Chapter 7
“MR. HAVINGTON, GOOD mor—”
“Can you get me a cup of coffee, Lara?”
Kyara’s smile froze on her face.
“Oh, but I alrea—”
“Now, Lara.”
Lara took the cup of coffee from Kyara’s hand and placed it on the desk in front of Lyrius.
The handle was angled exactly the way he liked it, which was the part of the morning Kyara had always done herself, because she had memorized the angle in her first month working for him and she was good at it, and she had just done it, and now Lara was the one doing it because Lyrius had asked Lara to, even though the coffee on his desk was the coffee Kyara had brought him.
“Thank you,” he said to Lara while still not looking at her.
The girl he used to want as a girlfriend, but now—
Don’t.
Don’t, don’t, don’t.
Kyara let her hand drop and made herself turn around and walk out of his office, and she only realized she had been holding her breath when she was already halfway to her desk and her chest started hurting from the lack of air.
She breathed in, and she sat down, and she opened her laptop, and she got to work, because that was the only thing she knew how to do right now.
But that was just the beginning.
By eleven, she had a stack of folders that needed his signature, and any other morning she would have walked into his office without thinking about it, but this morning she stood at her desk with the folders pressed against her chest and her feet refusing to move, and it took her three tries before she finally got herself to the doorway.
“Mr. Havington—”
“Lara.”
Oh wow, it was as if she didn’t even exist for him anymore, with how her boss didn’t even glance up from his screen.
“Whatever Ms. Dunn has there, can you take it from her, please?”
And now he didn’t even want to call her by her name?
The folders shook in her arms a little, but only a little, because she was determined not to let them shake more than that, and Lara was already coming around her own desk to take them with the small apologetic squeeze on Kyara’s elbow that hurt almost more than anything else, because Lara wasn’t supposed to feel sorry for her, Lara was supposed to be the one she helped, not the other way around.
Kyara nodded and went back to her desk.
I’m not going to cry. I’m not!
By four, she had stopped looking up every time his office door opened, because every time his office door opened he was either walking out without looking at her or walking back in without looking at her, and her neck was getting sore from snapping toward the door and then snapping away again like she hadn’t been looking in the first place.
So she stopped looking.
And of course, that was when he passed her desk on his way to the elevators and she felt him pass her, she felt him, the air shifted the way it always did when he walked by, and she made the mistake of glancing up at the very last second.
He was already past her.
She caught the back of his shoulder, the line of his jacket, the small movement of his hand reaching to press the elevator button—and then the doors slid open, and he stepped in, and...
In the past, he would’ve met her gaze.
Held it even, until he’d make her feel self-conscious and she’d be the first one to look away.
But this time...it was different.
Because for Lyrius Havington, she no longer existed.
Kyara stayed at her desk and went on working even though Lara and everyone else had gone home. Why that was, she didn’t let herself think about. But when it was already seven, and it was still her...
Don’t think about it. Just don’t.
She could only tell herself that she had just happened to work extra hours tonight. That was it. This was entirely unplanned, rather than her choosing to linger at work because she was hoping she would have another chance to speak to her boss.
Nope! It wasn’t that! Really!
Kyara was all alone as she took the elevator to the lobby, which was now drowning in shadows, and just as she swiped her card at the turnstile to clockout, it was then Kyara saw her—
A beautiful woman who was just as beautifully dressed, and the sound of her laughter was just as beautiful as she tossed her hair over her shoulder and said something to her companion.
Who was none other than her boss.
Lyrius Havington.
The same man who had told her just yesterday morning that he intended to steal Kyara away from her boyfriend, only everything went downhill since then—
It’s okay.
This is okay.
This is fine.
Cyrus might not be the man she thought he was, but that didn’t mean she was wrong about Lyrius, too. He was still too much like all the men her mother fell for, and that...that still mattered.
So it’s fine. It’s okay. There’s no reason to cry.
Kyara turned away from the window before the woman could look up, and she walked out through the revolving door without putting her coat on. Right now, all she cared about was getting as far away from this place as possible.
Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.
The words became the new thing she found herself chanting mentally over and over, and she fell asleep and woke up with those same words in mind.
Don’t cry. Please. Just don’t.
The next morning, Lyrius didn’t look at her at all, and it was just so, so strange. Why did this matter more to her than the fact that Cyrus had cheated on her? And that they had broken up just like that after three years of dating?
She greeted her boss like she usually did, gave him his coffee also like she usually did—
“Just leave the files on my desk, Ms. Dunn.”
But he was the one who had changed. He was the one who was no longer like how he used to be, and she just didn’t understand why this hurt so, so much.
Kyara went back to her own desk and sat down and opened her laptop and started typing, and her fingers moved by themselves because her brain wasn’t really in her body anymore, her brain was still somewhere in the lobby restaurant last night with her face pressed against the glass it hadn’t actually been pressed against.
By ten, she had tried one more time.
She had walked up to his door with absolutely nothing in her hands, no folder, no coffee, no excuse, just her, and she had opened her mouth and said—
“Mr. Havington, I—”
I’m sorry.
I lied.
We don’t—
I never—
Stop.
“—I had a question about the Henderson file, but it can wait.”
Lyrius’s pen didn’t stop moving and Kyara had to bite her lip very hard as she turned around.
Keep it together, Kyara! You asked for this. So keep it together!
And she really did believe she was doing well, and she had everything under control...until she was having lunch with Lara when the other woman suddenly asked, “What happened?”
Kyara burst into tears. “I’m s-so sorry...”
“Oh, hon, what’s wrong?”
Kyara was about to say it was nothing out of habit...when she realized something mind-boggling.
I don’t have to pretend.
I don’t have to lie.
I can just be honest.
And so she...talked.
She told Lara about secretly dating someone at work for three years and how she had found out about being cheated on, which then led to a...misunderstanding between her and their boss.
“I see.”
“Y-You don’t look surprised,” Kyara ventured uncertainly.
“We’ve shared the same office for three years,” Lara said complacently, “and I’m very good at finding things out.”
Kyara’s eyes widened. Oh no. Does that mean—
“But I’m also good at keeping secrets and not making things uncomfortable.”
Why did it feel like Lara was telling her without telling her that she knew about Mr. Havington—
“May I just ask, though—” Lara looked at her soberly. “If you were to rate your misunderstanding from one to ten—”
“Eleven,” she said miserably.
“Oh.”
“Is that a bad ‘oh’ or a—”
“It’s not.”
She started to sigh in relief.
“It’s worse.”
“Lara!”
“I’m sorry, hon. You know I can’t lie.”
“But surely it’s not that bad—”
“I’ll do my best to talk to him about this given the chance...but in all the years I’ve worked for Mr. Havington, I’ve never seen him give anyone a second chance.”