Meeting
1050 Words
Vanessa had settled comfortably into her routine at GoodNovium Marketing. Wake up at 5:30 a.m., a quick stretch and a 30-minute yoga session, followed by hot coffee and a podcast before heading to work. She liked her rhythm. It kept her calm. Focused.
She had gotten used to the staff, made a few friends in her department, and even gotten better at navigating the massive building. She’d learned to avoid the executive elevators after her infamous Day One encounter, and she knew better than to ask too many questions about the elusive main CEO.
People talked about him in hushed tones not because they feared him, but because he had that kind of presence. Mysterious, quiet, and powerful. His name came up now and then in meetings Brian Whitmore but she had never seen him. Only heard that he was “different.” Cool, calculated, and rarely seen unless absolutely necessary.
Unlike Caleb, who popped in and out of departments and openly flirted with half the staff, Brian was more of a myth than a man.
But that was about to change.
The Meeting
It was a Thursday. A weird, rainy morning. Vanessa had spilled a little coffee on her blouse during her commute and had to rush to the bathroom to clean up before heading to her desk. On her way back, her heels clicked along the marble floor as she took a shortcut through the executive wing something she rarely did.
She turned a corner and collided straight into someone.
Her tablet almost slipped from her hand, but a firm grip caught her wrist before it fell.
“I’m so sor—” she began, looking up.
And froze.
It was him.
The man from the bar.
The same intense eyes. The strong jaw. The same air of quiet authority that clung to him like a tailored suit. Only now, he wasn’t just a man having drinks in a dimly lit lounge. Now, he was dressed in a charcoal grey suit, expensive and crisp, with an aura that screamed power.
Brian.
Her brain clicked.
Brian Whitmore.
The Brian Whitmore.
The CEO.
He was already staring at her like he remembered too.
Brian held her wrist a second too long before slowly letting go.
“You,” he said softly.
Vanessa blinked, her throat suddenly dry. “You’re… the CEO.”
He raised an eyebrow, one corner of his mouth tugging slightly in a smirk. “And you’re the woman from the bar.”
A full second of silence passed between them. The kind that made your skin warm. The kind that wasn’t awkward but heavy.
She straightened her posture. “That was… just a coincidence.”
He nodded slowly, eyes still on her. “Funny how coincidences work.”
Vanessa tried to will herself to breathe normally, but her pulse was all over the place. She cleared her throat and shifted her tablet to her other hand. “Well, thank you. For catching that.”
He glanced at the tablet. “My company would be in trouble if we didn’t catch falling things.”
Vanessa let out a tight chuckle. “Right.”
And then there was silence again. Charged. Neither of them moved.
Brian, for some reason, couldn’t pull his gaze away. She was even more stunning in the light. Sharp. Classy. He remembered that walk. That dress. That stare. He had told himself to forget her but here she was.
In his company.
Vanessa, meanwhile, was doing everything she could not to blush. He was intimidating in all the wrong ways. Beautiful. Powerful. And now off limits.
They both knew it.
And maybe that’s what made the tension even worse.
“I have to… get to a meeting,” Vanessa said quickly, stepping aside.
Brian moved too, but didn’t turn away. “Of course.”
She walked off, heels echoing down the corridor.
He watched her go.
And for the first time in a long time, Brian Whitmore smiled to himself—just a little.
Brian’s POV –
He stood frozen for a few seconds after she walked away, her scent lingering faintly in the corridor a soft mix of vanilla and something else he couldn’t place, but now couldn’t forget.
No way, he thought.
His brows furrowed slightly, his usual composed demeanor flickering into something… confused. Caught off guard.
That’s actually her?
The woman from the bar. The silhouette. The confidence. The woman who met his eyes without fear, without apology.
It wasn’t just a coincidence. It was her.
He blinked, then turned slightly toward the assistant that had been standing nearby, tablet in hand, observing him like she was trying not to observe him.
“Jennifer,” he said, voice even, though his mind wasn’t.
“Yes, sir?”
“That woman. The one I just spoke to. Who is she?”
Jennifer didn’t even check her tablet. “That’s Miss Vanessa Kingston. She joined a little over a month ago. Works in the Social Strategy Department, under Mr. Caleb’s division.”
Vanessa Kingston.
His mind did a full rewind. Caleb just a few weeks ago—barging into his office with his usual dramatic flair, teasing about “a fine new hotshot” they just hired. Said her name was Vanessa. Vanessa Kingston. Brian had tuned most of it out, as usual, too busy with numbers and reports to care.
His jaw tightened slightly, remembering the way Caleb had gone on and on.
“Bro, she’s different. Got that confidence. And fine as hell, man. Miss Kingston? More like Miss Dangerous…”
Brian had rolled his eyes at the time.
Now?
Now he understood.
Completely.
He glanced back down the hallway she’d disappeared into, something tight pulling in his chest.
Of all people…
He wasn’t supposed to care. Not after Kate. Not after what love or whatever twisted version of it he had with her did to him.
But somehow, in a building full of professionals, with policies, boundaries, and rules stacked up like a wall… this woman had managed to slip past all that. Not even with words. Just with her presence.
And now, she had a name.
Vanessa Kingston.
Brian dragged a hand down his face and muttered under his breath, “Caleb is never going to let this go.”
- Writer
