When Vera met Nick

Nicholas Salvatore had been having a great month.  His recent paper, ‘essence integration among invasive species: how what’s new can become old’, was currently in the running for the quarterly panel discussion.  If he was lucky, he’d be able to present his findings in front of the Dorchester elites.  It would be a dream come true.

And the good news had kept coming.  Last week, he had been promoted to a Researcher 2ndgrade.  From now on, he’d be the one choosing what projects he would be working on.  No longer would he have to beg for lab time.  And, from now on, he would have a dedicated budget set aside for anything he wanted.  The director’s office had even told him that he could hire a lab assistant.  He had filled out the paperwork immediately, and was looking forward to seeing who Intake would send him.

Currently, he was on his way to answer a summons from the Center-Intake liaison who acted as the point of contact between Research and Intake.  Nick had been surprised at the request for a meeting, and couldn’t help but wonder if he had made a mistake with his paperwork.  He had made sure to review what he had sent, and everything had looked in order.  There was nothing he could do, other than just go and see what the liaison wanted.

He found the liaison’s office, and smoothed his robes before pinging the door.  Taking a deep breath, he sent out his request to enter.  Seconds later, he received permission, and he opened the door.

The room was large, and the sparse furnishings made the office look rather empty.  Aside from a large rug, there wasn’t anything to indicate any style or preference.  With only a large simple desk and chairs, the entire room seemed impersonal.  The bare wood walls, along with the absence of any color, made Nick feel uncomfortable.

Nick entered cautiously, and asked, “Is this Vera Pendleton’s office?  I have a meeting scheduled wi-”

The young woman behind the desk hadn’t looked up from what she was doing when Nick entered, and she interrupted his question harshly.  “Yes, You’re in the right place Mr. Salvatore.  Have a seat,” she ordered, and raised her hand to point at the chairs in front of her desk.

Nick gulped, as the woman still hadn’t looked at him.  He hadn’t felt like this since he was called into his father’s office as a child.  Nick couldn’t even understand why the woman was so intimidating, it’s not like Nick even worked for her.  In fact, she had no bearing on his life, so why was he feeling like this.

Nick’s brow furrowed in confusion as he tried to analyze why he was feeling so nervous.  He took the seat she was pointing at, and asked, “So, Ms. Pendelton, what can I do for you?”

Rather than answer, Ms. Pendleton kept reading the pages on her desk and occasionally making notes.  The silence seemed to grow louder, as Nick had no idea what was going on.  Was she ignoring him?  Had she heard him?  Was he supposed to wait for her to finish?

He never liked social situations, they always made him feel a little awkward.  But, this situation was so unusual, he could only assume he was missing something.  So, instead of making a rash decision, it was better to thoroughly go through what he knew before he chose a course of action.  As Nick was a scientist, he decided to mentally create a flow chart along with a probability matrix.

Nick sat in the chair, completely at peace.  He started listing everything that had happened which even remotely connected to Center-Intake.  Then he created an ‘external factors’ list that included every conceivable interaction that would require his input.  He then took stock of the woman’s actions, and compared them to his previous interactions with people in positions of authority.  As the lists grew, he tried to correlate the data in order to see what caused her cool demeanor.

Unbeknownst to Nick, Ms. Pendleton had finished her paperwork, and was currently staring at the odd man who was sitting across from her.  She looked at him curiously, as she had expected him to be angry at being ignored, or at least put on the defensive.  The technique was well tested, and it always put her in a position of strength.  Seeing the man completely ignoring her, while seemingly lost in thought, was something she wasn’t prepared for.

Coughing lightly into her hand, she tried to catch his attention.  But, Nick was oblivious.  He was too caught up with the personality and causal analysis that he was currently working on.  His mind was awash with charts and possibilities.  He couldn’t figure out where the woman’s dismissive attitude had come from.  He needed more information.

Coming out of his thoughts, he looked over to see Ms. Pendelton staring at him in confusion.  Instead of apologizing for his actions, he asked, “Has there been an abnormal increase in injuries among promising lab technicians?  Or has Center-Intake been dealing with any workplace complaints from the Research department?”  Nick leaned forward with an exited look on his face.  If the woman answered yes to either question, the math in his head would completely make sense.  In fact, the solution would be elegant!

Ms. Pendelton was completely lost.  She stared at the insane man with cold, hard eyes.  But the man seemed to have no problem patiently waiting for her answer.

“No, Mr. Salvatore.  Why do you ask?” she said coldly.

Nick furrowed his brow in annoyance.  ‘Damn.  That would have explained everything,’ he thought.

Dismissively waving his hand, he said, “I’m currently working on a situation model, and either of those events would have explained everything.  I can’t seem to figure out why you are being so rude.  It doesn’t make sense.  I must be missing something.  I’ll just be another few minutes.  Please go back to whatever you were doing.  I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon.”  He then leaned back in his chair, and returned to his mental math.

Ms. Pendelton was shocked.  How could someone be so completely clueless.  She had done her research, and she knew the man was from the noble house of Salvatore.  He was a prodigy, and had been climbing the ranks of the Research Center for years.  But his actions outside of the Center had been so odd, she had assumed he was playing a deep game.

Now that she was sitting across from him, she realized that she had been looking at the situation from the wrong perspective.  This man wasn’t some devious player, he was a scientist.  He was sitting across from her, trying to figure out her actions by applying mathematical models and logic diagrams.  She couldn’t help but smile at the man, he was adorable.

She folded her hands, and asked, “Why don’t you just ask me why I was being rude?”

Nick blinked a few times, his mental processes coming to a halt.  He cocked his head to the side, and said, “Wouldn’t that be futile?  If you were being rude, then you wouldn’t tell the truth when asked for a reason.  I need to first determine the instigating incident before I can address your concerns.  If you just wanted me to address an issue, then you wouldn’t have bothered having me come here and witness your display of rudeness.  As you clearly wanted me to see it, then it follows that I have to figure out the cause before we can talk about it.”

Ms. Pendleton replied easily, “What if the reason for the rudeness had nothing to do with you?”

Holding a finger up in the air as if his point was proven, he said, “Then you wouldn’t have scheduled a meeting with me!  So since I am here, it must be about me.  Now if you would be so kind as to give me some quiet, I’ll figure out what I’m supposed to do in a minute.  I have narrowed it down to something having to do with the Research division I was recently promoted into.  Don’t worry, I’ll get it.”

Ms. Pendleton couldn’t help it, and she burst out laughing.  Nick was shocked, and he couldn’t help but be offended.  The woman dared to question his math!

Standing up, he put his hands on his hips and said, “Excuse me, Ms. Pendleton.  I don’t appreciate you criticizing my findings before I have even completed them.  I’m still in the exploratory stages, and I’m confident that I will figure out what this is all about in short order.  There is no need to be insulting.”

Ms. Pendleton replied gently, “Mr. Salvatore, I apologize.  I was not laughing at your findings.  I was merely caught off guard by your enthusiasm for the subject.  Please take a seat, and let me tell you the reason I was being rude.”

Nick grimaced, but complied.  He muttered, “I would have figured it out on my own if you hadn’t been constantly interrupting me.”

Waiting for the man to sit down, she took a long look at him.  The man was around 5’10’’, well muscled, but lithe.  His dark features were complimented by his nearly obsidian eyes.  His robes were immaculate, and spoke of his noble background.  She found him attractive, and his expressive face caused her to smile.

She said, “Mr. Salvatore, the effort you spent on trying to figure out my game is admirable but unnecessary.  I was merely acting rude in order to ensure that I was in a position of power when our meeting started.  It had nothing to do with you or the Research Center.  It was simply a social power play.”

Nick stared at her blankly for a few seconds.  Then he shot to his feet in anger.  He shook his finger at the woman, and said, “That’s unacceptable.  I just wasted 10 minutes on this.  You can’t do things like that!  Actions have to have a reason.  Otherwise, it’s just that noble game nonsense, which is just wasteful.  Wait!  Is this about my family?”  Seemingly coming to a realization, he collapsed into the chair.

He looked completely defeated, and said, “Fine.  What do you want from my family.  Wait! Don’t tell me, I don’t care.  Just write it out, and I’ll get it to my brother sometime this week.  In the future, could you just send me a ping with everything written out.  I’m too busy to deal with this nonsense.”

Ms. Pendleton was smitten.  Nicholas Salvatore was like a little boy inside a man’s body.  He wasn’t like any man she had ever met.  She was used to dealing with devious minds, who played the game like it was an aspect of their existence.  But the man in front of her was totally dismissive of politics, and seemingly unable to display an iota of guile.

She said gently, “You don’t have to fear Mr. Salvatore.  I want nothing from your family.  I was recently promoted to the position of liaison between your Research Center and Intake.  Your paperwork asking for a lab assistant just offered me an opportunity to meet with you.”

Nick sat up in the chair, seemingly perking up at her directness.  He said, “So you’re not playing some stupid game that I’m going to have to be in the middle of?  You were just being mean for the sake of being mean?”

Smiling, she said, “Yes, Mr. Salvatore.  May I call you Nicholas?”

Nick nodded happily, and said, “Sure.  I don’t mind.  And as long as you don’t have an ulterior motive, feel free to be rude again.  I’ll just ignore it.  My sister is like that, so I’m used to it.”

Ms. Pendleton smiled and said, “Thank you, but I don’t think that will be necessary.”  She tapped a finger on the papers in front of her and said, “Now Nicholas, how about we try and find you a lab assistant.  I see here that you have recently been focusing on the field of essence integration.”

Nick’s smile seemed to light up the room, as there was nothing in the world he liked talking about more than science.  He immediately started babbling about his current research, and what he hoped to accomplish now that he had his own lab.

Vera Pendleton just smiled, and listened to the adorable man chatter about his plans.  She decided then and there that this was the man she would marry.  She could keep him focused, and with her help, he would be running Center-Research within 50 years.

Nick had stood up, and was using a hologram to display some charts and figures.  He was still chattering away, as Vera thought to herself, “Yes….. Vera Salvatore…. It has a nice ring to it.”