He surprised Rowan by hoisting him out of his chair. “We’ll head home and leave you two alone. Have a good night!”
“Milo—” Rowan barely got his protest out—and just managed to grab his tablet and bag—before Milo was yanking him out of the work area to head for the elevators, leaving a floundering Troy behind with a scowling Raina who, after Rowan covertly glanced back on the way down the walkway, definitely looked like her eyes were saying:
