Royally Kissed | ✓

42; the cold heart

—fortytwo—

the cold heart

THERE WERE MOMENTS we'd watch the world telescopically. Like you'd stare into space and you'd get this featherbrained feeling as the things around you became–collapsible, and distorted in some way. In the midst of it, you'd feel fractionally disoriented as the small hole against your eye made your head oddly compressed as you try to make sense of the world while your sight adjusted into a wider, panoptic view behind the lens.

You never really thought about it.

Paige always felt that way. As if she was in distant lands that never really existed perhaps because they were too out of her reach. She couldn't figure out where everything began and where it collapsed. The telescope seemed so infinite and the passage of time was misshapen.

And then she heard an echo. So far away, and gradually, it pierced her right in the ear.

"...kay? What's going on?"

She blinked. "Huh?"

Maggie had a frown etched between her eyebrows, face practically flat against hers as she regarded her with concern. Paige grimaced in confusion before looking down at her fingertips hovering above the keyboard, one pressed into the letter j. Instinctively, she let it go and studied the document in her desktop that had nothing but repetitive j's.

"I was saying something about new marketing strategies for, like, two solid minutes, and soon figured I was only talking to myself. Are you alright? You don't look so good."

"Oh, my, I'm so sorry!"

Maggie waved her off. "No, it's okay. I'm just worried about you. You looked kind of lost."

Paige shook her head in a sheepish manner, only to see a flash of darkness that was accompanied with something that made her lips prickle. "Did I?"

"Totally," Maggie twitched her lips in amusement, "Should I tell Denise to let you off early?"

"It's not necessary at all. It's just–my attention span is so awful. I get lost in my thoughts in ungodly hours."

The ends of Maggie's wild curls sprung up and down against her shoulders. "Ah. You were in a hypnotic trance that's why you disconnected for a bit. You might've been too engaged with intellectual activities that you drifted off from the outer world. Was this a boy?"

She could've sworn her cheeks immediately flushed. Nonetheless, she quirked up her lips in amusement.

"Um, maybe? I mean, I'm not sure if it's about a boy."

"I'm not sure I understand."

She sighed. "Oh, trust me, Maggie, neither do I." Paige turned to her desk again after shooting her a dry smile. "I better work on this now."

When Maggie had already resumed on working, Paige peered at her and played with her pen against her lips. For a very strange reason, she couldn't just avoid Robby after what had happened. She was levelheaded as she was an overthinker. She thought it'd be best if she would just move on from it and treat Robby just the same.

After all, they were friends. And it didn't really hold any meaning to her, if she were being honest. But did it not, really?

Her phone vibrated on the desk and she quickly snatched it up. The distraction seemed necessary now. It didn't sound so healthy thinking about inappropriate things at work. Her lips tugged up when she realized it was Owen who'd left a message.