Chapter One- The Man Who Noticed
817 Words
Elena Hart had a complicated relationship with Mondays.
She didn't hate them exactly.
She simply believed Mondays had a personal vendetta against her.
By eight-thirty in the morning, she'd already spilled coffee on her sleeve, forgotten her access card at home, and nearly walked into a cyclist because she was too busy arguing with herself about whether buying another pair of shoes was financially irresponsible.
It probably was.
But the shoes were beautiful.
That counted for something.
“Brilliant,” she muttered as she hurried through the glass doors of the building, trying to wipe the coffee stain from her cream blouse with a tissue. “Absolutely brilliant, Elena.”
The receptionist glanced up.
“Morning.”
“Morning.”
“You're late.”
Elena stopped.
She slowly looked at the clock above the reception desk.
8:47.
She looked back at the receptionist.
“I prefer to call it fashionably delayed.”
The woman laughed.
“Your boss has been looking for you.”
Of course he had.
Elena sighed and headed toward the lifts.
She was halfway there when the doors opened.
And Nathan Hayes stepped out.
She knew him, obviously.
Everyone did.
Nathan had been working at the company long enough to have acquired the kind of reputation people didn't need to explain. Intelligent. Quiet. Reliable. Extremely good at what he did.
And, unfortunately, ridiculously attractive.
He wore a dark navy suit that fitted him almost offensively well, his sleeves buttoned neatly at the wrists and his tie sitting perfectly against a crisp white shirt.
Elena hated that she noticed things like that.
She also hated that he noticed her noticing.
His eyes moved briefly to the coffee stain on her blouse.
Then to the tissue in her hand.
Then back to her face.
“Rough morning?”
Elena straightened.
“No.”
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
She looked down at herself.
“Okay. Maybe slightly.”
The corner of his mouth lifted.
“Good morning, Elena.”
There was something about the way he said her name.
Too warm.
Too familiar.
She wasn't sure when Nathan Hayes had started saying her name like it belonged comfortably in his mouth.
“Morning,” she replied.
He stepped aside to let her enter the lift.
She walked in.
He followed.
Of course he did.
The doors closed.
Silence settled between them.
Elena stared determinedly at the glowing numbers above the door.
Nathan stood beside her.
She could feel his presence without looking at him.
“You forgot something.”
She frowned.
“What?”
He reached into his coat pocket and held out a small rectangular card.
Her access card.
Elena's eyes widened.
“Oh.”
“You left it in the lobby.”
She took it from him.
“When did you—?”
“This morning.”
“You picked it up?”
“I did.”
She stared at him.
Nathan simply looked back.
“You could have left it at reception.”
“I could have.”
“Then why didn't you?”
His expression softened.
“Because I knew you'd forget to collect it.”
Elena opened her mouth.
Closed it.
She hated when people were right.
The lift stopped on the seventh floor.
Nathan stepped out first.
Then he turned toward her.
“Try not to spill anything else today.”
She looked down at her blouse.
“I make no promises.”
His smile appeared again.
Small.
Brief.
But enough to make something strange flutter in her chest.
Then he walked away.
Elena remained in the lift for a second longer than necessary.
She stared after him.
“Get yourself together,” she whispered.
The doors began closing.
She quickly stepped out.
Across the office, Nathan was already speaking to one of his colleagues, completely composed, as though he hadn't just made her heart behave like it had forgotten its job.
Elena shook her head.
This was exactly why she avoided men like Nathan Hayes.
Men who were confident without being arrogant.
Kind without making a performance of it.
The kind who noticed little things.
The kind who remembered.
They were dangerous.
Because eventually, you started wondering what it would feel like to be loved by someone like that.
And Elena wasn't ready to wonder.
Not yet.
She had spent enough time learning that feelings could make a fool of you.
Love, in her experience, wasn't something to rush toward.
It was something to be careful with.
Something that could start beautifully and still leave you picking up the pieces afterward.
So she had made herself a promise.
No unnecessary attachments.
No falling too quickly.
And absolutely no falling for Nathan Hayes.
Unfortunately, Nathan Hayes seemed to have made a very different promise.
Because from across the office, while Elena was busy convincing herself that she wasn't interested in him...
Nathan was watching her.
And he was smiling.
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