And judging by the way his jaw tightens?
He knows it too.
Everything Goes Red
Langston
Something’s been off all day.
It settles under my skin the second I leave the house—quiet but relentless, like I stepped out wrong and didn’t realize it until I was already too far gone to fix it. I replay the way I snapped at her. The way her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes after. The way the door closed behind me.
I tell myself to focus.
I try.
Emails blur. Numbers stop making sense. I reread the same line of a contract three times and still couldn’t tell you what it says. Every thought circles back to Sabrina—what she’s doing, where she went, whether she’s angry or hurt or already halfway out the door like she’s done before.
By the time the fleet scheduling team from the Kensington side arrives, I’m already wound tight.
Two men. One woman.
All business. Charts, routes, timelines. I lock into it automatically—this is the part of my life that’s always made sense. Steel lines. Logistics. Control.
The men are exactly what I expect—efficient, polite, eyes on the numbers. The woman isn’t.
She smiles too easily. Holds eye contact too long. Crosses her legs slowly when she sits, like she’s on a date instead of in a boardroom.
I ignore it.
We get through routing timelines and regional expansions. I’m mid-sentence explaining a bottleneck in the Northeast corridor when I feel it—her attention sliding over me, not listening so much as watching.
When the meeting wraps, they stand. Handshakes all around.
The men are quick.
She isn’t.
Her fingers curl around mine, lingering. Her thumb brushes my knuckle, deliberate.
“Congratulations,” she says, eyes flicking briefly to my left hand. “On the wedding.”
“Thank you,” I reply coolly, already trying to pull back.
She doesn’t let go.
“I have to admit,” she adds, voice dropping slightly, conspiratorial. “I didn’t expect it to beSabrina.”
My body stills.
She smiles wider, like she enjoys that she landed the hit. “She never struck me as the type to settle. Especially not for… obligation.”
I finally free my hand. “You’re mistaken.”
She lifts a shoulder, unbothered. “Maybe. But last I heard, she had options. Elliott, for one. He seemed… very invested.”
She tilts her head, studying my face. “Last I heard, she was still with Elliott. At least… that’s what everyone assumed when he followed her to Chicago as soon as his father had an opening.”
The room goes cold.
