CHAPTER-THREE
1109 Words
By the third day of Nikos Stavros working at Aether Media Group, the newsroom had developed a new morning routine.
First - coffee.
Second - headlines.
Third - Nikos.
The open floor hummed with its usual restless energy. Keyboards clattered in overlapping rhythms. Phones shrilled and cut off mid-ring. Two editors squared off over a headline near the print desk, their voices low but sharp, the kind of argument people had learned to conduct without drawing attention to themselves.
Deadlines ruled everything at Aether Media.
But gossip?
Gossip ruled the people.
And today's subject sat calmly at desk twenty-three, utterly indifferent to the whispers curling around him like smoke.
Near the coffee machine, two interns huddled close.
"I heard he told Andreas his editing style was outdated."
"No way."
"Maria said so."
"If Maria said it-"
Across the room, Maria sneezed.
Kostas slid her a suspicious look. "You sensed people spreading gossip without you, didn't you?"
Maria pressed a hand to her chest. "Impossible. I would never allow that."
"You started the rumours yesterday."
"Details."
Her gaze drifted across the newsroom and settled - inevitably - on Nikos. He sat with one ankle crossed over his knee, typing at a pace that suggested he hadn't lost a single hour of sleep over anything that had happened on Monday.
Maria shook her head. "Look at him."
"I am."
"He's too comfortable."
Kostas studied the man. "Andreas hasn't fired him yet."
Maria leaned in, voice dropping. "That's the suspicious part."
---
At desk twenty-three, Nikos was three paragraphs deep into a rewrite when a figure dropped into the empty chair beside him.
"Morning, troublemaker."
He didn't look up. "Morning."
Kostas spun once in the chair, slow and deliberate. "You realise everyone's talking about you."
"I assumed."
"Doesn't bother you?"
"Should it?"
Kostas opened his mouth. Closed it. "You're weird."
A chair scraped the floor on his other side. Sofia materialized between the desks like she'd been launched from somewhere, eyes bright, energy crackling.
"Okay. I have questions."
Nikos glanced up. "Good morning."
"Good morning. Now answer." She pointed at him. "Did you actually argue with Andreas Nikolaou?"
"We had a discussion."
"That's a lie."
The voice came from behind him.
Nikos turned. Maria stood with her arms folded, wearing the expression of someone who had been listening for considerably longer than she intended to admit.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough." She slid into the conversation without apology. "You're downplaying."
Kostas nodded. "Maria knows everything."
"It's a gift," she agreed.
Nikos leaned back in his chair. "So what exactly is the story now?"
Maria tilted her head, considering. "According to half the office, you're either extremely brave." A pause. "Or extremely stupid."
Sofia nodded gravely. "Those are the two main theories."
Nikos exhaled a short laugh. "I'll survive."
"Maybe," Kostas said. "But Andreas isn't known for patience."
Maria stepped closer. "He's already rewritten half your article."
Nikos raised his eyebrows. "That fast?"
"You're not scared?"
"No."
The three of them stared.
Sofia spoke first. "Wow."
---
Across the newsroom, Matteo Alexandros leaned against the edge of a vacant desk, coffee cup raised halfway to his mouth, attention fixed on the cluster of people surrounding Nikos.
"So that's the new writer," he murmured.
Beside him, Elias typed without looking up. "Yes."
"You've met him?"
"Yesterday."
"And?"
Elias paused for exactly one second. "He's confident."
Matteo smiled, slow and entertained. "I like confident people."
"I noticed."
"Oh?"
"You've been watching him for ten minutes."
Matteo laughed under his breath, pushed away from the desk, and crossed the floor toward Nikos.
The group noticed him coming. Sofia straightened. "Oh no."
Kostas frowned. "What?"
"Matteo."
Maria inhaled sharply. "This is going to be good."
Nikos glanced up as Matteo stopped beside his desk. The man studied him with open curiosity, head tilted slightly, like he was appraising something he hadn't decided the value of yet.
"You're Nikos."
"And you are?"
Matteo placed a hand over his chest. "Matteo Alexandros."
"Drama king," Sofia supplied, loudly.
"I heard that," Matteo said.
Kostas leaned back. "She's not wrong."
Matteo ignored them both, gaze staying on Nikos. "So. You survived Andreas."
Nikos shrugged. "So far."
Matteo laughed - genuine, unhurried. "I like you already."
From his desk across the room, Elias watched. His fingers had stopped moving over the keyboard.
Sofia clocked it immediately. Her eyes lit up.
She leaned toward Nikos and dropped her voice to something that carried perfectly across the space between desks. "Fun fact. Elias hates when Matteo talks to other people."
Across the room, Elias went very still.
Matteo turned slowly. "Is that true?"
Elias closed his laptop with a quiet click. "I hate all of you."
Matteo's grin widened. "That's not a no."
Kostas burst out laughing.
---
The glass door to Andreas' office opened.
The silence was instantaneous.
Chairs rolled back. Eyes dropped to screens. Fingers found keyboards. The newsroom transformed in under three seconds - thirty people suddenly absorbed in urgent, critical work.
Except Nikos, who remained exactly as he was.
Andreas crossed the floor. His footsteps were measured, unhurried, and somehow the kind of quiet that made noise feel rude. He stopped at desk twenty-three and set a printed document on the surface.
"Mr. Stavros."
Nikos looked up. "Morning."
"Your article." Andreas tapped the page.
Nikos picked it up. Red marks bled across every paragraph. He scanned the edits without speaking, turning to the second page, then the third.
"You edited a lot."
"Yes."
"But you kept my introduction."
A pause.
"It works," Andreas said.
Three nearby employees froze mid-keystroke.
Nikos glanced up, something flickering across his expression - surprise, quickly contained. "Huh."
Andreas pointed at a section halfway down the page. "This paragraph is weak."
"Fair."
Their eyes met. Neither looked away first. The moment stretched a beat too long - not uncomfortable, not comfortable either. Something in between, unnamed and unacknowledged.
Andreas turned and walked back toward his office.
The door had barely closed before the newsroom exhaled.
"What just happened?" Kostas hissed.
Sofia seized Nikos by the arm. "He complimented you."
Maria pressed both hands to her face. "In three years I have never seen that."
Matteo materialized at the edge of the desk. "You're definitely interesting."
Across the room, Elias watched in silence. He said nothing for a long moment.
"This," he murmured, "is going to be a disaster."
Sofia turned toward Nikos, her smile sharp and satisfied.
"No." She tilted her head toward the glass office, where Andreas had already returned to his tablet - but whose eyes had drifted, just once, back toward desk twenty-three. "This is going to be fun."
- Writer
