Page 6 of Detention with Daddies

I check my calendar. This is likely my new graduate student. We’ll be onboarding and giving her a tour today. Which will be a nice break from this monotony.

When she steps into the doorway, she smiles sweetly at her escort, Professor Salazar, and his returning smile is a surprise. I haven’t seen the man pay a woman this kind of attention since he started at the center.

“I certainly will ask then.” He winks at her before his attention turns my way, and he gives me a nod. I nod back and watch him disappear from sight.

The pretty woman hovering in my doorway shifts a little, and I wave her in. “Have a seat. Miss Olivia Lawless?”

“Yes. That’s me.” She steps in and sits, and when her gaze lands on the name placard in front of her, her eyes go wide. “You’re the program coordinator.”

I smile at her. It’s small, but it usually softens my face enough not to scare new people.

Usually.

“Normally, I would have someone here to help you with your onboarding paperwork and show you around, but she’s out on maternity leave, so you’re stuck with me, I’m afraid.” Although being stuck with me doesn’t seem to bother her like it would most new people.

“How trying.” Her humor is dry but her eyes twinkle with mirth, and I find myself smiling internally at her response.

“Indeed.”

She leans forward and holds a folder out to me. “I was emailed these to fill out before I arrived today.”

I take them appreciatively. It’s nice not to hold someone’s hand through this process. Even though it’s not usually my job. Flipping through the file, a quick glance at each paper shows everything in order.

Her competence thaws the icy professional in me a little. When I peer up at her again, she’s got a proud smile that she’s certainly earned.

“Well, alright, Miss Lawless. Why don’t we start with a tour, and then we’ll get you settled in your new lab.”

She dazzles me with her full smile. It’s rare that I find someone so open around me at first go. I’m not a monster of a boss or anything, but I have one of those faces. Always looks grumpy. It works for me most of the time because that means my employees don’t come to me with frivolous things.

However, I find that the majority of my employees are willing to come to me with bigger concerns. I’m notthatscary, and I doenjoy the mentoring part of this job. Which is what I’m usually doing instead of being stuck in my office.

“Let me just confirm where we’re setting you up, and we can begin.” I click around on my computer for a minute and find her lab—it’s one of the shared ones we keep for graduate students, and I mark it down so she can have it for reference after we’re done.

Olivia stands when I stand, and I gesture her out of my office, closing the door behind me. “Since we’re on the top floor, we’ll make a quick lap up here and work our way down. Most of it is offices and meeting rooms. The boring stuff.”

“What kind of meetings?”

We start the lap around the floor. “Administrative stuff mostly. Occasionally, we bring coaches and trainers and the like up here for more practical meetings. The ones where we break down regimens and plans on a larger scale rather than the demonstrations we do in the AT rooms.”

“And those are on the first floor?”

“They are. Some are on the second floor as well. It’s a fifty-fifty split with the labs. But the second floor will have smaller AT rooms for more specialized care, whereas the rooms on the first floor are more open to accommodate larger groups and different varieties of physical training.”

She nods in understanding, the glow of learning radiates off her so brightly that I’m already betting she will be a fantastic asset here.

“You’ll be stationed on the first floor, because as I understand it, you plan to work with a group of twelve to fifteen individuals.” I’ve read her proposal, and her project scope is quite the undertaking. Still, Olivia doesn’t seem daunted by it.

At least, not yet.

The top floor is uneventful, but when we traverse the second floor, her excitement is much more apparent. She bounces alittle when she walks, and how often she corrects herself—pushing her palms flat beside her hips—is adorable.

We peek in on a few ongoing, public sessions with small groups of athletes undergoing physical therapy with a single doctor.

“Is it common to have four or five on one like that for this kind of thing?” She blinks her green eyes at me in a thoughtful way.

“It is when they have a similar kind of injury they’re recovering from. Some individuals need one-on-one care, but many of the patients we see here work in group settings like this.” I steer her around for a glimpse at the labs our doctors use most often. A few more offices litter the back of the second floor as well.

Olivia pauses at Dr. Wright’s office, which is closed up, but she moves on quickly. “Waylen is your thesis advisor, correct?”

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