Chapter Fourteen: Back To Work
520 Words
Chapter Fourteen: Back to Work
Katherine
Walking back into the office on Monday morning felt like stepping into a spotlight.
Conversations quieted as I passed.
Every smile looked too polite. Every greeting, rehearsed.
But I’d promised myself I wouldn’t shrink anymore.
I held my head high, set my bag down on my desk, and logged in as if the last two weeks hadn’t changed everything.
Still, my heart wouldn’t settle.
Not when every glance toward that glass-walled office at the end of the hall reminded me of the man inside it.
Andrew Austin.
My boss. My mistake. My almost.
At ten o’clock sharp, his intercom buzzed.
“Miss Sandra, I need to see you.”
For a moment, I just stared at the phone.
Then I took a deep breath, smoothed my skirt, and walked into his office.
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Andrew
He’d practiced this conversation a hundred times in his head.
Keep it professional.
Stay distant.
Don’t look at her like she’s the only thing in the room.
But the second she walked in, all of that discipline wavered.
She looked calm — elegant as always — but he saw the exhaustion in her eyes. And it hit him all over again just how much the last few weeks had cost her.
“Welcome back,” he said evenly.
“Thank you,” she replied, her tone polite, guarded.
He gestured to the chair. “Please, sit.”
She did. The silence that followed stretched taut between them.
“I wanted to personally assure you,” he began, “that your position here is secure. The review is closed, and I’ve addressed the board about the lack of professionalism in how it was handled.”
Her eyes flicked up, sharp. “You mean how I was handled.”
He flinched. “Yes.”
She nodded once. “Good.”
He expected gratitude. Instead, he saw something harder — resolve.
“I appreciate what you did for me, Andrew,” she said quietly. “But we can’t go back to how things were.”
He leaned forward. “And how were they?”
Her lips curved faintly — not a smile, but something close. “Complicated.”
He wanted to tell her how many nights he’d thought about her. How many times he’d almost called. But before he could speak, she stood.
“I’ll have the Q3 reports ready by noon,” she said, her voice calm again. “Unless there’s anything else, Mr. Austin?”
The title hit him like a slap.
He nodded slowly. “That’ll be all.”
She turned to leave — but paused at the door.
Without looking back, she said, “For what it’s worth, I’m glad we both kept our jobs.”
And then she was gone.
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Andrew
He stared at the closed door, her words echoing in his head.
We both kept our jobs.
It was the truth — but it felt like a lie.
Because somewhere between keeping the company intact and keeping his distance, he’d already lost the one thing he hadn’t realized he needed.
Her.
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(End of Chapter Fourteen)
- Writer
