Mending Heart |18+|

Chapter 4

Broken

"The shattering of a heart when being broken is the loudest quiet ever." – Carroll Bryant

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The words on the screen continued to stare out at me, and the bright light illuminating from the computer screen was doing nothing but irritating the already throbbing pain pulsating through the left side of my head.

If you've never had a migraine before, consider yourself lucky because that shit hurts like a bitch.

I glanced at the clock and groaned when I saw it was only 1:47 PM. I still had another few hours to get through before I could leave, and don't even get me started on the mountain of paperwork and emails I still have to get through. I spent the entire morning on a conference call with a client in Texas – who upon doing a mid-month inventory count – discovered their inventory for the past three months had been miscounted due to an error in their software.

Most days, I love my job. But on days like today, I would do anything to not have any responsibilities.

To make matters worse, it was only Wednesday.

Wednesday.

That means there are still two more days until the weekend!

Leaning back in my chair, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was pulled out of my trance when there was a knock at my door. Since I wasn't in the mood to have people barging into my office all day, I had pulled down the blinds so nobody could see inside and kept the door closed. We usually have an open-door policy, even amongst the managers and directors, but there are days when you just don't want to answer a million questions or socialize with people.

"Come in!" I replied, opening my eyes and sitting up straight.

To my surprise, it was Ethan who walked in. He was dressed in a navy blue suit with a light gray tie loosely tied around his neck. His hair was perfectly combed back, and he had a light stubble forming.

Yummy.

"Can I help you?" I stood up straighter so that I was no longer slouching.

Gotta look presentable, even if I don't feel it.

"Yes, actually," He leaned against the door frame. "You can."

"With...?" I cocked an eyebrow.

"Come to lunch with me." He threw me a devilishly handsome grin.

"I'm busy." I pointed to my computer screen. Don't get me wrong, I was hungry since I haven't left my office to get lunch, but being seen with Ethan in public was probably not a good idea. There was an undeniable tension between the two of us that I didn't need anyone else picking up on.

"Clearly." He snorted, rolling his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I shot back, my voice taking on a defensive tone.

"It's supposed to mean," He replied, closing the short distance between us so that he was towering over my desk. "You look like absolute crap, and I very much doubt you've been able to get much work done today. Also, I'm guessing from the way your stomach is rumbling that you're starving."

I narrowed my eyes at him. Before I had the chance to even form a rebuttal, he continued. "And don't even think about lying. My office isn't too far away from yours."

"Don't you have better things to do other than harassing your employees?" It was my turn to roll my eyes. 

"Oh, I'm harassing you?" His voice lowered and he tilted his head  so that we were both at the same eye level. I tried to hold his gaze for as long as possible because I didn't want him to know he was right, but I had to look away when I felt my cheeks begin to heat up.