Until The End

CHAPTER 10 - BREAKING THE STREAK

Nadia took another sip of her iced-now diluted and tepid-latte and sneered at the revolting taste. The cubes of ice had already sacrificed themselves trying to keep the drink cool, and now, drops of water condensing around the exterior of the plastic cup ran down her fingers threatening to dampen the files held in her hands. She had been standing here for too long.

Twisting her neck, she peaked a glance through the elegant metallic divider-separating the cafeteria from the rest of the office space. The exquisite piece behind which she was standing-or rather hiding-was more of an embellishment than a separation. Nadia was highly suspicious that she was visible through the ornate partition. Occasional looks from her co-workers had further validated her awful choice of a hiding spot. She didn't care about them though, all she wanted was to stay out of the vision of a pair of hazel eyes.

With utmost caution, she looked at the entryway. He was still there. The company's managing director, Mr Markus Vaughn, was beside him, listening to him along with a couple of other men whose backs faced her. Markus stood tall whereas the other two men, even though only a few inches shorter, looked small standing before Dylan who stood with his legs apart and shoulders squared. His hands were in his pant pockets as he instructed the men who nodded their heads about things that were inaudible to her.

Her eyes then went around the spacious office cafeteria. Nadia noticed how many of the employees had their heads turned in his direction, while several of them passing by would slow down to look at him-most with admiration, some with desire, others with envy.

There was a time when she had looked at him with similar admiration-maybe more. She shook her head feeling sympathy for her past and all their present selves. These naive people did not have the faintest idea about the devil hiding behind their employer's perfect face.

Thoughtlessly, she took another sip of her formerly iced coffee and flinched at the terrible taste. Nadia believed throwing away coffee, whether good or bad, was one of the biggest sins humankind was capable of; but after spending the last 20 minutes hiding at the worst spot possible, trying her utmost best not to break her 2-month long streak of avoiding her boss, being condemned to coffee hell was the last thing that worried her.

Nadia's gaze was still fixated on Dylan when she felt her cellphone vibrate inside her purse. That was the third call within the last quarter-hour; she was confident it was one of her teammates. Unfortunately, with one of her hands holding the sweating coffee cup and the other one keeping the files away from it, she had no way to answer it.

"Go away!" Nadia wanted to scream at top of her lungs, but the thought of giving away her location made her settle for a whisper.

She regretted choosing this particular cafeteria for her client meeting. Oh, how delighted she was only moments ago when her client, Ms Elaine, had announced that her firm had finally approved the project. Her team had spent so many days-sometimes even nights and weekends-to complete it before the deadline and Nadia had sat through the meeting looking forward to celebrating the success of her first project with her team.

All those plans had come to a screeching halt when Dylan VanAssche had appeared at the entrance and she had chosen the nearest spot to stay out of his view.

"Come on, go away!" Nadia whispered with growing impatience, "don't you have the biggest office in this company for stuff like these?"

On the other side of the office cafeteria, Dylan was no longer instructing his employees. Mr Vaughn had just handed him an iPad and the device had his undivided attention. Just when Nadia thought she was going to spend the rest of her life hiding behind the metallic divider, he passed the device to the two men, dismissing them.