Corner Office Confessions

Chapter 6: Cracks in the Wall

Nathan Vance did not lose control. Not in boardrooms, not in negotiations, not in twelve years of building an empire out of nothing but ambition and spite. So the fact that he'd spent the entire morning distracted by an intern's laugh down the hall unsettled him more than he cared to admit.

He found himself outside her desk before he'd consciously decided to walk there.

"Working through lunch again?" he asked.

Nerisa glanced up, startled. "The Hartley account doesn't finish itself."

"It's not due until Friday."

"I like to be early." She hesitated, studying him. "You look like you didn't sleep."

He hadn't. Not really. Sleep came with dreams, and dreams came with memories he'd spent half his life trying to bury. He didn't explain that. He never explained that to anyone.

"Walk with me," he said instead, surprising them both.

They ended up on the rooftop terrace, wind pulling at her hair as the city sprawled beneath them in gold and grey. He didn't usually bring anyone up here. It was the one place in the building that felt like his, not the company's.

"Why here?" she asked.

"I don't know," he admitted, which was rarer than she realized. "I don't usually explain myself."

"You don't have to." She leaned against the railing, watching him instead of the view. "But you can, if you want to."

Something in his chest tightened at that — the quiet permission in her voice, no pressure behind it. Nobody had ever offered him that so plainly before.

"Maybe another time," he said, which was as close to a promise as he'd made in years.

She smiled, small and knowing. "I'll hold you to that, Nathan Vance."

For the first time in longer than he could remember, he found he didn't mind.