Holy double shit. She was an actualteenager. Trying to avoid making a Ren-shaped hole in the drywall, he nodded like a bobblehead. She didn’t seem to pick up on his discomfort.
“I have a knack for seeing patterns in data.”
Ren had a sneaking suspicion that was an understatement.
“I also practice radical honesty—involuntarily, I’m afraid. But I don’t think that’s why they recruited me.”
“Probably also why you’ll never be a field agent.”
“Damn. I hadn’t thought of that. Oh well, I’m still going to practice. Striving to improve as you say.” She thrust her index finger in the air to punctuate her comment.
Who the fuck is this girl?Ren couldn’t stop the small smile. She went from timid to chatterbox in the blink of an eye. She had returned to her laptop and was bending over it from a standing position, typing away. Ren felt his pants tighten. In his mind, a tiny version of him was waving two red semaphore flags and yelling, get out!
“Well, I’ve made the drop. So, see you around, I guess.”
See you around, I guess?! Smooth, Ren.
“Wait.” She walked right up to him and kissed him on the cheek while at the same time, with the subtlety of a freight train, dropping the pig-dancing flash drive into his outer coat pocket.
“Bye, Ren. Tell Twitch I said hello. And thanks for bringing my umbrella back.”
She beamed at him, and Ren nearly blushed. Of course, if he had actually reddened, Sofria would have never seen it. He was down the stairs and out the door faster than the blood could rush to his face.