Dream school? That hadn’t been a thought she’d allowed herself to entertain in years. What had it been when she was in high school? “I guess Columbia. I have that legacy connection since Nils used to be a professor there, but I didn’t apply.”

“Why not? If you got into Berkeley, you could probably get into Columbia.”

“I couldn’t afford it. And besides, I feel like I’m much more valuable as Ampersand’s interpreter than just another college student.”

“I would think that finishing your degree, especially at a prestigious institution like Columbia, would be a complement to a life as professional Voice of the Alien. It wouldn’t need to be either-or.” By now, he had pulled his Land Rover through the security gate of the studio and was winding up the levels in the parking garage as he hunted for a spot. “And besides, this talking head thing can be pretty lucrative. With that plus student loans, I’m sure you could swing it. Then you’d be in New York and we’d be neighbors!”

The butterflies in her stomach started throwing a rave, and she could not suppress a smile at the thought. To attend an Ivy League school in New York, away from Smell-A, free to start over and now with the help of a new, er, mentor to guide her into the world of the media. “How old are you, Kaveh?”

“I’m thirty-five.”

“I’m asking for trouble, aren’t I?” She smiled shyly. God, she was so bad at this. She’d never deliberately flirted with a man before. Boys, maybe, arguably, but man?

“Yes, well . . .” He put the car into park, turned off the ignition, and smiled. “When we met, you were caught in the crosshairs of not one but two telekinetic alien cyborgs, one of whom you apparently have some kind of ET-heartbond with, so I think it’s fair to call your self-preservation instincts into question.”

She looked at him like he’d threatened her with a knife. “How did you know about that?”

His smile vanished. “Nik told me.”

“What do you mean ‘Nik told you’?”

“He said that whatever social bond he and Ampersand had was the same one you and Ampersand had. Kept going on about how weird it was.”

Oh, God. Oh, God. She’d gone from partying butterflies in her stomach to the edge of a panic in seconds. “Kaveh, you weren’t supposed to know that . . . what Ampersand did to me. No one was.”

“I didn’t realize—”

“I know I’m in no position to beg—”

“Whoa,” he said, growing worried. “Are you in trouble?”

“He said I could never tell anyone. My whole life, human or alien, no one can know. Please, Kaveh, please, even if you do end up writing about all this, please not this, anything but this—”