Queen of Wild Cards novel Chapter 577

Back at the hotel, Stella glanced at the time. It wasn't too late, so she initiated a video call with Julius.

"Darling, you finally called. I've been waiting all night," Julius grumbled, his tone dripping with playful grievance.

Stella sighed in amusement. "I called you this afternoon when I got to the hotel. It hasn't even been that long."

"When you're not home, time crawls. I can't sleep in this giant bed alone. What are you going to do about it?"

"What exactly do you want me to do?"

She was in Bay City. What did he expect?

Did he want her to hop on a red-eye flight back right this second?

Not happening. She never abandoned a project halfway through.

"Kiss me, at least."

Stella puckered up and pressed a loud smooch against the screen. "Happy now?"

"That was incredibly half-hearted," Julius complained.

"Then what do you want?"

"Do it again, but mean it."

Stella laughed, rolling her eyes. "Get lost."

"Darling, how can you be so cruel to me? I'm heartbroken."

"Can you act normal for five seconds? Let me tell you about the dinner with the shareholders tonight."

"Alright, tell me. I'm listening." He soaked up every detail she offered; anything involving her, he wanted to know.

Stella spent the next few minutes recounting how she had systematically drank every single board member under the table.

She talked, and he listened, occasionally chiming in with a question or a soft chuckle. She then explained that she was heading into the lab first thing in the morning.

They chatted for about half an hour before finally ending the call.

...

After one night at the Riviera Hotel, Stella headed straight to her research facility the next morning.

Floyd Lowell grinned cheekily. "Stella, there's a high-end spa upstairs. What if we all go get massages? We've been hitting a wall on the project lately.

"Our brains are fried and our muscles are totally knotted. A good deep-tissue massage might clear the stress out, and who knows? Maybe it'll give us the breakthrough we need."

"Yes! Stella, let's go get massages!"

"I'm in!"

"Me too!"

"Alright, whatever you guys want. Let's go," Stella agreed. A spa session sounded like the perfect way to reset before diving back into the grind.

In the end, they skipped the VIP hosts entirely, wrapped up the karaoke session, and spent the rest of the night getting pampered upstairs.

The team didn't head home until well past midnight.

The very next day, they launched into an intense, hyper-focused research sprint.

Stella was locked in for a full week, eating and sleeping in the facility, completely abandoning the luxury apartment she usually stayed at.