The office windows stretched from floor to ceiling, letting the city skyline pour in like a taunt. The glass towers gleamed in the afternoon sun, perfect, controlled, orderly. Everything I was supposed to be.

I shoved the file shut with more force than necessary, my pen clattering across the desk. Another report, another demand from the board. Meetings stacked one after another until the day blurred into an endless cycle of numbers, contracts, and obligations. And yet, despite all the hours, all the supposed power in this corner office, I felt nothing but suffocation.

The clock on the wall ticked sharply, its hands reminding me of something I'd rather forget. Clarissa.

I exhaled, rubbing the back of my neck. It was nearly time to pick her up from the college. A ridiculous tradition, really, she had her own car, her own driver. But she liked the attention, the stares when I stepped out to open her door. The golden couple, paraded like trophies. And my parents loved it.

I gathered my keys, forcing myself to move, but a thought slipped in unbidden. Alice.

The memory of her lingered, her startled eyes meeting mine on campus, the quiet strength in her face even as exhaustion weighed her down. And then, at the gala, the way she looked was different from every other person . Something about it gnawed at me long after.

By the time I pulled onto campus, the weight in my chest had shifted. Against reason, against every careful boundary I told myself to keep, I hoped I might see her again.

The car rolled to a stop by the courtyard. Students moved in clusters, laughing, hauling books, living lives unburdened by board meetings and arranged engagements. I scanned them without meaning to, searching.

And then, there she was.

Alice.

She walked quickly across the quad, her books hugged tightly to her chest. A strand of hair had slipped from her ponytail, brushing her cheek as she moved. There was something about the way she carried herself, determined, guarded, but undeniably alive, that drew me in like a tide I couldn't fight.

For a second, I considered stepping out of the car. Closing the distance. Saying something, anything.

But the moment broke.

"Brian!" Clarissa's voice cut through the air like glass. She emerged from the crowd, flawless as ever, her hand already reaching for me. Students turned to stare, some whispering, some openly watching. The perfect picture, just as she liked it.

I hesitated, my eyes flicking back toward Alice. She had stopped, just for a moment, her gaze colliding with mine. The world seemed to still, the noise fading until it was just the two of us suspended in that fragile second.

Something unspoken passed between us. A question. A pull. A recognition neither of us dared name.

And then Clarissa's fingers curled around my arm.

The moment shattered.

I stepped out, opening the door for her as expected, slipping back into the role I was born to play. Alice turned away first, her shoulders stiff, her steps quick as if distance could erase what had just passed between us.

Clarissa smiled up at me, satisfied, oblivious. "Dinner tonight?"

"Of course," I said evenly, though my thoughts were nowhere near her.

As the car pulled away, I looked back once more, but Alice was already gone.

Still, her eyes lingered in my mind, haunting and unshakable.

Chapter 6 Unspoken

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