Page 76 of A Barista's Guide to Love & Larceny
“I can go by myself,” Wyatt said, glancing at Oliver. “If I need to fly solo, it’s—”
“Absolutely not,” Silva said firmly. “You’ve already proven you can’t be trusted even on a supervised mission, much less an unsupervised one. Besides, Mx. Izumi’s knowledge of arcanobotany may be critical in locating the formula or potential ingredients. You’ll port directly to the twentieth floor, get inside the lab when Miss Novak hits the override, and port out again once you’ve secured the formula.”
“Do you really think Oliver can handle it?” Wyatt asked. “What if the new charm you guys make doesn’t work, or it blows up again? I don’t need a liability while we’re there.”
“Wyatt,” McKenna warned.
“What?” he asked. “I’m not trying to be a jerk here—just realistic.”
“No, he’s right,” Oliver said wearily. “As long as we can get another charm working, I think I’ll be able to handle it—but after last night, I feel like I can’t predict what’s going to happen.”
“I hear you both,” Professor Silva said, “and I understand the concern. If Mx. Izumi doesn’t feel up to joining the mission on the day of, we’ll reassess the possibility of Mr. Shalhope operating solo, withMx. Izumi contributing remotely alongside Miss Novak. Either way, while the three of you are at OneiroLabs, Miss Lionet, Miss Amari, and I will be attending the gala. I was already on the guest list, and I managed to secure two additional invitations under your names.”
“What?” McKenna said with delight. “We get to go to the gala?”
More like have to, Dani thought, though it did sound better than being on the other team.
“Indeed,” the professor said. “I feel it makes sense for Miss Lionet to attend under the continued pretense of researching for her article. I know Dr. Rodriguez has seen you in relation to OneiroLabs multiple times, so if you have a strong alibi on the night of the, ah, infiltration, you shouldn’t come under any suspicion.” Dani had to admit this actually made sense. “You’ll also be able to tell the other team when OneiroLabs does their presentation. It’ll be your job to communicate the exact timing every step of the way.”
That wasn’t so bad. She could do that.
“Once their presentation wraps up, we’ll have Miss Amari here deploy a diversion—its nature to be determined—that will, with all luck, create more confusion for OneiroLabs and their communication with security back at HQ.”
“And you?” Wyatt said. “What’s your role in all this?”
“I will be at the gala to make sure nothing goes wrong on that end,” Silva said, ignoring the note of accusation in his tone. “Once the formula is secured, we’ll all meet at a point of my designation, which I’ll share in the week leading up to the operation. You’ll receive your payouts, and your part in this will be finished.”
And wouldn’t that be a wonderful day.
The more Silva spoke, the more Dani couldn’t ignore the unfortunate truth she had finally arrived at: She had to break up with Kass, and soon. Before it got any harder.
She didn’t realize she had tears in her eyes until McKenna put a hand on her knee and squeezed.
“We still have two weeks to shore up the plan,” Silva said. “There may be a few lingering tasks, and I’ll need to arrange for both Miss Lionet and Miss Amari to get fitted for appropriate attire.” McKenna said nothing, but the excitement coming off her was like static electricity. “We’ll resume our meetings as normal next week. For now, take some time to rest and attend to your schoolwork. You may go—except Mx. Izumi, if you’ll accompany me to my office?”
Everyone shuffled off in their different directions: Professor Silva and Oliver down the hall, McKenna and Katya to class, Wyatt to the bathroom, and Dani to—well, she didn’t know where. She had an hour free right now, but no money for lunch, and not enough time to go back to her apartment to slurp some ramen. She didn’t have much of an appetite anyway, her newly made decision regarding Kass hanging over her like a shadowy doom. She left the OS building with the vague idea to wift and wander until she had to get to class.
The rain had let up during their meeting, providing a rare pocket of dry outside time, which meant that students were lingering on the steps. A surreal, dreamlike feeling fell across Dani as she wove through and down to the sidewalk. She passed two girls jabbering excitedly about some rumor they’d overheard in class, a group of friends making plans to meet up that night, a guy posted up on the edge of the steps reading a book. They were all just having a normal day. She wasn’t sure if she’d have a day like that again—or if she’d ever had one in the first place. She had always felt out of sync with her peers, but never so much as she did right now. All of a sudden, she wanted very badly to break down and cry.
“Dani!”
Her stomach flipped as she recognized Kass’s voice, followed by the boy himself jogging up. Her feet dragged as she moved over to meet him, taking in his tormenting cuteness, his eager smile, his precious ignorance to how deeply she had fucked up what they had. Theimpulse to cry only grew stronger as they came to face each other; she swallowed hard to make sure it didn’t overtake her.
“Hi,” he said breathlessly, and leaned in to kiss her. She let it happen, forcing herself to smile when he pulled back. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, hearing how untrue it sounded. “Just not having the best Friday, I guess.”
“Maybe I can make it better?” he asked. “I was hoping to take you to lunch. I accidentally let my quartzpad die, so I couldn’t message you to find out where you’d be, but I figured most of your classes were here. I’m glad I caught you.” He reached for both her hands. “Do you have time?”
This wasn’t really how she’d wanted to do it, over a casual lunch in the middle of the day. But the sick feeling at her core wasn’t going to let her get through this otherwise. He didn’t deserve to have this drawn out. So Dani nodded.
“Excellent. I have a very elaborate date for us planned,” he said, undaunted by her subdued mood. “Just kidding, I figured we could just go to the dining hall since I have class in an hour.”
Could she really do this at the dining hall? Maybe she should grit her teeth and bear it for just one hour. Or should she do it here, now, with all these people around? Her heart was beating in her ears. She didn’t know what to do.
“What the hell is this?”
Dani and Kass both turned to see Wyatt taking the steps down from the OS building two at a time. The corners of Dani’s vision went black.
