Page 23 of The Restoration Program
Nicole cleared her throat. “Babe, could you…?” She gestured for him to lower the carrying tray to the bridge.
He obliged hurriedly. It was a good thing she was sitting, or she might’ve fallen on her face. She slid down with as much dignity as she could muster. Dr. Burman observed with a calm expression, standing with his hands in his pockets like it didn’t bother him at all that Ryan towered over him.
“I’m Nicole,” she said, holding her hand out. Although the gesture came naturally, her breath caught when Burman shook her hand. She blinked hard, holding tight for a second too long. A shudder rushed through her as she released Burman’s hand and took a step back.
“Startling, isn’t it?” Burman said with a comforting smile.
She smiled tightly. “That’s one word for it.” Desperate to change the subject, she looked him up and down. “I’ll be honest. I was expecting you to be…”
“Taller?” Burman laughed and waved her off when she tried to apologize. “Don’t worry about it, you’re not alone.”
He set a hand on her lower back and guided her towards the refreshments, where the rest of the group politely pretended not to be watching her every move with equal interest. Ryan’s sleeve brushed against the rails as he walked alongside them. His nervous energy was suffocating, like he thought she might vanish into thin air if he wasn’t touching her.
Chatter tapered off again as she was brought into the throng.
“Our meeting will begin in just a few minutes. As usual, we’ll exchange names and stories during our formal discussion, but please give a warm welcome to Ryan Northe and Nicole Zhou, our newest Restored.”
Scattered applause andwelcomesresponded immediately. Nicole was struck by the sincerity of some of the faces around her, but she struggled not to cringe at the larger-than-life voices of the other normal-sized people. Glancing at Burman’s perfectly content expression, she wondered how he was able to address comparable titans with the same ease as he did the other NüPrints. A pang of envy stabbed at her. She couldn’t even be that calm in the presence of her own boyfriend.
Nicole forced a smile, realizing she probably looked petrified. Half of the couples seemed perfectly content to be near each other. Her eyes skated past them to linger on a woman comfortably seated in her partner’s hands while the two of them chatted with another couple who stayed close to each other using the railing. She tried to focus instead on the couples who had distanced themselves from each other.
Three NüPrints hung around their scaled water station—two tall men and a petite girl who spoke animatedly. As for their human partners, there was a woman with fire-engine-red hair, a man with a dark beard, and a teenager slumped in a chair as he scrolled through his phone. Nicole looked between the two groups, trying to gauge why they weren’t next to each other.
Maybe they were just grabbing a drink? Maybe they were secure enough to give each other space? Or maybe, Nicole thought with selfish hope, they were just as put off by the size difference as she was.
Whatever the case, she noticed with a flush of embarrassment, there wasn’t another carrying tray in sight.
Dr. Burman pressed a glass of water into her hands. Microscopic slivers of cucumber and basil floated on the surface, lending a sweet aroma as she took a sip. Behind her, she heard one of the other human partners offer Ryan the same refreshment.
“I read about you on the website,” Ryan said, returning his focus to Dr. Burman. “Impressive stuff, graduating from college at just twenty years old. You were one of the founding biologists on the Restoration Program team, right?”
“Too right. I like a man who does his research.” Dr. Burman beamed up at Ryan like a proud teacher. “You have to understand, a molecular biology specialization is both a calling and a curse. We typically end up wasting away growing bacteria in a petri dish—which is thrilling to watch, actually. Particularly a well-dyedStreptococcus.But when Robert and Ellen Fairbourne approached me ten years ago, it was like winning the lottery. You’ll get a chance to meet them and the rest of the board later this year, I’m sure.”
“So you helped them figure out how to…make us,” Nicole said, the words nearly catching in her throat.
His eyes held hers. “Yes.”
Nicole’s back teeth pressed together painfully.You did this to me.
Swallowing those words, she glanced him up and down and tried to muster some compassion. Like her, his deep mahogany skin didn’t have a single blemish, making it difficult to determine his age. She couldn’t help but wonder what he looked like before his Restoration, whether he had been as trim as he stood before her now, or if years behind a lab desk had caught up with him. If his hair had been thick and dark, or thinning and gray. She couldn’t contain her curiosity about what had been the end of him.
“And then… what happened?” she said delicately.
He cocked his head at the hesitancy in her voice. “What do you mean?”
She clenched her jaw, swearing she saw a spark of amusement in his eyes. “I mean… What happened that made you have to have the procedure?”
“I didn’thaveto have it,” he replied smoothly. “I chose voluntarily to vacate my original body to test the procedure. As you can imagine, there was plenty of skepticism. By undergoing Restoration myself, no one could question our team’s faith in it.”
Nicole looked up at Ryan, who met her gaze with wide eyes. In their stunned silence, Burman changed the subject with ease.
“You’re on day nine, correct?” he asked, giving a sympathetic smile to her mute nod. “This has been the longest week of your life, hasn’t it?”
“More like a whirlwind. It still feels like a dream being here now.”Or a nightmare. Feeling the familiar tug of despair on her face, Nicole brightened her expression, making sure Ryan could see it. “But nothing we can’t handle.”
Ryan gingerly rested his hand on the railing beside her. She tried to make it look like the most natural thing in the world as she leaned into his offered palm. Thankfully, he had the sense not to wrap his hand entirely around her—he simply brushed her side with his thumb and gave her thethat’s my girllook that made her toes curl happily.
Burman observed their interaction with an easy expression on his face, but Nicole had a feeling he could see right through her collected facade. Fake or not, he didn’t call her out on it. “Having a strong partner makes all the difference in the world,” he said approvingly.
