Chapter 1

Becka

I sat outside Dr. Evan’s office waiting while she finished an advisee session with a freshman. I knew she was a freshman because she was in tears. I remembered that feeling from years ago; too far from home, afraid that any grade less than an A would equal flunking out of college, but, even working as hard as I could, had earned a C. In Psychology. My major. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

After another fifteen minutes, Dr. Evans got the student calmed down enough to have a conversation about her classes for next term, then sent her on her way. Walking the student to the door, a blond, waifish creature who didn’t look older than twelve, never mind the age of a college student, Dr. Evans smiled at me and welcomed me into her office.

“Bet you miss those days, huh, Becka?” she asked me, gesturing for me to have a seat in the chair next to her desk.

“Not even for a moment,” I laughed as I dropped my bag at my feet. “I don’t think any year of college was as hard as that first year.”

Dr. Evans nodded. She was my thesis advisor, a younger woman herself, probably in her early thirties, and very beautiful. She had long, dirty blond hair, worn tied back for work. She dressed to the nines; suits only, heels, the works. Sitting next to her, I was her virtual opposite. I had jet black hair that was too short to wear up; it hung in a bob and was cut at angles to just below my chin. Dressing in jeans and a sweater was dressing up for me; my norm was yoga pants and a tank top or a sweatshirt if it was cold outside.

Dr. Evans hadn’t been my advisor in undergrad, but, once I’d entered grad school and declared my thesis, she had been assigned as my thesis advisor. I couldn’t believe my luck; she was on the front lines of research in food science and nutrition, the area I wanted to start with my thesis, continue with my PhD, and, someday, maybe catch the Nobel Prize.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” I asked. She had texted me yesterday and asked if I could come in and speak with her before her class that night. “I wanted to see what your thoughts were for possible internships. If you’ve scoped out any companies or research labs.”

It was my turn to feel a little chagrined. “I haven’t had the time to check anything out,” I said, feeling my face turning red. “I will, I have a few I’m interested in.”

Dr. Evans smiled. “Relax, you’re not in trouble, silly. I wanted to give you a heads-up about next week. Dr. Oliver Weeks, the CEO of Neuotova, is going to be coming in for a series of guest lectures. I’ll be turning my class over to him for a few nights, and I wanted to invite you to sit in on as many as you can, all of them if you like. I’m hoping that you can connect with him and that he may be able to offer you an internship.”

I tried to keep my mouth from dropping open, and I think I was largely successful, but I couldn’t keep my eyes from opening wide. “Dr. Evans, that’s such an amazing opportunity, thank you!”

“Your academic record is nearly flawless, and you’ve got huge potential, especially in research. I’m going to mention your name when I meet with him this week. I’ll try to introduce you next week, but, if I can’t, don’t feel afraid to go up and meet him yourself. He’ll know your name.” Dr. Evans smiled at my expression.

“I can’t thank you enough for that, Dr. Evans, truly. I’ll definitely be at your class next week; is he there every day?” Dr. Evans taught from 7-10pm, Monday through Thursday.

“Yes, so you’ll have plenty of time.”

“I’m so excited, thank you so much!” I stood up and Dr. Evans did as well. She hugged me.

“You’ve got a very bright future, Becka; I want to help you out in any way I can.”

I left Dr. Evans’ office on a cloud. I always ride the bus to and from campus, and normally I feel like the ride goes pretty quickly. Today, though, I couldn’t get home fast enough. My roommate, Lisa, would absolutely die when she heard about the opportunity that had basically been just handed to me.

“Not handed to you,” Lisa said when I told her. “You’ve worked your ass off your whole life to get to where you are, and now you’re seeing some of the payoff. No one has ever handed you anything.”

She was right. My parents had divorced before I was old enough to walk. I lived with my mom until she passed away when I was sixteen, at which point the courts decided that I was mature enough and reliable enough to live on my own since no one could locate my dad. I had known for most of my life that, if I wanted to go to college, I was going to have to do it on my own, so I did. I studied, didn’t party, got scholarships, worked out a payment plan to pay my undergrad in installments, all the while working full time to save money to live and to pay for school.

“I can’t believe this,” I said, shaking my head. “This could be the opportunity of a lifetime.”

“Is the opportunity of a lifetime, Becka. This is so exciting! We have to celebrate.”

“Why don’t we wait until I actually meet the man next week and see if he offers me an internship before we start the celebration.” I was always reminding Lisa to not get ahead of herself, and she was good at reminding me to not hold myself back. We were a good team.

“Fine,” she pouted. “We’ll hold off on the champagne until next week. But, I am going to make dinner tonight, and I won’t take no for an answer. I happened to pick up raw pizza dough, cheese, sauce, olives, pepperoni…”

“Okay, okay!” I said, putting my hands up. “Food police, you’ve got me! I’m totally down for some pizza.”

Oliver

“Well, I’ll be honest with you, Dr. Evans, I haven’t sat in a professor’s office in probably twenty years.” I looked around her office and I couldn’t believe how anyone could get anything done in this cramped little space. Barely a window, more like a piece of glass, over the left side of her desk, and the entire back wall was covered with book cases filled with books.

It was a far cry from my office at Neuotova, which was on the top level of a skyscraper downtown with floor to ceiling windows on two of the four walls. And, since my order that the company go paperless in 2013, I doubted even a single book could be found on a shelf in my office.

“Please, call me Amy,” Dr. Evans said. She was very cute, though not really my type. I don’t remember the last time I had the time or the inclination to date anyone. Being the CEO of a major corporation takes most of my time, and then, of course, there’s my side business. Between the two, my dates were typically lined up by my personal assistant and began roughly an hour before a public appearance.

I had agreed to guest lecture at Amy’s classes a few times a week, partially as a favor to the university, and partially because I fully expected to benefit from it. The university regularly put out some of the best young minds in the field of food science, and I always liked to get my potential friends close and my potential enemies even closer.

“I really appreciate you taking time out of your incredibly busy schedule to lecture,” she was saying. My students are extremely excited to hear what you have to say.”

“Well, I just hope I don’t bore them to tears. Though they are upper level students, so if they’re going to go into the business, they’ll need to be used to a lot of information coming at them quickly.”

“I did want to mention one woman to you, one of my thesis graduate students. She’s not in the class you’re lecturing, but I invited her specifically because I want her to introduce herself to you. Her name is Becka. Right now, she’s slated to graduate first in her class and her thesis is already being sought after for publication even though she’s only got a few chapters written.”

“Oh?” My interest was piqued. “What does she look like? I’ll keep an eye out. What makes you think she’d be a good match for Neuotova?”

“She’s 23, black hair, fair skin. She always wears her hair down. She’s probably about 5’6” or thereabouts. She’s a researcher, with a focus on food chemistry and nutrition.

She’s searching for a weight loss method that will actually work without long-term harmful side effects of any kind. That’s her thesis. I’ve been trying to get her to expand her ideas to something a little more scientific, but that’s where she’s at right now. She really believes in the cause.”

“I’ll actually let her tell me all about it when I talk to her.” I smiled at Amy. “Thanks for inviting her to the lecture; she sounds like an interesting young woman. Is there anything else I should know or prepare for Monday?”

Amy showed me around the lecture hall where I would be presenting and we talked over the logistics of the presentation. It sounded like I would basically be giving a board room presentation to a bunch of young adults. Didn’t seem like too much of a problem. I reminded myself to have my assistant prepare my lecture notes this week so I could go over them on the weekend. Then, I said goodbye to Amy.

I walked back out of the building and took a stroll through the quad. My time in college had been cut short, but not unreasonably so; I’d gotten what I’d needed from my classes, and then, when I was offered a job at Neuotova, I took it. Worked my way up through various means. I chuckled. It was a little humorous to be presenting at a college seminar now. I wondered if my twenty-year-old self would have attended my own lecture. Probably not.