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“I’d like to go home, change, and go to a club.”

Chuckling, I set my work aside and finally look up at her.

“It’s Thursday. You’re coming to work tomorrow morning,” I remind her.

She waves a dismissive hand. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll be here at 8 a.m. No problem.”

“If you show up sick again…”

“That happened once,” she interrupts, lifting both hands in surrender.

I don’t answer. I simply hold her gaze, my expression unreadable, one eyebrow raised enough to make my point.

“Fine… more than once,” she admits at last, studying her perfectly manicured nails. “But I still got my job done.”

She’s not wrong. Even when she could barely stay on her feet, she refused to go home. She remained long after everyone else had left and still delivered everything I needed.

“Want to come with me?” she asks with an easy smile. “It might do you good to relax a little. You’ve seemed tense all day.”

My attention returns to the laptop.

“Good evening, Beatrix.”

But she’s right.

Ever since that visit to the construction site, there’s been a pressure beneath my skin, a persistent tension I can’t seem to shake.

I’ve spent longer than usual in my home gym. I went out with the guys last night. Cleared every urgent task at the office. I even managed to catch up on everything that had piled up.

And still… the restlessness lingers.

I’m convinced most of it comes from Selene. She doesn’t understand how important this project is to me.

What we’re building—what we’re planning—is years ahead of anything currently on the market. No competitor has it.

Not yet.

And I intend for us to be the first. The first to open the doors and bring the future into the present.

That’s why I need her moving fast.

That’s why I expect her to meet every contractual obligation without exception.

Beatrix’s laughter echoes through the office as she heads for the door, fading away as it clicks shut behind her.

Silence.

This is how I prefer it.

The office stripped of voices and movement, rows of empty desks standing like quiet witnesses to the work that continues here long after the employees have gone home.

Every evening I stay late, I disconnect from the world beyond these walls. The noise. The distractions. The expectations. They all fall away.

What’s left is clarity.

Ideas take shape faster in moments like this. Plans become sharper. Numbers align. Contracts stop being paperwork and become leverage, structure, control.

There’s a saying—you never feel like you’re working when you love what you do.