Chapter 32 - Day 14 The Last Day #3
there was nothing left.
I had packed my desk.
Transferred my work.
Said goodbye to everyone.
Walked out of Vale Architecture.
This box was the only thing left between me and getting into Candy and driving away.
And suddenly Adrian Vale didn't look like the terrifying CEO who had made half the office afraid to breathe too loudly around him.
He was just a terrified man holding onto a cardboard box because it was the last thing physically connecting me to him.
My chest hurt.
"Adrian."
His fingers tightened slightly against the cardboard.
"You should come in Wednesday."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"Wednesday."
"Tomorrow is Wednesday."
"I know."
"I'm aware of how days work. I'm asking why I would come to work."
His jaw tightened.
"You haven't accepted the other position."
Oh.
Of course he'd remembered that.
"No."
"Then come in."
I stared at him.
"Adrian, that's not how quitting works."
"You don't have another job."
"That doesn't mean I still have this one."
"You could."
There it was.
I almost laughed.
Even now.
Standing in a parking lot holding my belongings hostage in a cardboard box-
he was negotiating.
"I resigned."
"I know."
"My notice period ended approximately five minutes ago."
"I know."
"So I don't work for you anymore."
Something changed in his face.
Just for a second.
I wished I hadn't said it.
Not because it wasn't true.
Because apparently Adrian hadn't let himself hear it that plainly until now.
I didn't work for him anymore.
His eyes dropped to the box.
"Wednesday," he said again.
Softer this time.
I swallowed.
"And then what?"
Nothing.
"Thursday?"
His jaw tightened.
"Friday?"
Silence.
"Next Monday?"
His fingers pressed deeper into the cardboard.
I looked at them.
Then at him.
"How long exactly am I supposed to keep coming back?"
His eyes lifted to mine.
He had no answer.
Because there wasn't one.
This wasn't about Wednesday.
It wasn't about work.
It wasn't even about Vale Architecture.
He just didn't know how to let me leave.
And for the first time-
I wasn't going to help him find another excuse.
I held his gaze.
Adrian said nothing.
The box remained between his hands.
I reached for it.
"I should go."
His grip tightened.
Barely.
But enough that the box didn't move.
I looked down at his hands.
Then back at him.
"Adrian."
"Monday."
I blinked.
"What?"
"Come back Monday."
Oh God.
"Now we've moved from Wednesday to Monday?"
"You don't have to come tomorrow."
"How generous."
"Take the rest of the week."
I stared at him.
He was completely serious.
"You're giving me time off from a job I no longer have?"
"Yes."
A laugh escaped me.
I couldn't help it.
"This is insane."
"Then come Monday."
"No."
His jaw tightened.
"Why?"
"Because I quit."
"You don't have to."
"I already did."
"You can change your mind."
"So can you."
That stopped him.
His eyes locked on mine.
I hadn't meant anything complicated by it.
Or maybe I had.
I didn't know anymore.
But something about those three words hit him hard enough that his entire face changed.
For a second-
neither of us spoke.
Then Adrian looked down at the box.
"What if I change the position?"
My heart sank.
There it was.
Again.
"Adrian-"
"Your title."
"No."
"Your schedule."
"No."
"You don't have to work on anything you don't want."
"Stop."
"Your salary-"
"No more coffee. No more money. No more projects. No more finding increasingly ridiculous reasons to put me in the same building as you."
His eyes dropped.
"You had fourteen days."
Silence.
I could hear cars moving somewhere behind us.
A door closing.
Someone laughing across the parking lot.
Normal things.
While Adrian stood in front of me holding a cardboard box like letting go of it might end something he wasn't ready to lose.
I reached for it again.
This time-
he let me take it.
The loss of resistance was so sudden I almost wished he hadn't.
I held the box against myself.
Adrian's hands fell slowly to his sides.
Nothing connected us anymore.
Not the office.
Not my job.
Not the box.
Nothing he could offer me.
Nothing he could negotiate.
Nothing he could put between me and my car.
I stepped around him.
Opened Candy's trunk.
And put the box inside.
When I closed it, the sound felt horribly final.
I turned around.
Adrian hadn't moved.
He was watching me.
I took out my keys.
His eyes dropped to them.
Then back to my face.
"Goodbye, Adrian."
His expression broke.
Not dramatically.
Adrian didn't do anything dramatically unless he was angry.
This was smaller.
Worse.
His lips parted.
Nothing came out.
I turned toward the driver's door.
One step.
Two.
"Angelica."
I stopped.
I waited.
Behind me-
silence.
Then, quietly-
"Stay."
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
The word he'd been trying not to say for fourteen days.
I turned around.
Adrian was standing exactly where I'd left him.
Looking at me.
No box.
No offer.
No company between us now.
Just him.
And me.
"Was that an order?"
His jaw tightened.
"No."
"It sounded like one."
He looked away.
For once, I didn't rescue him.
I didn't joke.
Didn't fill the silence.
Didn't give him another question he could answer with something practical.
I just waited.
His eyes closed.
His chest rose slowly.
Fell.
Then he looked at me.
And for the first time since I'd known Adrian Vale-
there was absolutely nowhere left for him to hide.
"Please stay."
Oh.
There it was.
Please.
Adrian Vale had finally said please.
My heart broke.
I had never heard him say that word.
I wasn't sure anyone had.
Adrian Vale didn't ask.
He gave commands.
Orders.
Instructions.
He told people what he wanted and expected it to happen.
He was the CEO.
He didn't request.
He didn't plead.
He definitely didn't say please.
And I knew-
I knew how hard that one word had been for him.
Maybe harder than every ridiculous thing he'd done for the last fourteen days combined.
The coffee.
The money.
The projects.
The car rides.
The dinners.
The flowers.
All of those things had been easy.
He could do things.
He could fix things.
Pay for things.
Arrange things.
Control things.
But this-
Standing in front of me with nothing left to offer and asking me for something he couldn't force me to give-
this was hard.
I looked at him.
"Why?"
His face changed.
Just slightly.
But I saw it.
He had gotten the word out.
Apparently that didn't mean the rest would come easily.
"Why do you want me to stay?"
Silence.
I waited.
His jaw tightened.
"Then tell me why."
His eyes stayed on mine.
"You know."
My chest tightened.
"You're still expecting me to understand something you refuse to say."
Something shifted in his face.
Because I did know.
That wasn't the point.
He knew that too.
I nodded once.
"Okay."
Then I turned.
I made it one step.
His hand closed around mine.
I stopped.
Not my wrist.
My hand.
For a second, neither of us moved.
Then I looked down.
His hand was wrapped around mine.
Those long fingers that had caught my wrist yesterday.
Those same fingers that had curled around mine over the fa?ade sample.
But this wasn't three seconds.
He wasn't moving away.
And he wasn't holding me hard enough that I couldn't.
If I wanted to pull my hand free-
I could.
I didn't.
I turned back toward him.
Adrian was looking at our hands.
Like maybe he didn't know what the hell he was doing either.
Then his grip changed.
Slowly.
His fingers moved.
Slid between mine.
And closed.
My heart stopped.
He was holding my hand.
Actually holding it.
Not catching me.
Not stopping me from touching his pens.
Not reaching for the same sample.
No excuse.
No accident.
Nothing between our hands at all.
Just-
him.
Holding on.
His eyes finally lifted to mine.
I waited.
His hand stayed around mine.
"You know why," he said.
"I know what I think."
His fingers tightened.
"That's not the same thing."
He went completely still.
"I can't say it for you, Adrian."
Silence.
He looked at me like he wanted me to.
Like it would be so much easier if I would just take everything he'd done for fourteen days, put the words around it myself, and save him from having to say them.
I wasn't going to.
Not because I wanted to hurt him.
But he had to be the one to cross that distance.
I couldn't cross it for him.
Adrian stared at me.
I waited.
Nothing.
His fingers tightened around mine.
"Please."
The word was barely above a whisper.
My heart twisted.
The second one.
And somehow this one hurt more.
Because the first had been attached to something.
Please stay.
This one wasn't.
Just-
please.
As though he didn't even know what he was asking me for anymore.
More time.
Another chance.
For me not to walk away.
For me to understand without making him say it.
Maybe all of it.
I looked at him.
"Adrian..."
His eyes closed for a second.
When they opened again, something in them had changed.
Not enough.
But something.
"Don't go."
My throat tightened.
He was getting closer.
Still not there.
I didn't answer.
His hand tightened around mine again.
Not enough to hold me there.
Just enough that I could feel how badly he wanted to.
And then-
"Please don't leave."
The third one.
No command left in it.
No CEO.
No Adrian Vale who could walk into a room and make everyone else move around him.
Just Adrian.
Asking.
For the third time.
And I had never seen anything cost him so much.
My heart was beating like a racing horse.
Adrian Vale had said please to me three times.
Three fucking times.
I hated it, but I could feel tears accumulating in my eyes.
I blinked hard.
"You mean the company?"
"No."
His voice was quieter now.
"The position?"
"No."
"The job?"
"No."
His voice was breaking down.
Actually-
mine was too.
I felt anger rising underneath everything else.
Not because I didn't understand.
Because I did.