a's

on was always the lo

lar energy of people who had been holding their professional faces in place since morning and were finally allowed to exhale. I usual

othing but the dull familiar ache that ha

ooked at me in that moment with those dark focused eyes that missed absolutely nothing and I had felt completely and terrifyingly exposed. Like every feeling I had

fore the second ring. Delivering files with military precision. Keeping my ey

not h

the break room counter

d enters the space. I turned around with my cup in my hand and found Marcus Reed standing in the center of the break

king direc

mach d

," he

ar dread of a woman who has no exit strategy that this was not a private conversation. This was a declaration. Phone screens

th wen

carefully. "Wha

rdinarily complicated. He crossed the room toward me slowly and the crowd parted for him the way

ont of me and he

forty people felt cruel and I was not a crue

cket pocket and my heart st

ork harder than anyone on this floor. I have watched you give everything to this job and still have warmth left over for every perso

uiet I could hear

e small box

y brain had stopped receiving information properly. My eyes went wide and my chest tightene

d not

ow good Marcus Reed was or how sincerely he meant every word he had just said. I could no

ras and all these watching eyes and all these people who would carry this

outh and noth

hen I was overwhelmed and looking for something I could not name out loud. Past

ooking

king for him and

he room ch

he crowd between me and the door parted slowly to reveal my boss standing at the entrance of the break room in his full composed a

es fou

the room fell

even and final in a way that closed every other soun

ened slowly. "S

d," Daniel said without looking

dy s

of that break room with forty pairs of eyes burning into my back and a

red his

sed th

of his desk and looked at each other and the silence between us was so loaded and so heavy an

s searc

earche

he

love M