Lying is not the game, Maniac. You answer my questions, and I’ll decide when you’re ready. When you stop answering, I’ll know you’re not.
When, he said, as if it was a foregone conclusion that I would tap out.
That was why I responded. Why I pulled out my computer and sent a message.
If we met…what would happen?
I thought you didn’t plan to meet me.
I still don’t.
I said instantly. A moment later I added,
I’m just curious. What would we do?
A few moments, and then he said:
Your profile is still up. Didn’t I tell you nothing good will come from it?
Idk. I’m hoping I come from it.
Shit. Fuck. I stared at the words, wishing I could delete them, when?—
“Shay?”
I put my phone face down on the desk, turning to find my boss, Jenna. She leaned against a whiteboard that maybe, at one time, had held serious scientific equations, but now only contained the world’s longest running game of hangman. Eames was ridiculously competitive. The last word he chose wasPneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, or the longest word in the English language.
“I’m almost finished,” I said. “The computer is being especially slow today.” As I said that, it froze again.
Jenna leaned over my shoulder. “Is it frozen?”
“Second time this morning,” I said.
“Weird,” she said, echoing my thoughts, then stood up. After promising to have tech come look at it, she left.
“Download too much porn off LimeWire again?” Eames asked.
“I wonder what tech will say about all the hentai Shay keeps on her computer,” Olly mused, not turning away from the model she was working on.
I rolled my eyes and leaned against my chair, pushing it back to an angle. There wasn’t much I could do without a computer. I could read and annotate the stack of papers I had on my desk…
My eyes dropped to my phone as I thrummed my fingers in a staccato rhythm.
I grabbed the stack of papers, sifting through the Post-its I’d applied as some effort of organization.
Red: New theories.
Green: My field.
Pink: Friends in unrelated fields.
Yellow…shit. What was yellow?
I set the yellow aside to deal with later and grabbed the green pile. My eyes once again wandered to my phone.
I would just take a small peek.
It was actually asmartdecision. I wouldn’t be able to focus otherwise.
