𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐄 𝐋𝐔𝐕|𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐘 𝐒𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐋|𝐌𝐉

𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒

"You know how I feel about you in red,"

"I know you love it,"

Silence with a slight chuckle.

"I wore it to catch you off guard..."

"You definitely did, I wasn't able to focus,"

"Kept wondering how it'd look on the floor of my office,"

"The one you share with your wife?"

Silence.

***
NEW YORK CITY, NY
THE M - PUBLISHING COMP.

The meeting was long, and uncomfortable. Aavya and Michael kept having their silent staring competitions, that always resulted in one of them looking away briefly to collect themselves, then shortly going back to staring at one another. People in the room noticed, but two important people were Aia and William. William side-eyed Aavya for her behavior all day, and when he saw the stare from Michael he immediately began thinking of many different reasons for her actions.

Aia, on the other hand, saw red. Michael was staring at Aavya was so many emotions that Aia could quickly decode.

The first stare was betrayal. Aia could tell Michael held so much resentment towards Aavya. She knew about some of the resentment, but not everything so that stare was quite ambiguous to her.

The second stare was love. Pure love. She could tell Michael was so desperately in love with this woman, still, after everything that had happened - including his marriage to a new woman. Aia was hurt, because she had never seen Michael look at her with those eyes - only her.

Another stare was anger. He was so visibly angry with Aavya, he couldn't even try to hide it.

Aia kept to herself, only interrupting Michael's spiel whenever it pertained to something she personally specialized in. This was their monthly meeting they held, so it was routine at that point. Aia had told Michael they needed to switch to a more convenient option like virtual, but Michael wasn't behind that idea all the way. Something they needed to work out.

The meeting ended, leaving everyone to wish their goodbyes, and part their separate ways. Aavya quickly gathered her belongings, wanting to leave as soon as possible, but when William decided to talk to Michael, her plan was ruined.

"Mr. Jackson, is it okay if we talk?" William started, walking up to Michael with Denise closely following behind. Aavya awkwardly stood near the exit of the conference room, holding her breath. Michael glared at Aavya, while responding to William.

"Is everything okay, Mr. Garner? I have work to get to." He spat, trying his hardest to not look angrily at Aavya. Aavya bit her bottom lip, avoiding eye contact with Michael at all costs because of how uncomfortable the situation was.

"Yes, I wanted you to meet Denise - a new intern of mine!" William presented Denise to Michael, to which his attention was off of Aavya and now onto her. She held her hand out, waiting for Michael to shake it, and once he did, the two dove into a quick professional conversation.

Aavya crossed her arms, and watched. As the conversation went down, Aavya saw Aia collecting her belongings to leave the conference room. Aavya hadn't noticed Aia noticing the stare, so she didn't feel an uncomfortable tenseness from her - but Aia definitely held some tension in her walk.

As Aia walked past Aavya, she angrily side-eyed her, the stare that made Aavya furrow her brows in confusion. Aia quickly left the conference room, now only leaving Michael, William, Destiny, and Aavya.