The Key to Fear - Kristin Cast Page 0,57

Rhett Owens who risk their lives to keep us safe.” The camera angle changed, and Vaughn shifted his attention without missing a beat. “And our gracious Key Corp is hosting the annual Rose Festival at Waterfront Park this weekend. We’ll report live and cannot wait to see you there, where we all will show our gratitude.”

The image froze on Vaughn and his overly active eyebrows.

Blair tented her fingers and swiveled her chair away from her desk to look out her windows. Soon, she would own this city. She’d earned it, and, more importantly, she’d burn anyone who got in her way.

If Elodie hadn’t read ahead in her nursing textbook (the real pages, not the pages of Vi hidden inside), and learned all about coronary events, she’d have thought that she was about to keel over from a massive heart attack. The muscle inside of her chest had never beat as hard as it beat now. She sucked air through her nose and released her breath through pursed lips.

Why was she so amped? It wasn’t like Aiden would be waiting for her when the elevator opened to the Long-Term Care Unit. They weren’t meeting in VR until after work. Her heart seemed to skip a beat. Elodie couldn’t wait. She was more excited than she had been the first time she’d toured the MediCenter, and she hadn’t thought anything could top that.

Since their skateboarding friend get-together, she and Aiden had communicated through handwritten notes attached to delivery bots. It was sweet and cute and mysterious and left her feeling like she was breaking the rules. In short, their new friendship was already frickin’ amazing.

The elevator reached the LTCU and Elodie nearly bounded over to Gus and the control panel.

“What’s got you so chipper this morning?” Dandruff swirled off Gus’s shoulders as he pulled on his rain jacket in his usual speedy effort to leave the moment she arrived.

Elodie dropped her backpack onto the floor and practically wiggled in place in an attempt to tamp down her excitement. “Just happy to be alive, I guess.”

Gus groaned heavy and deep. “That makes one of us.” He flipped up the collar of his jacket as he shuffled toward the elevator. “Everything’s been the same. Checked off all my duties.” He scanned his cuff and the metal doors opened immediately. “Oh, you got another one of those paper notes.” He motioned toward the folded slip resting on the corner of the control panel. “You do know what all this tech is for, right?”

Elodie plucked the note off the glass top and didn’t bother to answer Gus as the elevator closed and whisked him away to be a dark cloud over someone else. No matter how much he tried, Gus couldn’t ruin her mood. Nothing could make—

Something came up. Not going to be able to make it to the VR meeting. ☹

—MM

Aiden had done it again, canceled on her just before they were supposed to get together.

Elodie dropped into her chair.

It was weird that she and Aiden had sent so many notes but hadn’t actually seen each other since the Waterfront. Elodie saw each of her other friends nearly every day. Sure, that list really only included Rhett, who had been chosen for her, and Astrid, who she’d known since grade school—but still, either through vidlink or VR, they were never out of contact for more than half a day.

After she and Aiden had their in-person meetup, Elodie had suggested a VR date—a simple friend get together. Where didn’t matter. She just wanted to see him again. In a totally innocent, building-a-friendship sort of way. But Aiden had no-showed each scheduled meetup, leaving Elodie and Astrid (eager to meet the note-writing oddball) to wonder whether or not he was truly as nice as he seemed.

Every morning at work, Elodie would arrive to a disgruntled Gus, and a sealed note with a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why Aiden wouldn’t show up. If they’d first met in VR instead of in person, Elodie would have thought that he’d hacked his avatar and altered his appearance, which would explain why he didn’t want to meet in the real. But they’d met in person first, and there’s no way Aiden could have faked those long lashes, emerald eyes, or sculpted arms.

She shook her head.

Why was she thinking about how great his arms looked under his slightly too tight T-shirt? She was engaged. Although, as Astrid had told her many times, engaged wasn’t married. And she was pretty sure that