Chapter 1 - The Weight of the Silence
“Actually,
Miss Summers,
I heard the entire monologue.
Including the part about the coffee,
the reports,
and my supposed lack of appreciation for your beauty,”
Elliot said,
his voice dropping to a register that made my skin prickle with a mixture of terror and electricity.
I wanted the leather couch to swallow me whole,
to digest me,
and to transport me to a different dimension where I wasn't the girl who kissed a piece of cardboard.
The silence in the room was heavy,
thick enough to drown in,
as I stared at the ceiling of his office,
wishing I could simply close my eyes and disappear.
He didn't move away;
instead,
he sat on the edge of the low table in front of the couch,
his long legs nearly touching mine.
“I also heard the part where you called me ‘insufferable’,”
he added,
a ghost of a smirk playing on his lips that I had never seen in a boardroom.
“Was I that terrible today?”
I blinked,
the dizziness slowly fading only to be replaced by a burning heat in my cheeks.
“You shot down my proposal in four words,
Elliot,”
I whispered,
forgetting for a moment the formal ‘Mr. Hawkins’ that usually acted as my shield.
“It took me three weeks to gather that data,
and you didn't even look at the third page.”
He sighed,
a sound so human it caught me off guard,
and he set the glass of water down.
“I didn't need to look at the third page,
Alexia,”
he said,
using my first name for the first time in twelve months.
“I knew the proposal was sound,
but the board wasn't ready for it,
and I wanted to protect you from their vultures.”
My heart hammered against my ribs,
not from anger this time,
but from the way he was looking at me.
It wasn't the gaze of a boss,
but of a man who had been paying much closer attention than I ever realized.
He reached out,
his fingers brushing a stray lock of hair away from my forehead,
and the contact felt like a live wire.
“And for the record,”
he murmured,
leaning closer until I could smell his expensive cologne,
“I do notice the coffee,
I do notice the commas,
and I most certainly notice you.”
The room felt smaller,
the air thinner,
as he hovered just inches away from my face.
“But if you ever want to kiss me again,”
he whispered,
his eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made my breath hitch,
“I suggest you do it to the three-dimensional version.”
I couldn't speak,
I couldn't move,
I could only watch as he stood up and smoothed his suit.
“Go home,
Alexia,”
he commanded,
his professional mask sliding back into place,
though his eyes remained warm.
“We have a long day tomorrow,
and I expect my coffee at 8:00 a.m. sharp.”
I watched him walk back to his desk,
May you like
my heart still racing,
wondering if the world had just shifted on its axis.
