Eye Contact — Bethany Maines

Sometimes the hardest move is making eye contact.Lexi Byrne, neurodivergent, UW grad student and part-time nanny, is working on cutting edge bionic eye technology. Lexi believes in evidence, facts, and that she might never feel comfortable in yellow. Lexi’s boyfriend, Tanner Driscoll, is the science department’s most eligible bachelor. Lexi's best friend, Shea Yamaguchi, a volunteer operator on the suicide hotline, is a devastated college drop-out who is still coping with the loss of a caller. And Carter Zheng is the mysterious new arrival in the science department who Lexi thinks might be a plagiarist—an epically good-looking plagiarist. Other than dealing with a potentially friendship-ending fight with Shea, and struggling to deal with dating-while-on the spectrum, Lexi’s life is a regular routine of work, school, and watching big time wrestling with her nanny charge, Olivia. But Lexi’s normal, safe, science-based life takes an abrupt left turn when her prototype is stolen and Lexi learns that not everyone on campus is who they say they are. Now Lexi is scrambling to solve the mystery, recover her prototype, and protect her loved ones from thieves who believe that technology and ethics don’t go together.