The food arrived. Conversation shifted to lighter things. Iris talked about her investigative piece on Central City's infrastructure. She'd uncovered some interesting connections between city contracts and a local property developer that suggested favoritism in bidding processes.
Barry listened with genuine interest. Her journalism instincts were excellent. The way she connected dots and followed money reminded him in some ways of his own analytical processes.
"You're going to need to be careful with that one," Barry said when she'd finished explaining.
"It's just a story."
"It's a story about powerful people with money. Those people tend to respond badly to public exposure."
"Are you worried about me?"
"I'm practical about risk."
Iris smiled. "You worry about me. Just say it."
"I worry about you," Barry admitted. Honestly. Without calculation.
Her smile widened. She looked young suddenly. Happy in a simple uncomplicated way that Barry realized he didn't see enough of anymore.
"So how does it work?" Iris asked after a while. "The company. The money. All of it. Walk me through a day in the life."
Barry gave her a version of it. The real version, minus Gideon and the Thinking Cap and the Chamber construction running in the background. He described the business calls. The contract negotiations. The legal complexities of rapid growth. The challenge of building infrastructure fast enough to match revenue.
Iris listened and asked smart questions. Questions about manufacturing scaling. About patent protection. About managing different corporate cultures across international partnerships.
Good questions. Better than most business journalists asked him.
"You'd make a good technology reporter," Barry told her.
"I'd make a good reporter for anything. That's not arrogance, it's just true."
"I know. That's why I said it."
She reached for her wine glass and paused. "Barry, can I ask you something that might be slightly uncomfortable?"
"Sure."
"Are we actually together? Like genuinely together?" She kept her voice steady. No drama behind it. Just the question. "Because I tell people you're my boyfriend. My dad thinks you're my boyfriend. But we've never actually said that explicitly to each other."
Barry looked at her. At the directness in her expression. The courage it took to ask the question without making it messy or emotional.
He'd been avoiding this conversation carefully for months. Maintaining comfortable ambiguity. Keeping things warm but undefined.
But Iris deserved better than comfortable ambiguity.
And this Barry Allen, this version with two sets of memories and superhuman intellect and a plan that stretched years into the future, had enough emotional intelligence to recognize when honesty mattered more than strategy.
"I care about you," Barry said. "Genuinely. In ways I don't care about most people."
"But?"
"But I'm building something that's going to change my life significantly over the next few years. In ways I can't fully predict or explain right now. And I can't promise you that what we are right now is what we'll always be."
Iris processed that for a moment. Her expression showed she was thinking rather than reacting.
"That's very honest," she said finally.
"You asked for honest."
"I did." She took a sip of wine. "So you're not closing the door. But you're not making promises either."
"That's accurate."
"And you care. Actually care. Not just in a convenient way."
"Not in a convenient way. No."
Iris nodded slowly. "Okay." She set her glass down. "I can work with that. As long as you stay honest with me. Don't let me build something in my head that doesn't match what's actually real."
"I won't. That's a promise I can keep."
She looked at him for a long moment. Something moved through her expression that was complicated and layered. Then she smiled. Small but genuine.
"You're the most unusual person I've ever met," she said.
"Is that good?"
"Honestly? Yes. Most people are predictable. You're not. You never were, even before all of this." She gestured broadly to indicate the company, the money, the transformation she'd been watching happen in real time. "You always felt like someone who was going to become something. I just didn't know what."
"I'm still figuring that out myself."
"No you're not." Iris shook her head. "You know exactly who you're becoming. You've known for a while. I can see it in how you move. How you talk. How you think about everything five steps ahead." She paused. "I just don't know what it is yet."
"Were you always this smart?"
Read more chapters, days ahead of Webnovel Updates on Patreon marvelstark