Page 18 of Siren Problems
Not danger.
Something...closer.
His eyes linger on mine longer than they should. My pulse skips. Just a little.
My fingers curl around the hem of my sleeve, grounding myself.
“Calder,” I start, not sure what I’m about to say.
But that’s when the door creaks open.
“Professor?!”
Mira’s voice cuts through the air like a spell gone sideways, and both of us jump a solid six inches. She bursts in, raincoat flapping, holding a stack of printouts and one of those ridiculous glowing tablets she’s enchanted to ping when ley anomalies occur.
“Oh gods, Iknewyou’d still be here! There was a surge uptick like twenty minutes ago and I tracked the leystream signature right to this shack?—”
She stops cold, eyes darting from me to Calder, eyebrows going from curious to suspicious in a single heartbeat.
I scramble back a little, clearing my throat. “Hey, Mira. You, uh... found us.”
Calder mutters something under his breath and shifts further away.
Mira looks at the single bench. The lantern. The proximity.
And then her eyes go wide. “Oh no.”
“It’s not what it looks like,” I say quickly.
“Itlookslike sexual tension with a side of ley dysfunction,” she whispers, horrified.
I bury my face in my hands.
“I brought new data,” she adds, recovering, shoving the tablet at me. “But we can talk later. Or never. Sorry. I’m gonna—bye!”
She vanishes back into the rain with all the grace of a spooked deer.
The door swings shut behind her.
Silence falls again, but it’s not the same. The thread between us has snapped, replaced by awkwardness, embarrassment, and a fresh wave of “what the hell am I doing?”
I rub my temples. “I forgot I’m a scientist.”
Calder stands slowly. “You forgot you’re being watched.”
That stings more than I expect.
But he’s not cruel about it. Just... distant again. Wall rebuilt. Shell back on.
I hate how much I miss that glimpse of something soft.
“I should go,” I mutter.
He doesn’t argue.
Just watches as I gather my gear, tablet still buzzing faintly with Mira’s new data.
Before I leave, I glance back at him. His silhouette in the fading lantern light is sharp and lonely.
