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It seemed almost wasteful…
But I liked it. It had been a gift from him, and I would treasure that. At least, in secret.
I glanced up into those ocean eyes. He was watching me.
“Would you like a glass of wine? I prepared a charcuterie board for us to enjoy before our meal,” I said quickly, wanting to distract him from whatever he might have seen written all over my face right then.
“That would be lovely,” he answered. He took a few steps back and sat down at the table. With a bit more distance in between us, I felt more comfortable, but I couldn’t deny there was a powerful yearning to reach out and move closer to him despite that.
I ignored it the best I could by distracting myself. I poured hearty glasses for the both of us, knowing that I would need a little liquid courage to get through whatever this night was. I didn’t even really know what my intentions were for having him over. I didn’t know what to do or say. He made me nervous, not because he was scary or rude or cruel in any way, but because I was drawn to him in a way I’d never been drawn to any man before.
I carried the glasses over and fetched the wooden cutting board chock full of dried fruits, meats, and cheeses. He popped a piece of sausage into his mouth, chewing it thoughtfully before he took a sip of red wine.
I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know what. The man vexed me.
“Do you want to tell me a bit about Cressida?” he asked, breaking the tension after a long moment of silence. He cocked his head and I smiled gratefully.
“Yes. I do,” I replied, taking a moment to clear my throat and gather myself as quickly as I could before I continued. “I dug into my archives, and I found only a handful of mentions of such a place. The exact GPS location was classified, but I did find hints to its location in the southwest corner of North America.”
“To my knowledge, no one has traveled that far in a very long time,” he replied.
“I can show you the maps tomorrow that give vague coordinates at best. For now, though, I can show you a scanned copy on my work tablet. It’s not as good as the real thing, but it would at least give you a better idea of where I’m talking about.”
I got up and I felt his gaze following me. I lowered my eyes to the floor and wrapped my arms around my waist as I walked into the other room and retrieved it off my desk. On the way back, I tapped in the passcode with my fingertip and dug into my records, scrolling until I found the map I was looking for. I opened the file and zoomed in on the area in question.
“Before the Fall, this section of North America was known as Arizona. Cressida Labs is a bit north of a city once called Phoenix, near the Sedona region. This particular area was lush with greenery, unlike the more barren desert much further south,” I explained, pointing to a spot on the map.
“There wasn’t much around this place before, was there? From this map, it seems like it was hidden in the more wooded green areas, right?”
“Yes. It would have taken quite a while to get to unless they had some sort of airplane runway or a helipad somewhere to move people in and out.”
“I’m not sure how this area fared in the war,” he murmured, his voice thoughtful.
“I didn’t come across many current records of it in my search,” I responded.
“Pacifica might have a few resources at their disposal that we can make use of.”
I tempered my excitement at having access to something like that. New Englandia would keep a tool like that deeply under wraps, probably only in the hands of the council or the protectors. Someone like me would never be able to access it.
“That would be great,” I said.
He popped a big green olive into his mouth. I didn’t realize I was staring at his lips until he started to smirk.
“Enough about work, though. We can come up with a plan together tomorrow morning at your office. I want to know more about you, Naomi,” he coaxed.
I blushed unwittingly. There it was again, the quiet purr of my name on his tongue.
“What about me?”
I couldn’t even imagine what a man like him would want to know about a girl like me.
“What do you like to do in your off time? On the weekends?”
I cleared my throat again. There wasn’t much to know about me other than work. I got up in the morning, brewed a pot of coffee, and went to the office. I ate the nutritionally sound meals prepared in the cafeteria at lunch, took a second meal to my office for dinner, and worked all day until it was time to go home and go to bed. There wasn’t much time for anything else, but there was one single thing I could think of.
“Sometimes, on the weekends when the museum is closed, I like to volunteer at the animal extinction prevention facility.”
“Do you have a favorite animal?” he asked, cocking his head with interest.
