By Friday, I told myself I had it under control again.
The tension.
The thoughts.
Him.
Everything neatly pushed back into place where it belonged.
Work helped.
It always did.
Structure. Order. Logic.
Things that made sense.
Things that didn’t look at you like they could see through every layer you carefully built.
I walked into the office earlier than usual, determined to stay ahead of everything.
Including him.
Especially him.
But of course—
Life didn’t work like that.
“You’re early.”
I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.
I closed my eyes briefly before facing him.
“Deadlines don’t wait.”
Ethan stood a few steps behind me, his presence already shifting the atmosphere around us.
“They usually do,” he said. “You just don’t let them.”
“That’s called being effi
