The Wrong Woman

Jasper felt flustered and hastily attempted to deflect. "I could tell something was bothering you, and I figured it might have been related to the interview."

Imogen wasn't convinced by his explanation, which seemed full of holes. She questioned, "Maybe I'm just in a bad mood from a botched interview. How do you know I didn't even attend?"

Jasper fell silent, leaving Imogen staring at him, clearly baffled. He quickly shifted gears, making his way to the kitchen. "You haven't eaten dinner yet, have you? Let me whip something up for you." "Jay," Imogen called after him.

Jasper remained focused on cooking. "What are you in the mood for? Maybe some beef?"

"Are you really not going to explain?"

"I was just guessing."

Imogen let out a deep sigh, unsure of how to respond.

Jasper avoided addressing the question by spending the entire evening holed up in his study, deeply immersed in work, and retiring to bed late into the night.

planned. She breezed through her initial interview and was hired on the spot. The straightforward process and the superficial interview seemed like mere formalities. They hired her

it weren't for Star Enterprise looming large before her, she'd find it hard to believe any of it was real, including joining

receiving her ID badge, everything was wrapped up smoothly in just a single day. It felt as though she was

After finishing onboarding, instead

adjacent, spacious building. Inside, the space was filled with mechanical displays and operational areas

Gerald Levingston, the director of R&D, and casually dropped a hint. "Gerald, meet our

noticeable belly, scrutinized Imogen intently behind his thick glasses. The mention of Imogen being "specially

accepted Imogen's

initially assuming she was a highly paid expert poached from a prestigious institution by

his special attention and

if she's connected to some higher-up! I won't have such a 'specially recruited' slotted into my

the entire office

anxiously, "Gerald, keep it down. This isn't our call. It's out of our

is R&D. Even if a company as large as Star Enterprise, assigning someone with just an associate's degree would be