Page 55 of The Prime-Time Experiment

“But I don’t think you’d be a disruption.”

Her brow drew slightly, not in disagreement, but in analysis. “Based on what?”

Declan’s mouth lifted faintly, something almost amused in the edge of it.

“Based on the fact that she’s chosen to spend time with you almost every afternoon for the past two months,” he said. “And the way she talks with you... She seems to really love your company.”

Riley absorbed that, her attention sharpening slightly. “She’s an amazing kid.”

“Yeah,” he said easily. “She really is.”

Something in Riley stilled again, not uncomfortable, not destabilising. Just unfamiliar in a way she couldn’t categorise. “I think she’d like having someone around who sees things the way she does,” he added. “Someone she doesn’t have to explain everything to.”

Riley’s fingers shifted slightly against the table. The idea sat in her mind somewhere she hadn’t expected. It didn’t unsettle her. It lingered, unresolved, in a way that felt new.

“And if she does not?” Riley asked. She almost didn’t want to ask, the idea that she wouldn’t sent an unfamiliar pang through her chest.

“Then you won’t come,” Declan said simply. “No pressure for either of you.”

There was no hesitation in it, no attempt to convince her otherwise. Riley nodded once. That made sense. Her gaze drifted briefly not to the room this time, but inward again. Toward the interaction. The absence of effort it had required to simply sit here and respond without over-processing every step, towards the fact that her notes were still unfinished beneath her hand, and she hadn’t stopped their conversation to correct it. She looked back at him.

“Sure,” she said. “I’d like that.”

The words came more easily than they should have. Declan’s expression shifted, something warmer settling in, more certain. “Yeah?” he asked.

Riley nodded once. “Yes.”

A small smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll check with her. But I’m telling you now: she’s gonna say yes.”

Riley didn’t respond, but she felt it. That same quiet shift, something close to what she could identify as happiness. She let herself sit in it as Declan pulled out his phone and walked away to ask Ebony, and then pulled out her noise-cancelling headphones to finish her notes.

The feeling lingered for the rest of the day.

Chapter 12

Social Modelling

Riley

Riley stood outside Declan’s front door with her hand hovering just short of the wood, the cool evening air settling against the back of her neck while her thoughts moved faster than her body did.

Inside, voices overlapped faintly through the door, uneven bursts of conversation and laughter blending together too quickly for her to isolate into anything coherent. The sound triggered calculation. Who was already there. Where they would likely be positioned in the room. How the first interaction would unfold once she stepped inside.

Her fingers adjusted against the sleeve of her jacket, smoothing over fabric that didn’t need smoothing. Once, then again. The movement grounded her just enough to recognise what sat underneath it.

Nervousness. The awareness arrived a fraction later than usual, already embedded physically before she had consciously identified it. Tightness in her chest, the restlessness beneath her skin. Her thoughts cycling repeatedly through the same social variables despite already reaching the same conclusions each time.

Too many unknowns, too many moving parts she wouldn’t be able to fully predict until she was already inside. Riley exhaled slowly, gaze fixed on the door in front of her while her brain continued organising the environment anyway.

Five people with a varying mix of established relationships and existing dynamics she would be entering rather than initiating. The door opened before she managed to knock.

Declan stood there like he’d caught her halfway through overthinking the entire situation and had made the deliberate decision not to mention it.

“Hey, Riles.”

Riley straightened, her hand dropping from her sleeve. “Hi.”

His gaze flicked over her briefly, assessing without lingering. “You okay?”