:32 a.m. when I stepped

ome table legs. The smell of fresh paper and coffee hung in the air, humming with

ID tag sitting neatly on my chest. My face didn't show much-not the

d from the coffee station, lift

urmured, noddi

morning reports for the project manag

idn't get

pped, clattering to the tile

to grab it befo

s skin look even warmer in the morning light. He moved with easy precision, l

eyes

lear. Un

aid, voice l

hing the cool metal instead of hi

nk y

d politely and walked past me, heading down the

cond longer, clutching the

was

and knocked on

ed the folder on his desk, and nodded through his usual talk about

my memory from last we

wi

bi. Impeccable record.

ow it replayed in my mind with th

-

ed behind me, leaning on the coun

u o

back. "F

f the PM's office looking li

m paper and hugged it like

g. "Girl, everyone saw how he bent to pic

a pen,

corrected. "But fin

alked off before she c

-

But every time Edwin's name popped up on an email thread or a shared

s not

to be n

my computer with a soft click. Outside, the sun had

, breathing in the cool air. H

e

ness, but it

slid behind the wheel. But even as

-

thing green and peppery. Mum's cook

m the kitchen, wooden spoon r

d, dropping my b

ly. "Garden egg st

e sight of her. No probing quest

chen and let that warm

Work. Focus. No wandering thoughts about Edwin, no re

hat plan had f

versations floating between cubicles. Yet it all felt distant, like someone had

ay they greeted him, see it in how conversations paused when he spoke. Not because he was loud or commandin

ave taken five minutes but stretched into fifteen becaus

led into my usual spot by the window, determined to drow

she said, sliding into

m I not allow

a piece of lettuce, grinnin

ng my face in my

humming this morning, Tonya. Yo

nd warm all at once. "I

ad. "It doesn't f

, not fully. It was about me-the way something as small as a share

-

the office began to thin. I shut my laptop, deciding to leave

on

, holding a slim folder. He looked the same as yesterday,

conference room," he

ingers brushing the edge w

away. "You always leave fi

"You've been wa

ly. "Just notic

ff before it became something more complicated. But instead

he replied, his gaze holding mi

t to say, so I nodded a

ting me pass, his presence lingering like a touch

-

t the ceiling while the faint hum o

yet. It was possibility, the kind that scared me beca

uiet voice, had unraveled someth

eyes, a thought slipped t

nt is exactly

-