Chapter 3

Harrison stared at the moisture gathering in Autumn's eyes. His chest rose and fell in a sharp, uneven rhythm. The logical processors in his brain, usually running in flawless, silent loops, were suddenly grinding against each other.

He searched his internal database for a protocol on how to handle crying. The query returned zero results.

Autumn saw his hesitation. He hadn't walked out the door yet. She kept her chin tucked down, letting her shoulders tremble just enough to be visible.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, her voice barely louder than the hum of the air conditioning. "I was just... I couldn't sleep last night."

Harrison's grip on the antibacterial wipe loosened slightly. His eyes narrowed, analyzing the auditory input.

"I was up all night staring at your schedule," Autumn lied, forcing a slight hitch into her breathing. "I was so anxious about messing up today, about not being efficient enough for you. That's why my brain was a mess this morning. I just grabbed the wrong books."

It was a desperate, messy lie.

Negative. The host's statement contains 14 logical fallacies. Probability of target detection: 92.8%, ACE droned in her head.

But Harrison didn't call security. He didn't leave. He slowly lowered his hands, dropping the ruined wipe onto the table. The deep crease between his eyebrows smoothed out, replaced by a look of intense, calculating concentration.

"You experienced sleep deprivation," Harrison said, his voice stiff, testing the words as if they were a foreign language. "Due to anxiety regarding my expectations?"

Autumn nodded quickly, looking up at him through her lashes. She made sure she looked small, overwhelmed, and entirely dependent on his approval.

Harrison's gaze locked onto hers. Deep inside his chest, a strange, tight sensation bloomed. It felt like a physical constriction around his ribs. He immediately categorized it as a physiological response to excess caffeine consumption from his morning espresso.

He slowly pulled his chair back to the table and sat down. He adjusted his cuffs, making sure they were perfectly even, avoiding looking at the red, irritated skin on his wrist.

"Given that this is our initial synchronization period," Harrison began, his tone reverting to that of a doctor delivering a diagnosis, "a heightened stress response due to the importance of this arrangement is... a statistically acceptable margin of error."

Autumn exhaled. The breath rushed out of her lungs in a long, shaky sigh. The crushing weight on her chest evaporated.

Target tolerance threshold increased. Anomaly detected, ACE chimed, sounding genuinely confused.

Harrison reached out with a silver pen and pulled the printed schedule back toward him. He drew a single, perfectly straight black line through the first fifteen minutes of the itinerary.

"However," Harrison said, his eyes flicking up to meet hers, cold and demanding. "You will immediately recalibrate your focus. You will utilize the remaining time to compensate for the lost efficiency. Is that understood?"

Autumn looked at the dense, terrifying schedule. Her muscles ached with the desire to run back to bed, but she forced a compliant nod.

"Yes," she said. Then, pushing her luck to solidify the lie, she added softly, "Thank you for understanding, Harrison."

The soft, grateful tone, paired with the lingering redness around her eyes, hit Harrison's visual receptors like a physical blow.

He blinked rapidly, his jaw clenching. He abruptly looked away, flipping his laptop open with far more force than necessary. The plastic hinges groaned in protest. He began typing, his fingers striking the keys with heavy, aggressive clicks.

The next hour dragged on in agonizing silence. The only sounds were the aggressive clacking of Harrison's keyboard and the soft rustle of Autumn turning pages.

Autumn stared at the dense paragraphs of macroeconomic theory. The black text began to blur and swim on the white paper. Her eyelids felt like they were lined with lead.

She desperately tried to stifle a yawn, keeping her mouth shut, but her nostrils flared and her eyes watered.

She glanced up.

Harrison's pale eyes were fixed on her, staring right over the top edge of his laptop screen.

Autumn's spine snapped straight. She grabbed a highlighter, uncapped it, and leaned over the textbook, pretending to be deeply engrossed in a complex paragraph.

Under the cover of her hand, she slowly drew a crude, lopsided turtle in the margin of the page.

Harrison watched the subtle movement of her hand. He saw the way her head drooped slightly before she caught herself. He didn't say a word. He just kept watching her, a microscopic, almost invisible tightening pulling at the corner of his mouth.

Exactly two hours after she arrived, Harrison closed his laptop. The sharp click signaled the end of the execution.

"Today's objective is complete," he announced.

Autumn nearly sagged out of her chair in relief. She shoved the heavy books back into her tote bag, desperate to escape the suffocating air of the study room.

She slung the bag over her shoulder and turned toward the door.

"Autumn."

His voice stopped her dead in her tracks. It was cold, but there was a heavy weight to it that hadn't been there before.

She looked back. Harrison was standing perfectly still, his hands at his sides.

"Tomorrow. Same time," he commanded. "And ensure you bring the correct reference materials."

Autumn's fake smile froze on her face. She forced out a tight "Okay," shoved the glass door open, and practically sprinted out of the library.