I was going to throw up.

From the moment I received the call saying I’d been chosen for the internship, I’d been dealing with butterflies, and it hadn’t gotten better. Then, yesterday, one of our neighbors brought over a letter that’d gotten into their mailbox by mistake. A letter from the CDC confirming my internship.

And telling me that I’d specifically been assigned to Cai Hunter.

That’s when my stomach decided that it didn’t want to hold anything ever again.

I scrubbed my palms on my thighs, hoping they’d stop sweating when I shook Dr. Hunter’s hand. I was probably going to make a fool of myself anyway. I didn’t want to add gross to strange.

I was ten minutes early and standing outside with the sun shining down on me was only making everything worse. With my luck, I’d end up with a sunburn to make me look like the gangly, freckle-faced, small-town geek I’d always been. I took a slow breath to steady myself, reminded myself that I’d prepared for this, and then went inside.

The place was huge, but I’d looked at every picture and layout I could get my hands on, so I knew exactly where I was going. I’d expected someone to be there waiting for me, but no one was, so I paced and tried to look like I knew what I was doing.

“Addison Kilar?”

I turned around to see the owner of the voice glowering at me. She was close to my height but carried some extra weight that her wardrobe hadn’t been adapted for. She was probably in her early thirties but was trying to look younger. Her light brown hair was teased into some strange hairdo, and her mouth was painted bright red.

I processed all of this in just a few seconds, then smiled and walked over to her. “That’s me.”

She didn’t smile back and gave such a cold look to my outstretched hand that I pulled it back in a hurry. “Well, I’m Ms. Kemyss, and you’re late.”

I frowned. “I thought I didn’t start until eight o’clock.”

She inhaled deeply, one of those deep sighs that mothers or teachers gave when they’re irritated but are trying to not explode. She pointed at the clock on the wall. “It’s five after.”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. “I think your clock is fast.” I smiled to lighten what she clearly took as a reprimand because the disapproval on her face grew. “We don’t allow phones. You’ll need to leave yours with security, and you can collect it at the end of the day.”

That hadn’t been mentioned in the online code of conduct and expectations, but I wasn’t going to argue with her about it. She looked like the sort of woman who’d slap me if I dared question her.

“Oh, okay.” I looked around for the security person I needed to give my phone to, but no one else was nearby. “I was told I’d be working with Dr. Hunter. I’m sure he has something he needs me to do.”

A smile finally appeared, but it held no warmth. It was worse than the blank stare she’d been giving me. Damn. I thought people in the South were nice.

“I’ll be telling you what you need to do.” She eyed my clothes, a slow examination down to my shoes and back up to my hair. Her lips pressed together. “And I’ll get you the employee handbook to read over.”

This wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was my first day in a new place, and it was a place I really wanted to be…which meant this wasn’t the battle to fight.

I smiled, trying to warm her over to me. “Sure thing. Lead the way.”

Less than an hour passed before I realized that Pansy Kemyss wasn’t one of the doctors or scientists here. I didn’t know what her actual title was, but she basically recorded information for the scientists. After taking me on a tour and introducing me to all the scientists – well, almost all, since I had yet to see Dr. Hunter – she then sent me to drop off my phone at the security desk, then go around and ask if anyone wanted coffee.

I was one thesis away from achieving my doctorate in infectious diseases while also working on a thesis about a link between genetics and infection.

And I was getting coffee.

But I ground my teeth together and worked to impress everyone by getting everyone’s orders perfect without writing anything down. For all I knew, this was the sort of thing every new intern had to do, something to keep them humble. I could do that.

Besides, it was one day. Once I got my bearings I’d decide how to improve the situation.

“Hey, kid,” Pansy called from her desk.

I bit my lip and didn’t take the bait. Even if the activities were normal, my gut told me that the way Pansy was treating me was personal. I just didn’t understand why. I’d never had someone take such an instant disliking to me, and the scientist in me was curious about the cause.

“Run these down to Dr. Lodge, then start taking lunch orders.” She held out a stack of papers. “On Mondays, we usually order from the bodega down the street. If it’s raining, there are extra umbrellas in the break room.”

I took the papers and headed down to Dr. Lodge’s office. I’d take the opportunity to introduce myself by more than just my name. Pansy hadn’t told anyone that I was an intern working under Dr. Hunter, just that I was new.

Unfortunately, Dr. Lodge wasn’t in his office, and I didn’t want to waste time waiting for him. Lunch was a way to make a good impression, and breaking bread with someone was always good. Besides, I had time to show them all I could do.

My feet were hurting by the time I was done distributing everyone’s meals, but I still smiled and scurried off when Pansy sent me to get yet another coffee. If the super-saccharine, double foam mocha shit she sent me out for could even be rightly called coffee.

As I hurried back, I reminded myself that it was better for my career to be getting coffee for someone at the CDC than it was to be sitting at home in Minneapolis, staring at the screen of my laptop and wishing that I didn’t have insane writer’s block.

Maybe I could use the time I was doing inane tasks to do some mental preparation. I had a specific gene sequence that was giving me some trouble. If I could just figure out…

My thought process was interrupted as I ran into something solid. And then it was interrupted even more as hot coffee exploded all over me…and all over the person I’d run into.

I tipped my head back and looked up, up, at one of the tallest men I’d seen. And gorgeous. Golden blond hair. Bright blue eyes.

Shit.

Cai Hunter.

I’d just spilled coffee all over Dr. Cai Hunter.

Fuck my life.

“I am so sorry.” I grabbed tissues from the nearby desk and started trying to clean Dr. Hunter’s jacket. “I can’t believe I did that. I’ve been carrying coffee and food all day and haven’t spilled a drop.” I sighed, rubbing harder and muttering faster. “It’s not like I can even blame not knowing where I was. I’ve already walked this same path ten times today, and I have a perfect memory, so I know every detail along the route. It was stupid. I was trying to think through my thesis, and it distracted me, and I just ruined your jacket–”

“Were you burned?”

His voice jolted me out of my babbling. “What?”

“You look like you got the worst of it.” He gestured at me, his blue eyes filled with concern. “Did it burn you?”

I looked down.

“Shit on a shingle.” A laugh burst out of Dr. Hunter and color flooded my cheeks. I swiped at my shirt with already soaked tissues. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t do any good. “Sorry about cursing. It’s just my first day, and I thought it was going to be this great experience, and I’ve been getting coffee and running errands, and I can’t even get that right.”

I needed to stop talking, but my mouth wasn’t getting the message.

“At least Miss Kemyss likes it less than scalding. Otherwise, I’d be in pain right now instead of only wet and embarrassed, though maybe if I’d been burned, I’d feel less like an idiot.”

“It’s just coffee,” he said.

I looked at him, wondering if maybe this awful experience could have something good come out of it.

And then I saw what he had been holding when I’d thoughtlessly run into him.

A beaker.

Which was now empty.

“Shit on a shingle!” I said again. This time, however, all the color drained from my face. “Did I just start the zombie apocalypse? Coffee introduced into what had been a stable environment causing a mutation that could end the world as we know it?”

Would someone please shut me up?

“Or maybe it didn’t need to mutate. It could’ve been the kind of thing that was completely harmless when kept in an airtight container, but as soon as it was exposed to air, it became airborne and transmittable. I’m like that guy at the beginning of that book The Stand where he sees the virus is loose but runs like an idiot and ends up destroying the world when he should’ve been paying attention to what he was doing and maybe–”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” He reached out and touched my arm.

A jolt of electricity ran across my nerves, and my mind went blissfully blank.