The budget documents had been in front of Wren for three hours when the figures stopped holding their shape.
She sat at the secondary worktable in Caelum’s office, not at his desk, with Q4 freight projections spread before her and the second notebook beside her left hand. The arrangement was practical. Restricted files could not leave the office, and Caelum had given her a place to review them without asking her to surrender the notes she had already made.
Practicality did not prevent the room from affecting her.
For the first hour, Wren sat too straight. Caelum’s page turns, the scratch of his pen, and the quiet movement between his desk and the filing shelves made concentration more expensive than the figures required. She noticed each time he stood. The bond noticed before she did an
