“I told you not to come in today” I went from barely talking to this man to being told what to do by him.

I don’t think so.

“You can’t tell me what to do, and besides you told me that Melvirn was pissed and he isn’t. He sent me an email this morning telling me that he knew I had a long night but he was thankful”

As I am saying all of this to Huxley I realize that I didn’t have enough time to drop the stolen folders on my desk and I still had them clutched underneath my lab coat. My hand tensed over my coat where I was holding the folders and I saw Huxley's eyes follow the motion. He chose to ignore it and looked back up and me, not quite eye contact but I would take it. I couldn’t tell how long it had been since I last spoke so I rolled my eyes and looked directly at Liam.

“so?” he finally decided to speak up

“So what?” is all he had to say. I am so done listening to him and I desperately need to get these files out of my coat.

“Huxley I don’t understand you, first you are mean to me then you are nice, you cover for me and then you tell me not to come in. You lie about why I shouldn’t be here and then call me disposable. Then you go and say nice things about my research and tell me how much I'm not disposable. So what the hell do you want and why did you pull me into the lunch room cause I'm not sure how much longer I can be here with you” I take a deep breath in then out and wait for Huxley to answer me. I am no longer able to look him in the eyes and instead stare at my feet.

“What did you take from his office” My face goes pale, how can he know I took something?

He then looks down at my hand that's clutching the spot where the files sit.

“Show me or I will get them myself” Get them himself what the fuck does that mean

He is the most arrogant, self-involved, asshole if I have ever-

“chose now” my thoughts are cut off as Huxley opens his mouth, and takes a step closer to me.

We are now about an arm's distance apart and I try to assess how close I can let him get before I give in. I guess another option is to scream and run out of the lunch room but I have a feeling drawing attention to this situation will do more harm than good. Ok, so stubbornness it is.

“I didn’t take anything, and if you come any closer I can consider that workplace harassment” ok maybe I am overreacting but if Liam sees these files he will know I'm up to something.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Why can’t you just make this easy Anderson? '' Huxley says as he takes another step closer to me. My arm tightens on the files and I take a step back.

I quickly stopped when I realized I had just literally backed myself into a corner. This is when I start to panic. Huxley registers what is going through my mind and takes another few steps forward effectively caging me in. By this point, he is just one step back from being almost flush with me and he finally decided to stop inching forward. I am so flustered for so many different reasons, I got zero sleep, I am currently harboring stolen files, and Huxley's muscled shoulders are right in my line of sight. I angle my head down so I am staring at our shoes when I hear and feel Liam's breath on the top of my head.

“Just give me what you took Anderson '' I have come this far I may as well go down trying. I relax my face into a cold stare and lift my eyes to meet him.

I see him simultaneously soften and tense at my gaze. I grit my teeth and say

“I. Did. Not. Take. Anything.” well fuck, that was the wrong answer because Huxley lifts his hand to the arm that's grasping my coat and places his hand on my shoulder.

Ok, I can handle this. He is just trying to get under my skin. He then slowly starts moving his hand down my arm, his thumb slightly brushing the inside of my bicep. Oh no oh no oh no I should not have done this. I should have just given up and given him the flies when he asked. I tensed as he got down to my hand and then slid his fingers around mine. If he reached a little further he would feel the files wedged underneath my coat. I finally gained the small bit of confidence I had left when I heard Huxley's breath catch. I knew that I needed to match him. That was going to be the only way to get him to retreat and let me get away with those files. I took a deep breath, looked back up at him, smiled, and said

“You could at least take me out for dinner first” before stepping a little bit closer so our chest was a breath away from touching.

Huxley's eyes were no longer on me, they went to his hand that was still over mine. He had stilled and his breathing became harder. I had gotten under his skin. One more display and I knew he would be running out of here. It was time for me to end this. I lifted my hand to his face and grasped his chin, I turned his gaze to me as I said

“The least you can do is look at me” I blinked slowly at him through my eyelashes as I felt his hand drop from my hand and fall away from the files hidden under it.

I didn't drop his chin as I felt him swallow hard. I smiled as I said

“We should do this again, minus all the accusing” I then patted his face and shoved past him out the door.

As soon as I was out of his sight I took a steadying breath and put my hand on the wall to support my wobbling legs. As uncomfortable as that situation made me, I am hoping my efforts give me at least a week away from any distractions and accusations on the Huxley front.

When I finally make my way back to my desk I slip into my chair, slide my only locked drawer out and shove the files in. There is no way I will be looking at those files at LAB TECH, yes my display with Huxley may have gotten me some time away from him but I wouldn't take the risk. I could not let him know what I was doing and I needed to get to the bottom of it. I try to take my mind off of it while I lock the folders away and pull up my research on Gene Mutations. All of my equations and science behind my formulas are done through a system that a programmer at LAB TECH created for us. We can input our end goal and the system will run tests on our equations and see if we have achieved it. As helpful as this program is, I have never gotten a green code. This means that all of my attempts at the solution have been either fatal or just incorrect. The only issue is that without real cells to test on I can’t see the effects that the incorrect solutions have on the cells. Meaning I don't know what to tweak to fix it without making the cell die. I Have come the closest I have ever come in the past week. When I ran my test I got a surviving cell for about 2 minutes before it died. I have been working on a hypothesis to fix the last experiment I tried but I never got a chance to try it on the program. I input my data into the system, crossed my fingers, and ran the test. After 2 minutes the cell was still alive, the same after 3, and 4, and 5. After 5 minutes I got an error code and was informed that the cell did not die but instead did not cure what was intended. This is the closest I have ever come to a positive result! And the cell didn’t die. If only I had real cells to practice on. After one more attempt, I got the cell to continue changing for 7 minutes until I got the same error code. As horrible of an idea as it is I suddenly realize it's the only one. If I want funding, and for Melvirn and Huxley and everyone else to see that I'm not disposable, I will finally have to use what I got. As soon as I can create the mixture of compounds I theorized, I am going to start human testing. On myself.