Divine Artifact in a Scientific World-Chapter 86: Club Velvet (3)

The petite, dark-skinned girl entered Jack’s personal space, but she didn’t touch him. Instead, she looked at him quizzically and asked, "Who are you?"

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Jack?" What else was he supposed to say?

She huffed and said, "No, I mean, who are you? Wendy and Vivien do not act like that. They never lose control. So who are you that they would just, just, throw themselves at you?!"

This new girl was incredibly cute. The way she looked at him like he was this incredibly enticing puzzle she just had to solve, the way her dark irises made her look like the classic pleading cartoon figure, her faint accent, he felt an almost overpowering urge to reach up and caress her face.

Resisting the urge, he said, "I don’t know what to tell you. I’m no one special."

A month ago, this would be completely true.

Now, though, technically, this was very much not true. He had a divine artifact that was quite possibly unique, not merely in the universe but in all of existence. His strengthened soul made him special, but he couldn’t tell her that.

So, as far as she was concerned, he was just a freshman college student. And no one but his lawyers and soul bonds knew about his wealth, to that wasn’t a valid explanation either.

"Seriously? You’re not a silk pants, or an heir to a fortune, or in the top twenty under twenty list?"

"Nope, just a freshman college student." Then, just to mess with her, he added, "Though I did have this weird dream recently where a goddess accidentally dropped some divine catnip on me. So, maybe it wasn’t just a dream?"

She huffed out a frustrated laugh and said, "Fine. Maybe it is divine catnip. I do have an unexplainable urge to curl up in your lap."

And he had a very explainable urge to grant her wish. He was about to offer to let her curl up in his lap when she continued.

"Um, can we sit down somewhere and talk?"

Jack grinned widely and said, "Sure. I’ll even let you sit in my lap while you interrogate me."

She looked at him suspiciously. "You won’t get handsy, will you?"

"No, not unless you ask. Just like with halter top girl, I didn’t grab her ass until after she grabbed mine."

"Oh, is that what happened? I was really surprised to see Wendy act like that."

And now he knew which one was Wendy, and which one was Vivian.

"Okay, I accept your offer." She said. Then she stuck out her hand and said, "Sorry, I should introduce myself. I’m Rina. Rina Devi."

As he shook her tiny hand, he said, "Waldron, Jack Waldron."

As they shook, he could feel Miranda hovering nearby. He waved her over and said, "Rina, this is Miranda, one of my girlfriends."

Rina’s eyes widened, "One of- do they-"

"Know each other. Yes."

Then Miranda chimed in and said, "Yep, we’re besties."

Jack held out his hand and said, "Come on, I’ll introduce you to Vincent."

Rina turned and walked next to him and he put his hand lightly on her bare back. She was wearing a purple backless dress with a deep neckline. It was close to body without being tight but loose below her hips and stopped just above her knees.

As they walked towards the VIP booth, he asked, "Do you want Miranda to get you something to drink?"

"Oh, no. Thank you for asking, but I can’t drink. Even half a drink gives me a vicious headache."

"Understood. Do you want something non-alcoholic? Maybe club soda with lime, or a soda, or fruit juice?"

"Ooh, the soda with lime might be nice."

Miranda briefly touched Rina’s shoulder and said, "I’ll get it for you." Then turned and headed for the bar.

As Rina and Jack approached the VIP booths, he saw two more men were seated in the same booth as Vincent, and there was a lady seated next to each of them.

Vincent also had a lady seated next to him, but there was still space available between Vincent and one of the ladies for Jack and Miranda to sit.

When Jack got close, Vincent stood and said, "Jack, let me introduce you to two of my friends. These are Tony Hurst, and Felix Moreno. Their father’s own companies that do business with my father."

Both men, similar in age and attire to Vincent, shook hands with Jack, but then returned to chatting with their lady companions.

When Jack introduce Rina to Vincent, he learned that they had met before. After sitting, he spread his legs and patted his left thigh while smiling at Rina.

Vincent watched with interest as Rina hesitantly moved over and tentatively sat on Jack’s leg. She was so short that even sitting on his leg, her eyes were level with his nose.

He grabbed her right hand and put it behind his head while reaching around her with his left hand and grabbed her hip, pulling her close. She tensed, but when he didn’t do anything else, she relaxed.

He turned and said softly into her ear, "So, what is it you wanted to talk about?"

She was eyeing Vincent as she asked, "How do you know, Vincent?"

Jack told her about winning a car in a bet, not mentioning that it was a Maybach, and how there had been a bit of confusion at the hotel and Vincent had capitalized on the situation to do a little book making.

"But who did you win the car from?" she asked.

"Gregory Fletcher."

"Wait, THE Gregory Fletcher?"

"Vincent knows him, so I’ll assume that yes, we’re talking about THE Gregory Fletcher."

"But you’re a college student. How? No where, did you meet him?"

He started explaining about the video in chemistry class, and when he mentioned Doctor Satyarthi, she interrupted.

"No! No, way. This is just too much of a coincident."

"Let me guess, you know her."

"Know her?! I worked with her on the simulation! I wrote most of the software for it."

Up to this point, he’d been humoring her, mainly because she was just too cute and it felt nice with her sitting on his lap. Even his encounter with Wendy and Vivian had been more entertaining than enticing.

He was sure that, had they approached him like that prior to Genesis Heart, he would have been putty in their hands. But now, it was fun and entertaining, but didn’t seem to have any real power over him.

And the same was true with Rina. He found her attractive, and incredibly cute, but would have felt no regrets parting from her at the end of the evening. Something he was certain would not have been true even a few weeks ago. freēwēbnovel.com

But now she had his attention. She just went from cute girl to potential partner with valuable knowledge and skills.

Nora was already complaining about how, even if they had the simulation source code, she didn’t have the knowledge to use it. And low and behold, here was Rina, the primary author of that very same simulation software.

He was tempted to start a simulation right away to try to recruit her like with Nora, but he held off for the moment.

The bar must have been busy because it was only then that Miranda showed up with Rina’s drink. She handed it to Rina, then snuggled up next to him, right behind Rina and stuck her face between theirs.

Her hand on Rina’s stomach, she said, "So, what have you two been talking about?"

Rina tensed up when Miranda touched her.

Noticing, Miranda pulled her hand away and said, "Sorry. I can get a little handsy when I’m around Jack."

Rina shook her head and said, "No, it’s okay. I’m just not comfortable with physical contact."

Miranda quirked an eyebrow, looking between Rina and Jack.

Rina noticed, and said, "It’s different with him. Maybe it’s the divine catnip."

"Catnip?" Miranda asked.

He told both of them about his encounter with the Yokorian chick after chemistry class and how her mention of her cat ears and tail plug had inspired him to tease her with the idea of divine catnip. Then he recounted to Miranda the fake dream explanation he’d given to Rina.

Miranda smiled knowingly, and Rina mock scowled cutely at him and lightly slapped the back of his head. But didn’t otherwise complain or pull away.

Miranda added, "I don’t know. Divine catnip is about as good an explanation as any for why some girls are drawn to him."

They all sipped their drinks while they chatted.

Jack learned that Rina was a prodigy that had graduated high school at ten, earned her bachelors at twelve, her masters at fifteen, and her PhD as seventeen.

Since then, she was doing a post-doc fellowship at NSU’s computational sciences laboratory and had done most of the work on the software used to run Doctor Satyarthi’s CRISPR simulation.

In his soul space, Jack asked Nora if she knew anything about Rina. She claimed that Rina was a genius and wished they could add her to the team, but lamented that Rina was hard to reach.

When Jack mentioned that Rina was sitting on his lap at Club Velvet, Nora shouted, "Jack! You have to bond her. Please! When you talk to her in a simulation, please include me."

So, while physical world Jack sat and chatted with Rina and Miranda, parallel Jack entered a simulation, along with Nora, Miranda, and Madison.

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