found it did nothing for him. On the left side of the screen was a long set of bars, like a volume control. The lowest meant no interest, the highest, strong interest. That first voice he marked almost at the bottom.
The voice changed, this one a little deeper and slower, asking him to pick a topic to talk about. He could see they’d used his profile to build the content around him—his career featured prominently, as did the gym. He decided to start with his job, since it was the focus of his life and the reason he was using the agency in the first place. A series of voices followed, talking about their work, asking questions about his that he could click preset answers to on the screen, so it felt like more of a conversation than an audition. A few voices piqued some interest, but for the most part, they washed over him without leaving a trace. When he moved onto the gym as a topic, it only got worse. Some of the voices were downright grating, and he wished there was a way to indicate a negative instead of just a no. By the time he reached the end, he was ready to tear off the headphones and give up. But there, on the screen, the last topic blinked innocently.
Dining out. William was no chef and had never taken the time to learn to cook, but everyone had to eat to live. He could afford to eat out whenever he had a hankering for good food. He hadn’t been that lucky as a child. His father’s inattentive cooking had left a lot to be desired, but hey, there had to be some benefits to growing up. Already suspecting another dead end, he selected the last topic and settled in to listen and answer. The first few voices provoked neutral reactions, and he was tempted to call it a day before his mood got any sourer, but then a voice came on that stopped him in his tracks.
“My guilty pleasure is a chocolate chip muffin heated just enough that the chocolate inside melts, and you have to lick it off your fingers as you tear it apart.”
William licked his lips, almost tasting the melted chocolate on his tongue. His heart skipped a beat as he dialed the bars up to the highest setting. To his surprise, that voice kept talking. “And, of course, all good muffins should be washed down with a hot drink. But it can’t be any hot drink. Match flavor to flavor. Cinnamon or chocolate with hot chocolate. Blueberry with coffee. And it’s a sin to eat carrot cake with anything except tea. A proper breakfast tea, with a deep, rich flavor.”
The words might as well have been nonsense—William was no expert on flavors—but that voice… Faced with another blank bar, he dialed it to the highest setting once more, hoping to be rewarded with another glimpse of that fascinating voice. Disappointment surged through him when it moved on, and he was left wanting more. The next few voices rolled over him, and he decided to log out, surprised to get a message almost immediately on his phone.
‘Scent samples for your chosen selections will arrive by courier tomorrow. Please follow the instructions carefully.’
Scent samples? When Micah said they didn’t rely on physical appearance, he hadn’t been joking. He thought he’d get to see a photo sooner rather than later. But maybe that would be the end of the process, rather than the start.
As he shut down his laptop, the rough sketches for a new project caught his eye. He tugged them to the center of his desk and flipped through them. He had a sudden thought about the windows, grabbing a pencil and making some adjustments. In his mind’s eye, he could picture his vision clearly. He’d struggled to do that for months. As he finished his sketch, the burst of energy faded, and the tiredness that came with the end of the workday sank back under his skin.
“Wow.” His voice echoed around his empty office as he stared at what he’d accomplished.
He’d known the whole point of a muse was to stimulate the creative inspiration he needed to do his job. But he’d never expected such a strong reaction to nothing more than a disembodied voice. As skeptical as he’d been about the whole concept of muses, if his reaction to that voice was any indication, this looked very promising. Maybe his career wasn’t