Project Midas

Chapter 1

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Y/N was used to waiting; patience came with the job description, but when it came to men like Tony Stark, she knew she'd most likely be waiting a while. Alas, the rich were on their own time, and after an hour and a half of weird stares and glances from other café patrons around her as she sipped on her third iced latte, she'd come to terms with the notion that she'd most likely been stood up.

She didn't mind it; it was meant to be a business meeting, meaning they'd be eating and drinking at Tony's expense, something he'd pre-arranged with the owners when they first dubbed this the spot for all of their in-person meetings, with how close it was to his new Stark Tower that had just finished construction.

She hummed a tune that had been stuck in her head since that morning, an oldie but a goodie by a band her father had always adored, the Eagles, as she pulled her MacBook out of the leather shoulder bag she'd hung across the backrest of her chair. If she were here, she might as well get some work done.

Working for Tony had its perks; it had been less than a year since he'd poached her from the NYC museum of national history, and while she missed it dearly, she didn't mind the benefits that came with this new job. Her salary had more than doubled, and she now had free rein to throw her effort into research that she was genuinely passionate about. Sure, digging up dinosaurs was fun and exciting, especially during the odd chance they discovered a new species, but nowadays, those were few and far between. She'd always felt something more was out there, and it was pulling her, violently, away from the predetermined 'goals' that the museum had set in stone like they were the ten holy commandments.

She lived for the mystery, for the excitement that came with the unknown, and as it turned out...

She was right.

It had been around nine months since her accident, and she'd spent four of them recovering in the hospital, which was where Tony had personally recruited her onto his growing team of God knows what.

It wasn't like he had given her much of a choice, but she'd gladly made the switch, eager for the freedom it had brought.

So she kissed her 'normal' job goodbye in the most fabulous way possible,
By dumping a glass of water over her former VERY sexist supervisor's head when she'd handed in her resignation and he'd laughed at her, telling her he knew she'd go nowhere in life. He'd blamed her accident in Greece on her being 'just like every other incompetent woman out in the field,' and he didn't dare let her forget it either.

Typing vigorously, trying to finish her latest report as soon as possible so that she'd have the rest of her afternoon off to take the scenic route back to her dingy old apartment, she relished in the background noise of the busy café. She knew Tony would flip out if he saw her apartment; she didn't quite fancy it either, and she would have moved out the moment she made the transfer to Stark Industries if it weren't for the two-bedroom house she had her eye on over in Brooklyn.

It was a beautiful, old brownstone piece of vintage suburbia with rounded walls of windows and a lower level, just like the ones she'd always read about in her novels, and she'd fallen in love with it the moment she saw it. It was on the scenic side of town, within walking distance of the café she was sitting at, her favorite bookstore, and Central Park. Sure, it was a bit of a fixer-upper, but she'd been waiting for it to hit the market after having been standing empty since the day she saw it. 

She opened her phone, staring at the blank screen, still no text, no indication of where he might be.