Page 19 of A Barista's Guide to Love & Larceny
“No wonder you don’t want to sleep,” Dani said.
“It’s genuinely awful,” Oliver said, “and I’m scared if it keeps getting worse, I’ll have to drop out and move back home.”
“This might be a silly question,” Dani said, “but have you told OneiroLabs what’s going on?” She glanced at Silva. “I mean, what if they just don’t know?”
“I tried,” Oliver said. “I called the number on the flyer and left a voicemail that was never returned. Then I messaged a customer service address I found online. I got a reply that quoted the details of the waiver I signed and reminded me of the NDA. I didn’t read the fine print,” they said, embarrassed, “but basically it says they aren’t responsible and could sue the shit out of me if I say anything.”
“Typical legal protections,” Silva said, “though highly unethical. From what I understand, Miss Lionet, they are well aware of what’s going on, and perfectly comfortable abdicating responsibility for it.”
“So can you help Oliver?” Dani asked the professor. “Can you make their nightmares go away?”
Silva shook her head. “I can make a charm that may soften the intensity of the dreams, but a true antidote isn’t possible without knowing the poison, so to speak. That’s what we’re setting out to learn,” she said to Oliver. “We’re going to figure out how to fix this. Prometto.”
“Thanks,” Oliver said. “It’s really good to know I’m not alone.” They smiled at Dani wearily.
“In exchange for our help,” Silva said, “Mx. Izumi has agreed to assist us with our endeavor this afternoon.”
“You mean you’re coming with me on the tour?” Dani asked Oliver. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Not that I don’t want you to. It’s just—could it violate your NDA, or something?”
“I don’t think so,” Oliver said. “Even if someone recognizes me, I won’t say anything about the trial, and I doubt they’ll want to bring it up, either.” Apparently noticing her skepticism, they added, “I want to do it. I don’t know how to tell you exactly how much this sucks. And I’m sure I’m not the only person who really needs a cure right now. I’d like to help those people, too, if I can.”
“Which is precisely what we’re here to do today,” Silva said. She cleared her throat. “Mx. Izumi has been able to answer one of my questions already—the product doesn’t exist in pill form, like DreamRite or DreamLite.”
“It was a little potion,” Oliver said. “It tasted like cotton candy that had blood in it.”
“Gross,” Dani said, wrinkling her nose.
“The best information you could get is what ingredients have gone into the formula, but that may prove difficult. It would help to know more about what’s going on with the trials, too. Here, I’ve come up with a list of questions for you to ask.” Silva handed a slim notebook to Dani and checked her watch. “Your car will be arrivingat any moment. It’ll bring you straight back here when you’re done and we can debrief. Then I’ll give you your payment. Any last questions?”
Dani and Oliver both shook their heads.
“Excellent,” the professor said. “Good luck, and remember—this is for the greater good.”
Seven
Dani’s head was buzzing as she slid into the back seat of the car Silva had ordered for them—one of those new taxis with a self-driving enchantment. She was grateful there wasn’t a driver to make small talk with. She opened Silva’s notebook and skimmed the list of questions, most of them softballs, with a few hard-hitting questions tucked in between.
“Anything interesting in there?”
She’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts, she’d nearly forgotten Oliver was next to her. She glanced up from the notebook. “A lot of the questions seem pretty innocuous, honestly.”
“Silva’s probably hoping that even an innocuous question from you will get a more interesting answer.”
Dani’s grip on the notebook tightened. “She told you? About my—um, my thing?” Her heart was beating fast; did Oliver secretly hate her now? But she didn’t detect any distaste in their expression, only a kind curiosity.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody about it if you don’t want me to.”
“Oh,” Dani said. “Yeah, um, I like to keep it on the down-low. People can get weird about it, that’s all.”
“Well, I don’t plan on getting weird about it. After all, if it wasn’t for your ‘thing,’ I wouldn’t have told you about being in the study, and you wouldn’t have introduced me to Silva.”
“I guess that’s true.” They had left the campus in the rearview by now, the car winding its way into the heart of downtown. She hadthe sudden urge to change topics. “I know you’re an arcanobotany major, but is there something specific you want to do with it?”
Oliver’s face lit up. “So I’m also a telepathy minor,” they said. “I want to specialize in a combination of the two—telepathically communicating with plants, that is.”
“Wait. What?” Dani said. “That’s a thing you can do?”
“It’s a pretty new field of research, but yeah. Plants are alive in more ways than most people realize.”
