The Avatar Experiment by Aubrey Parker

Author:Aubrey Parker [Parker, Aubrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sterling & Stone

CHAPTER FIVE

Chloe dressed down the next day, doing her best to appear average and unappealing. It was easiest on Sunday to take a break from being sexy. She loved her job and found sex empowering, but sometimes didn’t want the option. Every once in a while it felt nicer to sit at a table outside one of District Zero’s cafes, alone, sipping mimosas.

And so she went out on her Sunday errand wearing simple tan shorts, baggy and not at all hip-hugging, a plain blue tee, and sandals. She had her dark-brown hair back in a ponytail, utilitarian and not artificially demure, loose hairs sticking out from the sides in what felt like a disheveled mess. She wore no makeup and plain, not-especially-sexy undergarments.

But there was no fooling pheromones, it seemed. Eyes still followed Chloe as she walked down the street, and a man who’d turned to watch her pass actually walked face-first into an antique lamppost.

She finally made herself comfortable in a corner of a cafe’s patio, away from foot traffic. She ordered her mimosa and sat back to peruse Crossbrace magazines on her tablet.

When she looked up, she saw a man eyeing her from a nearby table.

For some reason, she didn’t feel compelled to look away — until she realized staring was rude.

She lowered her head, then looked up again a moment later. The man who’d been watching her had ordered coffee. He looked about 25, and something in his body language said that was a natural 25, not an older man stuffed with age-defying nanos.

He wore a black shirt and long pants. His arms were thin in a way that Chloe, who’d grown up geeky and liked guys with less classical beauty, found adorable. His face was lean and friendly, with dark eyes and darker eyebrows. He had puffy, unkempt brown hair.

Everything in his manner said he didn’t give a shit, that he’d ride a skateboard one day and work in an office the next —not that he looked like an office guy. Most office workers were Directorate, and this guy definitely looked Enterprise.

Chloe found herself appreciating his somehow rogue look. Her job with O technically placed her in the Directorate party (she got her fixed salary and wasn’t required to scrape for a living) but had always been Enterprise at heart. Her mom had been a free agent before joining O, and had always valued freedom over security, despite being willing to accept the latter to work for O. Chloe felt the same.

And this guy? He was clearly a free spirit. Just look at those tan forearms. That fearless white smile. The carefree hair.

She was staring again. She looked down, feeling herself blush.

When she looked back up, it was to see the chair opposite her being pulled out. The guy from across the cafe was sitting at her table.

“Excuse me?” she said.

The guy was cute, but he hadn’t been invited. Her knee-jerk reaction, as a woman who was approached often by men, was defense. There was a fine line between confidence and arrogance.

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