Silence.
Rune's breathing became slightly uneven. He noticed.
"You know how this ends, don't you?"
There was a long pause before she whispered, "Yes."
"Then why are you still standing here?"
She didn't answer immediately. After a moment, she said, "Because I'm good at what I do. And you hate training replacements."
Dorian let out a dry laugh, but there was no warmth in it. He stood up and moved closer, until there was almost nothing between them.
"Clever girl," he said. "But not clever enough to keep your heart buried."
She held still. She had always been perfect at that. But something flickered again in her eyes. Gone in a flash, but he caught it. Resentment. Barely there, but unmistakable.
He stepped back.
"Emotion doesn't belong here. You knew that the moment you signed."
She nodded, eyes neutral now, but something churned underneath.
"It's time," he said.
Rune inhaled, almost inaudibly. "Understood."
Rune nodded, turned on her heel, and walked out without hesitation. Only when the door shut did Dorian exhale slowly. She would be gone in a couple of weeks. He'd already drafted the severance. But something about the way she'd looked at him stayed longer than it should have.
Just like Aria's name had lingered in Jacob's mouth.
Feelings. Always the rot beneath the surface. And he hated rot
Chapter two
Chapter 2
Rune carefully made her way back to her desk, taking each step with care, her eyes fixed on something far far away. She had her professional mask tightly back in place, and her steady gait did not reveal the discomfort of the rawness between her thighs. No, if she had headed straight to the restroom, Dorian would have spotted it from his vantage point and used it as yet another weapon.
Over the years, she had come to realize that the man she loved was all about his petty little victories. There was a brittle kind of numbness that cocooned her as she made her way to her desk. But it did not block out the soreness. Her inner muscles spasmed, useless in a strange combination of pain and frustration. Dorian had never treated her like that before, like she was no more than that condom he threw away.
Rune gingerly pulled the chair back while the ache between her thighs acted as a bitter reminder of the encounter, for want of a better word. Her legs trembled slightly as she lowered herself into the chair. She tried not to wince. He didn't deserve that.
The intercom buzzed before she could even reach for her coffee with shaking fingers.
"Line up a few candidates for interviews. Two o'clock tomorrow, after the Tokyo call."
Click.
Dorian at his best. No pleasantries. Just instructions, clipped and final. His brand of arseholery which he imagined was professionalism.
Of course, he didn't need to ask if she understood. Dorian never repeated himself. If he had to, it usually meant you were out of a job. But then, was she not counting the days till they took away her ID and made herpersona non grata?
Rune took in a long inhale. She knew he was probably watching her right now – he always did, in the moments when weakness might seep through the cracks.
But her face might have been carved of stone. She had been reading about Jacques Lecoq and the five masks. It had taken time and patience to understand, but she mused, hers had to be a Neutral mask. Her fingers typed in her password with practiced ease, opened the draft email already prepared weeks ago, mad some minor changes and hit send. The request to the recruitment agency had been waiting in her drafts for months. Dorian never kept people too long. She had simply lasted longer than most.
The rest of the day passed as though nothing unusual had happened.
