Hidden Tensions
1483 Words
From the side of the boardroom, Lois watched as the tension grew thickening her fingers around the edge of her folder. Powerful men seated around the long, polished table were CEOs, investors, executives in charge of whole sectors. Still, she witnessed something she had never seen before—first since she had entered Steve Reynolds's life.
Questions.
Steve felt thinner, stretched, the customary aura of dominance lessened. His voice stayed constant, his eyes frigid, but she could feel the undercurrents of discomfort wriggling beneath his well put on façade.
One of the board members, fidgeting uneasily, stated, "We cannot afford another delay." "Lacey is making moves." He has already persuaded a small number of our important allies to change their allegiance.
Lois missed not the way Steve's jaw tightened.
"I'll handle Lacey," he declared squarely, the words having a finality that left no space for discussion.
A murmur went through the hall. A few nodded, reluctant but compliant. Others cast dubious looks at one another.
Power was starting to change in equilibrium. And Steve understood it as well.
Forced handshakes and curt farewells marked the end of the conference. Following Steve as he walked down the corridor, Lois noted his faster than normal speed.
He harboured resentment.
Not so sure, annoyed.
She was starting to make distinctions.
When they got to his office, a voice halted them before they could walk in.
Jerry McGill.
Leaning against the doorframe, Steve's closest confidante and best buddy had arms crossed. Usually his laid-back attitude was absent.
Steve murmured, "Not here," pushing by him.
Jerry trailed following closing the door behind them.
Lois hesitated and stayed just outside. Not enough, but the massive oak door muffled their words.
Inside Steve let out a quick breath. "It's sliding, Jerry."
"You can still correct it," Jerry said.
An interval.
Steve then said, "I never wanted this," his voice softer now. "But right now... How am I supposed to let her go?
The heart of Lois still stopped.
She momentarily forgot where she was. She was someone.
Was he referring specifically to her?
She wanted to compel responses by pushing open the door. She stayed anchored in place, pulse thumping though.
Deep down she wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the truth.
Sitting at her desk, Lois found no relief from the mental turmoil from the illumination of her computer screen. Steve's comments kept running through and over.
How would I let her go?
She understood she ought not to obsess over it. She was here under contract, a business deal, a mutual benefit arrangement. Still, the lines were getting hazy.
She had spent weeks trying to figure Steve, piecing together his frigid façade and the cracks under it. Sure, he was merciless. calculated. She did, however, see something else in brief, hardly noticeable flashes.
Something actual.
Was she part of his approach? A well-placed article in his empire? Alternatively was there anything else more?
She couldn't concentrate even though her fingers hung over the keyboard.
She jumped at the door knock.
She gazed upward. Steve:
His easy presence dark suit brilliant against the low light.
“Come to my office,” he said. Not a clue. Just a gentle directive.
Lois paused; the strain from the board meeting still permeated their relationship. But before her answer could come,
Another knock.
More loudly.
more vigorous.
Steve started to change his expression.
With an unexplained sense of worry tightening in her stomach, Lois turned towards the door.
Anyone on the other side was not here for politeness.
The negotiating area resembled a battlefield.
Long enough to grasp the weight of the power conflicts under action, Lois had been sitting through Steve's company meetings. Deals were won rather than just created. She could also picture Steve battling for dominance of his own kingdom right now.
Under the weight of Charlie Lacey's impending dominance, his business partners were growing restless and their allegiance was weakening. Some took no action at all. Others tested Steve's emotions by speaking in precisely measured tones.
also Steve?
He stayed calm. Not shakable.
But Lois sensed the reality.
Time was running short for him.
She was startled back to the moment by a stinging comment across the table.
One of the men replied, "The investors are getting nervous, Reynolds." "They dislike uncertainty."
Steve slanted forward, steepling his fingers. Then calm them.
The weight of his presence was felt by Lois even across the room. He was not merely chatting to them. He was foretelling danger for them.
The conference continued, stress building with every second. Lois was tired when it stopped.
She stood to go, adjusting the bracelet on her wrist, another one of Steve's well chosen accessories supposed to be the ideal wife.
Then she experienced it.
An eye glance.
She spun.
Steve is observing her.
Not in line with a businessman.
Not as a CEO evaluating a resource.
But like a man trying to decipher a woman he couldn't fully understand.
His dark, penetrating gaze carried something unspoken, something menacing.
She wasn't ready for heated curling in her tummy.
Her phone buzzed before she could process it though.
She turned her eyes away, then down at the screen.
Unknown count
She swallowed and read the message while a knot developed in her throat.
Steve alone is not the reason you should be concerned. Keep an eye on your back.
Sitting on the leather couch, Lois clutched a glass of wine between her hands. She was not sipping from it. She hardly even noticed the strong aroma of berries and wood curling from the edge. Steve stood near the fireplace across from her, his posture stiff as if he were holding himself together with difficulty.
In minutes, they had not spoken.
They were not often alone like this, really alone, free from board meetings, false smiles, or the weight of expectation hovering over them.
She ought to have been leaving.
She said, instead, "You never let anyone see when something's wrong."
Steve's fingers curved around the whisky glass in his grasp. He kept staring at the unreadable fire. That is since nothing ever is.
Lois shook her head and gently breathed. You honestly expect me to believe that?
One muscle in his jaw tickled. " It doesn't matter what you believe."
And there it was. The wall here.
He usually hurled one anytime she got too near.
Lois quietly clicked her wine glass down. "You say that, but I doubt it is accurate."
Steve gazed at her first time. Actually paid close attention to her.
Something raw, unprotected flashed in his eyes. She had seen it; it vanished in a second.
"I ought never to have included you in this," he said.
The words stung her chest with an unusual, sharp pain.
She asked, voice hardly above a whisper, "So why did you?"
Between them, silence filled with unspoken words stretches.
Then she almost missed it, so softly he said, "I don't know."
Lois swallowed forcefully.
The merciless businessman the globe knew was not this one. Trapped between obligation and something he could not define, this guy was disintegrating at the margins.
And the worst aspect is also here.
She was beginning to get interested.
Her phone buzzed, rupturing the moment.
She took it from her pocket and scowled at the unidentified number shown on the screen.
Steve followed her. Who is it?
Lois stumbled. She answered then.
The voice on the other end sent frost down her spine.
Charlie?
"You believe you have discovered means of control for this?" His voice was soft and tinged with laughter. You have not even started to grasp the extent of this.
Lois tightened.
But the line died before she could reply.
Sitting on the edge of her bed, Lois fixated on her phone.
She looped in her head, twisted with everything else, the chat with Charlie.
Steve has His defences. His silently expressed regrets.
His attitude towards her tonight, as if he wanted to tell her something but didn't know how, suggested something.
Her fingers curled into the pages.
She had been first quite certain about him. Sure, he was just another cold billionaire defending his creation. He had picked her for convenience rather than connection.
Still now, though?
She was not sure of anything now.
She requires air.
She crept out of the bedroom and walked down the penthouse hall after grabbing her coat. The metropolis seemed immense and incomprehensible, stretching beyond the floor to ceiling windows.
She had not intended to listen in on conversations.
She heard it though as she passed Steve's office.
His voice. Low: Stressed
And Jerry's as well.
Steve said, "Everything will collapse if we cannot fix this soon." a stop. adding her.
Lois’s breath caught.
Her ears heard her thudding pulse.
Her.
She retreated, the weight of his words settling in her chest.
What the devil had she become involved in?
- Writer
