Page 42 of What If It's You?

“Why?” She turned to me, not even slowing down as her eyes raked my face, as though she were attempting to catalog me.

“Because I think I might be…experiencing multiple worlds?”

She came to a dead stop, glaring at me from under her lowered brow.

“You’re one ofthose? Jesus, if I’ve told Henry once, I’ve told him a thousand—” She squeezed her eyes shut, inhaling and exhaling a long, loud breath through her nose. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m very busy, but thank yousomuch for coming in.” With an acid approximation of a smile, she continued on, somehow moving even faster.

“Please wait. I promise I’m not just…”

“Hallucinating? Forgive me for not believing you,” she snipped, not looking back.

“I’m not claiming I was born a time traveler or something,” I said, frustration creeping into my voice. “I think it’s related to a project my company’s been working on in the quantum computing space.”

She glanced over her shoulder at me, eyes narrowed.

“Rea-lly. And where do you work?”

“Pixel? I have a card if you don’t believe that, either.” I fumbled in my bag for one and passed it to her. Her eyes flicked over it rapidly. She blinked a few times but didn’t say anything. “I’m in marketing, obviously, but my good friend works on Lightning projects and needed…not test subjects, exactly. But I guess test subjects? Apparently having more users helps the AI learn faster, and not that many people at our office are cleared to know about projects that haven’t been fully green-lit…” I rolled my eyes, feeling myself getting bogged down in the details. “The point is I think this might have a specific cause, but no one at work seems to think there’s even an issue, and if Ireallywent into the details they’d probably have me committed—”

Dana stopped short so quickly I practically hip-checked her into a nearby planter. She seemed unfazed.

“What, precisely, do you believe is happening to you? No, scratch that.” She shook her head once, sharply. “What is this project, and how would it be able to makeanythingrelated to my work happen to you?”

“I mean…telling you any of that would definitely violate my NDA,” I said, anxiety creeping in. When I’d looked her up I’d beenthinking about me, the person, but wasn’t all this just a side effect of me, the employee? Her gaze was so penetrating, it was hardnotto wonder what was going on in her head, what she might do with this.

“Trust me, I’m not planning to share. Believe it or not, my reputation is important to me, too, and gossiping about what Ithinksome corporate behemoth might be working on isn’t going to win me the respect of my peers,” she said tartly. Then, noticing something in my face, she softened slightly. “If it will make you more comfortable, it’s common knowledge in the theoretical physics community that Pixel has been pursuing more…dramaticuser-facing applications for quantum computing than what we’re currently seeing in the space. Most of my colleagues have fielded at least one job offer from them. I’ve had four. It’s not hard to guess the general parameters of their work from that data.”

“That’s all well and good, but if you’re not even interested in helping me…”

“I won’t know if I’m interested in helping you until I know what you believe happened,” Dana said, widening her eyes as though this were painfully evident. “If you don’t want to continue this conversation, fine. I have to get to the lab anyway, and this little chat has already put me”—she glanced at her watch—“three minutes behind schedule. But if you’re worried enough about this…experienceto track me down at my office, I’d say you very much do want to keep talking. And you’ve caught just enough of my interest that I’m willing to entertain that. But first, you’re going to have to trust me.”

It was a risk…but if I didn’t get answers, losing my job was going to be the least of my worries.

“Okay. But can we go somewhere a little more private?”

She considered for a moment, then nodded.

“The courtyard near my lab is almost always empty. And if it’s not, I’ll scare off whoever’s using it.”

“How will you do that?”

“I’m a chaired professor in one of the most competitive disciplines on campus. And even if I weren’t…Aren’tyouintimidated?”Her lips curled up at the corner, eyes twinkling with humor for a split second, then she nodded again and started off. “This way.”

We wove through the campus until we arrived at a large, blocky building, its mirrored glass turning the sunlight blinding. Dana led us down a narrow walkway at the side, swiping her ID card to open a series of gates until we arrived at an open courtyard in the building’s interior, totally hidden from the street-facing side. As predicted, it was empty.

“Why don’t more people come here?” I said as we settled onto a bench beneath a perfectly tended Japanese maple, its leaves a vibrant burgundy. “It’s lovely.”

“If you’re here in the first place, it’s to use the lab facilities, not sit and contemplate the pastoral beauty of the season,” she said with a shrug, perching next to me, posture ramrod straight. “Now. Explain.”

Haltingly, I gave her a brief recap of what had been happening—the sketchiest of details on the AltR program, my abortive attempt to set up a profile, waking up in Drew’s bed, then slipping back and forth between the two worlds seemingly at random.

“And so far you’ve experienced only these two realities?” The sun was hitting her glasses in a way that made it impossible to read her expression.

“That’s right. And…I don’t know if it really matters, but Drew has always kind of been…”

“The one that got away?”

“More like the one I always wondered about. I think he probably feels the same way about me.” I was already breaching my NDA, I might as well own up to my work crush.

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