Neon Synapse

"The outside dies to protect the flavor inside. That is resilience."

Lucia Quiroz lives in the shadows. Between the sterile silence of her USC neuroscience lab and the subsonic bass of L.A.'s most exclusive bottle-service club, she is a girl of two worlds and zero safety nets. She is the only thing standing between her Abuela and eviction. She doesn't have time for distractions-especially not the arrogant, maroon-haired stranger in a custom suit who crashes into her on a Monday morning.

Emris Rosewood lives in the fire. As the heir to a legendary culinary dynasty, his life is a high-pressure pursuit of perfection. Known as the "Nightmare Chef," he has five days to assemble his brigade and design a menu that defines a lifetime of struggle. He expected critics. He expected inspectors. He didn't expect the girl with the lethal eyeliner and the ten-pound textbook to disrupt his entire nervous system.

When a private invitation brings Lucia's "found family" from the club to the tables of Emris's high-end atelier, the lines between server and guest, scholar and chef, and survival and artistry blur.

One tasting menu. Two fractured lives. A collision of brains, brigades, and the dangerous pursuit of dopamine.

[Updates Daily 10 AM MST!]