Professionally Yours

03: Tension

The air in Nathaniel's spacious office hung heavy with an unspoken tension. Adrian entered the office with confidence. The door closed behind him with a soft click, and the room's silence became palpable.

A click of his tongue echoed through the room as Nathaniel lifted his gaze from the folder of papers in his hands. "How many times do I have to tell you, Alara, kno-" His words came to an abrupt halt as he realized the person standing before him was not his secretary but, in fact, his colleague. "Adrian, what a pleasure," Nathaniel remarked sarcastically, closing the folder of papers in his hand and placing it in front of him.

A laugh escaped from Adrian. "You're always so mean to your poor secretary. Kicking her out without a glance, inviting her to lunch, and then leaving her hanging," Adrian teased as he leaned against the edge of the desk.

Nathaniel paused for a time before responding, his attention fixed onto the cityscape outside. "I have business to attend to, Adrian. Don't interrupt me for a trivial matter," he replied, his words with a subtle edge.

Adrian chuckled. "Always the mysterious CEO, Nate. But I've got a secretary out there who's convinced she's witnessing a deliberate act of starvation," he remarked, a glint of amusement in his eyes. Nathaniel's gaze shifted to the closed door, where Alara sat outside on her desk impatiently. His expression remained unchanged, but a flicker of interest passed through his eyes. "She'll survive. Now, if that's all, I have work to attend to."

Adrian's grin widened. "Or perhaps there's more to it than meets the eye. Don't tell me the mighty Nathaniel Thorne is developing a soft spot for his assistant." Nathaniel's stern facade remained intact. "You're reading too much into it, Adri. It's a lunch invitation, nothing more."

Nathaniel's deflection was met with a chuckle from Adrian. "Well, if you ever decide to share the real reason Nate then I'm all ears. Until then, I'll leave you to your 'business.'"

...

"But, I do have to ask... You wouldn't mind if I took her out for lunch, right?" Adrian persisted, breaking the silence again, earning a sigh from Nathaniel. He grinned, teasingly testing the waters. "I mean, since you're so busy that you must keep pushing the lunch back, I don't want her to starve." He crossed his arms as he leaned forward. "I'm a gentleman."

Nathaniel's eyes drift away from the door, glaring at Adrian. Adrian's grin widens when he sees Nathaniel's eye twitching and his jaw clenching. "Yes, that's fine," Nathaniel reluctantly mumbled out, earning another chuckle from Adrian. "Extend my apologies to her, I'll get her a teddy bear as good luck instead." Muttering quietly, he thought it was too soft to be heard, but Adrian caught it.

"Oh? Good luck? For what?" Adrian pestered on. With a pause, filling the tension in the room, Nathaniel reluctantly answers. "An exam"

"An...exam," Adrian repeated. "Wow, so I guess you do have a soft spot for Alara, but why a teddy bear?" Nathaniel ignores the soft spot remark and carries on. "Isn't that what girls her age like?"

Adrian scoffed in response. "How am I supposed to know?" He grinned as he continued to tease and taunt. "Should I ask? Tell her that you-" Nathaniel slammed his hand on the table, making a loud thud, definitely audible to people outside the room. Adrian didn't even flinch as if it was a regular occurrence.

"Keep. your mouth shut, Fontaine." Nathaniel glared. "I'm sure you have more important things to do than worrying over my secretary."

A tense silence filled the room. Adrian, with a scoff, broke the silence. "Fine... I'll back off." He walked off afterward, his confidence slowly disappearing, feeling more irritated at Nathaniel.
"No soft spot, my ass," he thought as he walked away.

~~~

- Author

I really struggled with this so I couldn't write as much. Writing in third person is harder than I thought. It felt really repetitive, to me at least. But I hope for whoever is reading this that it's good and it makes sense. This chapter was really just to show a hint of whatever Nathaniel might be feeling or might not be feeling for Alara. As well as showing the little fun friendship of Nate and Adrian, and TENSION >:]