Page 5 of Heat Me

I rubbed my chin. "Maybe Ragu hid it because he wanted to… uh—" Nope, I had no explanation.

"Hold on, let me check when the status changed."

A minute later, Nathaniel nodded, looking smug. "This commission: ‘Home Invasion Scenario,’ was set from the start to be visible only to you. Like, they specifically wanted you to take it."

Frozen, I stared at the screen. None of this made any sense anymore.

"Why?"

Nathaniel shrugged, still poking around. "Here’s something else. The commission isn’t new. The draft for it was created almost two months ago but was only activated a few days ago."

"Maybe that’s normal? All the contracting, meetings, discussing details… it could take that long to finalize things, right?"

"Maybe," Nathaniel said. "But look at this other assignment of yours: ‘Dog-man,’ right?"

I snorted. "Don’t even ask."

"Here. This one was created two weeks before ‘Home Invasion Scenario’ and went live three days later. Much faster turnaround. So no, it doesn’t always take two months."

"Perhaps Damien hesitated? Asked for time to think?"

"Possibly. But it still doesn’t explain why it was set specifically foryou."

"Could be nothing. Most likely he just wanted a purple alpha, being a rose omega himself. They might’ve waited until I was off probation and could take sex gigs."

"That could be the case," Nathaniel nodded. "But it kinda sounds like he was determined to find you. And now you’ve disappointed him." He narrowed his eyes at me.

"I just—"

Nate obviously still didn’t get it, so I just shrugged.

"Anyway, Fate has nothing to do with it. Ragu set the commission that way."

I snorted angrily. "C’mon! My laptop battery died, I was logged off, I was late—it has nothing to do with the status of this assignment! If that hadn’t happened, I would’ve chosen another commission for sure. But these strange occurrences prevented it. So, screw you and your doubts!"

Nathaniel frowned and lowered his head. "Okay, sorry. I didn’t mean to dishearten you. I—I’m a pessimist by design. Nothing good ever happens in my love life…" He said it while looking away, and I sighed because he was kinda right. Nate continued, "I really hope it’s destiny. But exactly for that reason, if you want to pursue him, you’d better hurry. For all you know, he’s already found some other alpha to give him a few days of uninterrupted bliss."

That thought sent a wave of anxiety through me. I started pacing again. "He’s a computer science student. That narrows down the courses he could be taking."

Nathaniel perked up—he’d graduated in computer science last year himself. "And which campus did you say? East Coastline?"

"Yup."

He pulled out his phone, scrolling for a moment before showing me the screen. "Here. This is the schedule for the computer science department. There are a bunch of courses listed. You could check a few rooms—classes end at different times, sometimes fifteen minutes apart, sometimes half an hour. If Damien’s attending any, you should be able to spot him."

A sudden rush of excitement surged through me, pushing aside all my doubts. This idea was crazy, but maybe that’s exactly why it might work. "And perhaps that’s what I’ll do!"

I copied the link to the class schedule, then dashed off to the bathroom to quickly fix my hair. When I came back, Nathaniel was already waiting by the exit.

He made a step toward me and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Good luck, Storm. And I’m sorry for being a doubter. I would hate for you to be disappointed. But if he really is your True Mate, don’t let this chance slip away. Besides… if that’s the case, you’d probably end up wanting to see him again sooner or later anyway. That’s how it works, the whole ‘Pull’ thing, right?" His voice carried a hint of melancholy.

Almost unconsciously, he raised his other hand and touched his face, brushing over his scars—a habit he couldn’t seem to break. Even his good eye looked distant for a moment, almost as blank as the blind one. There was a depressive energy around him, and I felt a bit stupid.

After all, his chances were even smaller than mine, so I understood his pessimism in a way. "Sorry for dumping all this stuff on you, but thanks for your support, Nate."

As he nodded, I grabbed my car keys and gave him a bro pat on the shoulder. "I’ll let you know how it goes."

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