𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘦. 𝘫𝘢𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘳

XIII

"𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙖𝙡𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙣𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜"

❦❦❦

"I don't understand. He's back with Mikasa and that's just it? Out of the blue?" Sasha leaned against the counter scooping a wad of ice cream out of the container. She waved the spoon around, resulting in melted droplets of chocolate ice cream splattered against the countertop.

You nodded in agreement to what she was saying, "And the part where he told me it was all a mistake." You added rushingly, "But I don't really want to talk about it."

Sasha looked at you skeptically. After the weekend you had with Eren, followed by the hectic week of frenziedness, you broke down and confessed it all to Sasha. You'd avoided Eren as best you could all week. It was difficult given that you were still in charge of his most important project thus far, but you managed to dodge his presence with grace. Majority of the time you'd spent in the office was with your team to finalize the events of the BraunX project.

There hadn't been a week staff meeting called this week because of all the speculation about Eren and Mikasa, as a result he'd asked if everyone could come in Saturday morning to discuss new adjustments. You weren't sure what exactly that was referring to, but you assumed it had something to do with whatever was said between him, his father, and his brother last weekend.

You'd tried your best not to spiral and back Eren up with reasoning for his poor decisions and word choice, but you were human, it's all that clouded your mind. The spontaneous decision to get back with his ex that had supposedly turned him into a completely different person didn't seem like something he'd do. But, the reality of the situation was clear. You didn't truly know Eren besides the few facts you'd heard from other people. It was tough to come to that realization, but it was the truth.

Despite the harsh reality of your situation, the moments you'd shared with him played on loop in your head. He might not have told you the little things, but he did tell you the deeper, more important things. He'd shared his spot with you, told you about his past and rough history with his dad; you were more focused on listening than asking what his favorite food was.

There were others of your friends who'd randomly began checking in on you, both in office and through mass amounts of texts. You never outwardly or verbally expressed your attraction for Eren in groups of people, and you tried to keep it professional in public, but it must've still slipped through.

You always brushed it off as if it was nothing, but you were too scared to admit to anyone else that Eren's actions and words had hurt you more than it should've.

Kobi hadn't made an appearance since the night of the party, making you feel as if you imagined the entire interaction. That's the only part of the conversation you didn't ever want to bring up with Sasha during your quick debriefings, and she respected your wishes on that end. He was just a complication for a different day.

Browsing through everything that had happened to you thus far, it was easy to say that you weren't feeling the best.

——

You sat off to the side in the large meeting room at Jaeger INC, waiting for the chat to commence. You'd gotten there around an hour early, despite the meeting being held at 8am because you weren't able to sleep the night prior. You also didn't want to risk chances at running into Eren on your way in.