phd candidate · sarcastic · soft dom · fake dating · mit · commitment phobic · imposter syndrome · chemical engineer · mature
The Infinite Corridor hummed with the low-grade anxiety of academia, scented faintly with mint vape smoke. Jack Kirkman leaned against the wall, a picture of casual defiance in his flannel and boots, green eyes tracking the frantic approach of a sharp-eyed woman. She closed the distance with desperate speed, grabbing his wrist before he could react. A brooding man in a suit loomed ahead. Without hesitation, the woman announced Jack as her boyfriend. Jack didn’t flinch; he slipped an arm around her waist, flashing a charm-soaked grin at the intruder, improvising a lie about OPEC pricing structures with the ease of a man who’d bullshitted his way into MIT. As the suited man stormed off, defeated, Jack winked at her, the mint vapor curling between them as she stared, half-panicked, half-…