I’m already turning on my heel. Already speaking to the next customer.
She blinks. I can feel her watching me, waiting for something. A name. A reaction. A cue.
I give her nothing.
And it’s the most powerful I’ve felt in weeks.
But the second she turns away—and the lobby settles, and the air goes back to smelling like copier toner and reheated tuna—I sit down and feel it hit.
All of it.
The adrenaline dump. The leftover tension in my shoulders. The too-tight feeling in my blouse that I suddenly notice again now that I’m not being stared at by a legally questionable fashion model.
I count twenties. Confirm account numbers. Smile at the next person like I didn’t just get emotionally suplexed by a man in designer sunglasses.
I go back to doing the job I’m paid to do.
Because yeah. Lev just walked in here like the bank was his playground.
And yeah. He saweverything.
The fake smiles. The high school mean girls in business-casual. The part where I stood there like a human welcome mat and said nothing.
I press my palm to my thigh, then slide it up to my wrist, fingertips brushing the thin band of the bracelet.
No response, obviously. It’s not two-way.
But still—I rub my forehead.
“I didn’t need that,” I mutter, voice still low. “Whatever that was. Mafia theater.”
Still no answer. Of course.
Just the low hum of the printer. The tap of Janice’s nails on her keyboard. The sense that my life has been cracked open like a dropped snow globe and everyone is just pretending the glitter isn’t sticking to the carpet.
I glance toward the front doors, even though he’s long gone.
The girls are still whispering. Probably about him. Maybe about me.
Whatever.
Let them talk.
For once,Iwasn’t the weakest thing in the room.
And that… that’s what really messes with me.
Not Lev. Not his grin or his insults or the fact that he definitely scares Stephanie more than HR ever has.
What messes with me is how fast everything changed.
HowsuddenlyI had backup. How easily the dynamic flipped. How evenStephanielooked like she didn’t know where she stood anymore.
And the part that keeps clawing at me?
Anton didn’t come.
He sent someone else.
