He Denied Our Engagement At Work

On my first day at the new company, I saw my boyfriend, Zayven Ruelle. We'd been in a long-distance relationship for a year. He was pressing a cup of warm milk into Tiffany Vossaine's hand and tearing open the wrapper for her straw. The HR specialist walked me around to introduce me to everyone, and he didn't even look up. "Hi everyone, my name is Lena Velrose." The straw slipped and fell onto the desk. Tiffany followed his gaze over to me, smiled, and asked, "Do you two know each other?" Just the night before, this same man had been asking me what kind of flowers I wanted for our engagement party. He stayed quiet for a few seconds. "No, we don't," he added in a low voice. "Drink it while it's still warm. If it gets cold, your stomach will start hurting again." I smiled and pulled back the hand I'd started to lift to wave at him. That same evening, I left the group chat that both our families had been planning together for half a year. Before I left, I left a message. Lena: Zayven Ruelle says he doesn't know me. So there's no need for anyone to keep arranging this engagement. ***** The moment the words "We don't know each other" left his mouth, the office fell silent for a second. Tiffany clearly did not understand what had just happened. She smiled sweetly. "Oh, so you don't know each other." She took the cup of milk back, drawing out the last word playfully. "I thought Zayven was so nervous when he saw you that he couldn't even hold a straw properly." Someone nearby chimed in, "When has Zayven ever been nervous? He's only nervous around Tiffany." "Exactly! The last time Tiffany had a stomachache, Zayven nearly turned the whole company upside down." Laughter filled the office. Someone held up a phone to take a picture, saying they wanted to post it in the department group chat. They had already thought of a caption: A Welcome Gift for the New Hire. Ms. Harris, the HR manager, frowned and motioned for me to finish my introduction. I lowered my hand, digging my fingernails into my palm. My voice sounded steadier than I felt. "Hi, everyone. My name is Lena Velrose. I'll be working as an analyst in the Investment Analysis Department. I look forward to working with you all." Zayven finally looked up at me. His glance was brief, so quick that it seemed as though he was afraid someone might catch him doing it. But I had not appeared out of nowhere. Last Wednesday, I had already told him that all my hiring paperwork was complete and that I would be starting on Monday. Tiffany warmly showed me where my desk was. "Lena, you can take the empty seat toward the back. I hope you don't mind." The seat she pointed to was in the farthest corner, right beside the photocopier. The strong smell of cleaning products mixed with the damp smell of paper towels. Ms. Harris looked displeased. "It's too cramped over there. You can sit there temporarily, but we'll find you another desk this week." "It's fine," I said. I picked up my laptop bag and walked toward the corner. As I passed Zayven, he pulled his chair closer to his desk. He was avoiding me. I sat in the corner, and the woman beside me leaned over to whisper a warning, "Don't bother looking." I raised my eyes. She turned her monitor slightly toward me and lowered her voice even more. "They're always like this. Zayven is cold toward everyone else, but he's different from Tiffany." A man at the desk behind us turned around too. "You're lucky, newbie. You get to see the biggest show in our department on your first day. Zayven and Tiffany haven't made their relationship official, but everyone in the company already assumes they're together." Tiffany turned around and glared at him. "Stop making things up." But she did not move Zayven's hand from the back of her chair. There was a faint scar on that hand. When I was twelve, I fell into a neighbor's flower bed while learning to ride a bike. Zayven had pulled me up, and a piece of wire fencing had cut his hand. Back then, we had lived on the same street for ten years, with our backyards facing each other. He used to hold out that same hand and ask me for a reward. A piece of candy, a bite of ice cream, and later, a kiss. Before lunch, Tiffany moved to the empty seat beside me. "Lena, why are you only joining the company now?" "My mom was transferred to work, so I transferred here too." "What a coincidence." She casually flipped through the hiring documents on my desk. "Zayven is the best person in this company. But he doesn't usually help other people learn the ropes. "He's only willing to teach me. If you have any questions, you can ask Hannah Wrenley. Oh, she's sitting right beside you." Then she suddenly asked me, "Do you have a boyfriend?" I looked at Zayven. The pen in his hand stopped moving. I answered, "I used to." Tiffany froze for a moment. The man beside us burst out laughing. "You used to? So you're about to break up, then?" "Was it a long-distance relationship?" Tiffany asked. "Yes." A hint of sympathy appeared in her eyes, but she could not hide her sense of superiority. "Long-distance relationships are the least reliable. If you want a boyfriend, he needs to be someone you can see and touch. Otherwise, what does it even mean?" She shook the star-shaped bracelet around her wrist. "For my birthday last month, Zayven stayed with me from the afternoon until midnight. He even canceled a meeting with a client just to be with me." My pen suddenly stopped moving. "What date was that?" "The seventeenth." Tiffany opened her phone gallery and held a photo out to me. The timestamp showed 9:12 p.m. In the background was an old restaurant in the city center. A small cake sat on the table, its candle still burning. The seventeenth was my twentieth birthday. Before he left last year, he had promised me that he would come back to spend every important day with me. But on the evening of the seventeenth, I waited at the same restaurant from six until nine. The server had refilled my water three times. At 9:07 p.m., Zayven finally replied to my message. Zayven: An unexpected project meeting came up, and I couldn't leave. Don't wait for me. I asked if he could at least make a video call. Zayven: It's not like turning twenty is something you have to celebrate. Don't waste your time on something so trivial. In the end, I took the untouched cake home with me.