I needed to convey that it took a long time for Raymond to arrive at the office after Riley called him there, and that means that I need the prose to continue for at least a few paragraphs. So first, Maya gets distracted by her body (her thirst, her discomfort), which takes a little time. Then I think, who's around? Well, Riley's around, what could they do? They could get her another bottle of water, and I can make them look a little mysteeeerious by being sneaky about it.
Okay, so she takes the water. How does she do it? Well, she's still feeling a little manic, so she snatches it up... but maybe she's starting to calm down, so she catches herself forgetting her manners, and that uses up a little more time, and there's a fun little made-up fact banter scenelet.
“Raymond, can I get you in here for a moment?” they spoke, turning their head slightly to address the standing microphone on their desk, their voice shifting timbre in some way I could never quite pinpoint, but which I suspected was their “computer voice.” They glanced at me and then back to their monitor, adding, “Priority two, send.”
They looked back towards me, and I set the empty bottle down on their desk slightly harder than I intended, opening my mouth to speak, but they held up their hand again. Their eyes flicked to their monitor for a moment and they nodded once before adding, “Give it a moment more, Maya. Raymond will be here in a moment, and I'm sure he'll want to hear this as much as I do.” My need to start talking, to get this idea out of my head and begin to make it real, warred angrily with the urge to show off for my crush, and in the confusion I nodded sullenly, settling back into the chair as my breathing continued to slow.
I stewed in silence for what seemed like an eternity. I didn't dare to look down at my computer, because I did not trust myself not to get absorbed in it, not even a little. I wished, at that moment, that I hadn't finished the water so quickly, just so I'd have had something to do while I waited. I glanced down to see whether I'd left any liquid at all in the bottle, which was when I discovered that Riley had swapped out the empty for a full one without my even noticing. I grabbed for it, which was when the part of my brain that had been screaming bloody murder for the past five minutes finally got through to me. I froze for a moment, and then I gently picked it up off the desk. I deliberately forced myself to look up and meet Riley's gaze, and I said, “Thank you,” with all the grace I could muster.
“Not a problem, Maya,” they reassured me, their eyes crinkling slightly. “After all, they say Archimedes was autistic too.”
I blinked in surprise. That was not a factoid I'd ever heard before. “Wait, he was?” I asked curiously.
“Well, he was reported to have had such a brilliant insight that he leapt out of a bathtub and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse,” they mused. “You tell me, Maya,”
“He was,” I breathed, and I let my wonder show on my face, feeling a sudden kinship with the long-dead philosopher.
“As long as you can restrain yourself from streaking through the office during business hours, I think we'll be fine,” they teased, and I could tell that I was coming down off my victory high because I caught the teasing note in their voice.
I still flushed, but since I knew it was a tease, I knew they didn't actually need reassurance that I would never under any circumstances have done any such thing. Instead, I gave them a cheeky grin and asked, “Does that mean I can streak through the office after business hours?”
“Not if I ever catch wind of it,” they countered, so quickly that I knew they'd been baiting exactly that response out of me. The repartee was so satisfying that it sent me into a giggle fit, tears of mirth welling up in my eyes. I loved having a boss who knew how to properly banter. “Come on in,” they added, which made very little sense to me until I looked up and saw they were speaking to Raymond, who had presumably just shown up, “and close the door, because Maya's about to get loud.”
I bristled with indignation—I knew how to moderate my own volume!—but that melted away when Raymond spoke up. “Sounds exciting,” he replied in his gorgeous low baritone as he shut the door behind him. “Whatcha got, Brown?"
