Winters (Book Five)

Chapter Twenty

TRIGGER WARNING: THIS CHAPTER WILL CONTAIN A DISCUSSION OF SELF-HARM AND SUICIDE. The conversation is not long or in-depth, but if this will cause harm to your mental health please skip ❤️❤️

Chapter Twenty

Staring at my laptop, my eyes start to cross and my dinner has gone cold. I've been handling all of Alexander's duties today, meeting with a bunch of teams and just trying to keep a brave face. I just want to escape to Caspian; my brain keeps humming with pieces but I just need to fire off a few more emails.

"I was wondering why I hadn't heard from you today," Click says and I nearly jump out of my seat.

"I've been slammed with work," I grumble as I toss the rest of dinner, it was overcooked, to begin with, and heating it back up will turn it to mush. I can't even bring myself to care about my calorie goal right now.

"You said you wanted help tonight, right?" Click asks me and I nod as I press send on another email. Rereading a few, I mark the ones I can tackle tomorrow and rub my eyes tired.

"I'm sorry, my inbox is taking centuries to go through today," I say with a sigh as I lean back and roll out my shoulders.

"Can the emails wait?"

"Technically but they have already been sitting for most of the day," I grumble.

"Isn't common courtesy two to three business days for a reply?"

"Common courtesy doesn't make a business this successful," I grunt flustered and I press in-between my brows to try and relax.

"Well I don't think answering another ten emails tonight will make or break Voyager's next quarter," Click says and I smile slightly. There she goes again, seeing through my workaholic ruse. She's been doing it more now that we share an office half the time.

"Fine, fine," I say and I close my laptop and slide my shoes back on. Grabbing my blazer, I throw it over my shoulder and pack up my things.

"You pitched half your dinner?" Click asks me quietly, I can tell she doesn't want to upset me, we've never talked about my weight fluctuating but I know Hadley told her.

"I overcooked it and it was stone cold, it wasn't even worth reheating at that point," I say honestly and she nods. Grabbing the door, I swing it shut and lock it from the inside before grabbing Click and dropping us onto a floor a few above where the metac kids still live. Half of them have moved out, and Click, Faith, Orion have moved into their own apartments here that Lyle had made up.

"I don't think I've ever been on this floor," Click says and I nod.

"It's mostly conference spaces," I say as I unlock the one door and toss it open. Flicking on the lights, the mess I left last night is still there.

"Woah!" Click says as she sees the files all over the table. I had printed them out a few days ago and slowly been dropping them off, they mostly summarize cases and I can look up details on the tablet but I like to be able to organize, pin-up, write on, rip up the papers if need be. It will all be shredded and recycled in the end.

"I apologize for the mess," I say as we close the conference room door.

"You and my boss would get along very well," Click says and I can tell she is unphased by it, just surprised that I created it. My office never gets this messy, but that's because it needs to look presentable.

"I would love to meet her properly one day," I say as I organize a few things, tossing my blazer onto the chair, I grab my slippers from under the table and put them on.