And somehow
Iren had ended up standing in the middle of it.
The rest of the workday didn't settle the way it should have.
Everything continued as normal, emails, conversations, the steady rhythm of people moving in and out of meetings but something underneath it all felt slightly off.
Like the air had shifted and hadn't quite shifted back.
Iren tried to ignore it.
He really did.
He focused on his screen, on the numbers that usually came easily to him, but today they refused to stay still long enough to make sense.
Across the room, Milo laughed at something someone said.
A phone rang.
Someone dropped a file.
Normal.
Completely normal.
And yet
Iren's mind kept circling back to the same thing.
Adrian.
Not what he said.
What he didn't do.
He hadn't approached.
Hadn't asked.
Hadn't pushed.
He had just… watched.
That part didn't sit right.
"…You've been staring at that same column for five minutes," Milo said.
Iren blinked and leaned back slightly.
"I'm thinking."
