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It had all started twenty years ago, in the most ordinary of places — a crowded university seminar on experimental physics at Oxford. Anna hadn’t even wanted to attend that day. It was late, she was tired, and the last thing she needed was another overconfident guest speaker preaching about innovation.

But Julian Marlowe was different.

He walked in late, messy-haired, sleeves rolled up, carrying nothing but a notebook and a restless energy that immediately shifted the room. He didn’t bother with introductions. He didn’t even look at his slides. Instead, he paced, spoke like he was thinking aloud, challenging everything they thought they knew about quantum and spatial mechanics.

Half the room tuned out. The other half didn’t understand a word.

Anna? She couldn’t look away.

After the talk, while everyone else filtered out, Anna stayed behind — notebook in hand, heart pounding for reasons she didn’t quite understand. When she finally worked up the nerve to approach him, she expected indifference.

Instead, Julian looked at her like he’d been waiting for her all along.

"You're the only one who stayed," he said, amused. "Either you're curious… or you're crazy."

"Maybe both," Anna replied without thinking.

He grinned. "Good. That’s exactly what I need."

......

From there, everything moved fast. Julian invited her to work at his research lab right after the seminar - not as some official research assistant, but more like a shadow. An observer. Someone to think and talk with.