Special thanks to Cal and Gillian-Friends4Life, CallianLuv, ActressQueen11, and Silla123 for reviewing! Hopefully this chapter answers your questions. Though I did want to clarify something, ActreesQueen11.
I could never replace Loker. Torres, yes, Eli, no.
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
"Ah, Riley," Gillian said with a smile as the girl walked into Lightman's office. The psychologist laughed as she looked around, obviously impressed. "Welcome to the Lightman Group."
"Thanks," Riley said, giving what Cal could see was a genuine smile. He filed the image away in his mind for future use. "So, what exactly will I be doing?"
She was straightforward; he liked that. "Well, since you're a Natural, you already have a basic grasp of the different emotions. But you need to spend a little time learning the exact details of the science before-"
Cal was interrupted by a knock on his door. "You wanted to see me?" Loker asked, sticking his head inside the door.
"Yeah, come in." Cal waved him in before turning back to Riley to notice she was studying Loker with barely contained curiosity and something like attraction. Cal had noticed that a lot of younger women looked at his researcher that way. He just didn't understand it.
"Sexual arousal." Loker stated bluntly, as usual.
Now Riley looked confused, one delicate eyebrow arching slightly. Cal gave a small grin of amusement; this girl's expressions were fabulous. "Excuse me?"
"Just then, the look you gave me just then was sexual arousal. Eli Loker," he said, offering his hand. Riley shook it, though not before glancing at Cal and Gillian first. Once they had parted again, Eli gave her his famous lopsided grin. "Don't worry. If you'd been trained to recognize it, you'd be able to tell by the fact that my pupils are dilated that I also feel a sense of sexual arousal around you."
Cal gave him an incredulous look. "Do you make all of your first impressions that way?"
He was answered with a look that was only describable as pure Eli Loker.
Gillian cleared her throat, bringing everyone's attention back to the previous conversation. "Riley, Eli will be teaching you everything you don't already know intuitively. Once you're deemed ready, you'll be helping either Dr. Lightman or myself with consultation cases."
As soon as they were alone in the office, Gillian turned to give Cal a frown. "What was that about?"
"What was what about?"
"When Torres was new you gave her the 'don't fear the Loker' speech. Why didn't you give it to Riley?" Gillian asked, perching on the edge of the desk.
"She's a bright girl, she'll catch on soon enough," Cal said, turning to open his email. "Besides, did you see her face? She's got lovely expressions. Looks like it will be lively around here after all." He chuckled, missing the look of pure confusion the psychologist sent his way.
***
Loker brought Riley to the media room, and glanced at her as he was pulling up the microexpression exercise on the big screen. "I scared you, didn't I?"
Riley shook her head, but Eli didn't miss the slight widening of her eyes. "No, you didn't."
"Don't try and lie," he said, swiveling in his chair to face her. "You've got a very readable face. For instance, when I asked you if I scared you, you're eyes widened; you were surprised I picked up on it. It'll be weird for a while," he added, "being the one read and not the one reading."
Silence. Then, "How do you deal with it? Always getting caught, I mean?"
"I don't lie." Again, the boyish grin.
"Ever?"
"Nope. I call it Radical Honesty. You should try it some time," Eli brought up the first microexpression, and turned to watch Riley as she worked on the exercise. She probably didn't know that he could see that she was considering it.
***
Riley headed down the hallway inside the Lightman group building. It was the end of her first week. She was immensely glad she took the offer; not only was the pay better than making coffee, but the people were interesting, too. Especially Loker. His whole Radical Honesty thing… well, right now, it sounded like a pretty good idea. Riley had learned that she couldn't even tell a half truth without getting caught.
Stopping just outside Lightman's office, she stuck her head it and saw Cal was talking to Loker. "See ya, Boss, Loker. Have a nice weekend."
She paused, then decided to heck with it. "By the way, the collage…" she gestured to the pictures of Cal on the walls. "It's creepy. Kind of stalkerish."
Both men laughed. "Thanks," Cal said.
Riley gave him a cheeky smile. "No problem, Boss. Night."
As the girl's footsteps got farther away, Cal gave Loker a piercing look. "Did you tell her to say that?"
"Nope." Eli looked smug, and he knew it. "I did tell her about Radical Honesty, and I guess she decided to give it a try."
Cal groaned just as Gillian entered the room. "What's going on?" she asked the researcher standing in front of the desk.
"I've managed to convert Riley to Radical Honesty," he said proudly.
Gillian gave him an amused glance. "This'll be interesting. How's she doing on everything else?"
"Good," Lightman answered, flipping through the file Loker had handed him. "Looks like she did better on the vocal analysis than Torres did…"
Loker nodded. "Yeah. She's pretty good with the mircroexpressions, too, but… she does have a hard time identifying expressions of love, trust, affection…"
Foster frowned. "Well, I guess that makes sense. She was a foster child. I've been looking through her file, and apparently no family kept her for longer than two years. I can't imagine she's seen a lot of love or trust." Gillian sighed tiredly. "Notice a pattern?"
Cal nodded, thinking. "Torres had an abusive father, Riley was an unwanted foster child… Do Naturals develop their skills through traumatic childhoods?"
"Well, don't ask me," Loker said, retreating out the door before he could get pulled into what he was sure would be a long conversation. "Night guys."
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