was always tight, he made sure that Donnie wouldn’t suffer because of it. The only thing that he was never able to do was to send Donnie to one of those schools for gifted children. They always got the brochures, and there was a lot of interest from educators in having him at their school. But the tuition was what held them back. Even when Donnie got scholarships from these places, it was never enough. Raymond finally decided to save up the money so Donnie could go to whatever college he wanted. As cliché as it sounded, his sights had been on MIT. When he got in, it was as though all of his dreams had come true.
Unfortunately, MIT only fulfilled his school-related dreams. He never did make any lifelong friends, or get anything in the form of a social life from there. It was a sacrifice that he didn’t like making. He loved being in his lab and discovering new things. He enjoyed his share of science-related books and solving equations that others could not. Above all else, he loved to make new things. He was always inventing something to make life easier for people. He got his praise from the right people, of course, but not from those he wanted to actually impress. Most people in his age group would be impressed for about a minute, and then go about their lives. No one would invite him to join them for anything. No one would hang out with him. Those were the little things that made him question if anything he did was worthwhile.
Life wasn’t too bad on the professional side of things, though. He finally had his own business, Vaughn Industries, which was also a lab where they did all sorts of experiments. Even though it was technically designed to work on things that could help the environment, he would do his own work now and then. The group was small, but it was running well. All they needed was one more person to make their little family complete. The interviews had been held and someone was finally chosen. That person would start soon, and would learn the ropes in the office quickly.
Pam, Donnie’s receptionist, had told him a little bit about the applicant that the team had picked. Olivia Mendoza was only a few years younger than him, and she had finally completed her bachelor’s degree. She didn’t have a whole lot of experience working anywhere, but she was eager to learn. That was the one thing that got their attention—she was not a scientist, and that was okay. What everyone wanted was someone who had never worked here before. Olivia admitted that her science knowledge was mostly from college requisites, but that didn’t bother them. She had no problem letting her first big job be in a lab. She had worked in a salon for a few years, but that had been part time. Pam was the one to let Donnie know as soon as the position was filled. He wanted to know what science classes she had taken, but Pam shook her head at that. That also meant that she probably would not want to be friends, which was a bit disappointing for him. It put an end to his thinking about telling the new employee his plans.
“She’s going to do those usual office things—file papers, type up stuff, answer calls if needed, and once in a while, she’ll run a few errands.” Pam explained one day. Donnie had stopped by to find out about their new employee and she had all the details. “Would you like her to help you with anything?”
“Um, I don’t need her at the moment. I think where you have here is a good place to start. Once she’s comfortable there, we might move her up to other jobs.” He’d looked at her application and photo. She was very pretty, with thick brown hair, dark eyes, and tan skin. However, he was far more interested in her credentials. As suspected, her bachelor’s degree was in sociology. He didn’t want to look down on anyone who had their degree in liberal arts, but he wondered if she was in the right place. It probably wasn’t the kind of job that she would have liked to find after college.
“When does she start?”
“Next month. She’s going to be in the office a few doors from yours,” Pam went on. “Try and be nice to her, Dr. Vaughn. I know she doesn’t have