“Caleb.”I frown at him, and he shrugs.
“What?It is.They have these hot springs, and you can reserve some where you can just be alone and?—”
“Okay.”My face feels hot.“That’s quite enough.We have work to do.”
Steven chuckles.“Even when dating, you two can’t stop arguing.”
“It’s young love,” Flora tells him wisely.“Passionate and wild.It burns the hottest, and then…”
“Okay, Flora,” Steven guides her back to her seat.“Don’t fizzle out their relationship when it’s only just begun.”
“I’m just offering them sage advice,” Flora protests.
“I know,” Steven reassures her.“Come on.We have to finalize the posters today.”
I exchange a look with Caleb who mimics an explosion with his hand before making a fizzling sound.My lips twitch as I get back to work.
As I click through the final campaign mock-ups for the Serastra, I can’t help but notice the parallel between the yacht and my life right now—something classic being carefully restored, given a new chance.The thought of my mother waiting at home, making an effort after all these years, sends a flutter of cautious hope through me.It’s strange how quickly things can change—how a relationship I’d written off as beyond repair suddenly has potential again.
“You okay?”Caleb asks quietly, rolling his chair closer to mine.His eyes are serious now, the playfulness from moments ago replaced with genuine concern.
“Yeah,” I say, surprising myself with how much I mean it.“I think I am.”He reaches over and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering against my cheek for just a moment.The casual intimacy of it makes something warm unfurl in my chest.
“Good,” he says.“Because there’s this hot spring in Japan that I think you’d love, and I need you in a good mood when I tell you it’s clothing-optional.”
I swat his arm, but I’m laughing despite myself.“In your dreams, Reynolds.”
“Every night, Lopez,” he counters with a wink before rolling back to his desk.
Steven clears his throat pointedly.“If you two lovebirds are done, we have a deadline in two hours.”
“Right,” I say, straightening in my chair and trying to look professional.“Back to work.”
But as I turn to my screen, I catch Caleb watching me, his expression soft and unguarded in a way that makes my heart stutter.Our eyes meet, and without saying a word, I know we’re thinking the same thing: how unexpected all of this is—my mother’s visit, our relationship, this strange new feeling of possibility stretching out before us.
For so long, I’ve built my life around walls and sharp edges, around independence so fierce it left no room for anyone else.But now, with my mother reaching out and Caleb breaking through my defenses, those walls are beginning to crumble.
And this time, I’m not fighting to rebuild them.
I turn back to my work, a smile still playing at the corner of my lips.The Serastra campaign is coming together beautifully on my screen—a testament to second chances and new beginnings.
Just like mine.
“I’ve never seen you like this,” Megan observes as I munch on the peanuts in the bowl before me.
“Like what?”I eye the slice of apple pie she’s been eating for the past ten minutes.She’s only taken two bites so far, and I’m already planning to steal the rest.
“Chipper,” my sister declares.
“Chipper?”I stare at her.
“You know,” she shrugs, “happy, cheerful.Content and shit.”
“You have such a way with words, Megan.”
“I know.”She catches a peanut I toss at her and eats it.“Being with Eve agrees with you.You seem less… whorish.”
I blink at her before saying loudly, “Mom!Mom, Megan just called me a whore!”
