Chapter 16
Author: Purplescent
last update2025-09-30 22:57:26

The atmosphere on the executive floor was thick enough to choke on. Ari's presence felt clumsy and loud. She kept her eyes glued to the papers on her desk, meticulously avoiding the closed door of Xavier's office unless it was when she couldn't avoid him. Every sound,the click of her keyboard, the whir of the printer, the distant thud of the elevator door,was an unbearable spotlight.

Xavier was no better. The few times she had to drop off documents, she found him standing by the window, his back to her, looking out at the glittering cityscape as if she were an inconvenient smudge on the glass. And whenever he was on his seat,his face was always buried in a file. His voice, when he finally had to address her, was clipped and purely transactional.

"I need you to get these revisions to Legal. No mistakes."

"The quarterly reports are due by 5 p.m."

He never looked at her. Never acknowledged the lingering awkwardness.

The hours crawled by as she buried herself with work

When the clock fina
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