The Right Thing To Do

Chapter 30

He had bruised her. Marked her.

Hermione stared at the love bite on her neck, her hand pulling her hair back.

Claimed her.

She let her hair fall. She considered not covering it, remembering that he hadn't covered the marks she had left on him, but it still didn't make sense to her why he'd left them.

Then she thought of what people in the office might think if they saw. What Blaise might say...

She covered the love bite with a charm, and then even further with makeup.

She stood in the elevator up to M.C.G. on Wednesday morning, running through her head all the reasons she had tried to quit yesterday.

Her projects were getting shot down.

She wasn't getting the support she needed to pursue her ideas.

She was bored with the current project she was working on, and it was the only project she was allowed to work on.

Her boss was ignoring her and treating her like a nuisance.

Her boss was using her as a means for publicity.

She had a volatile relationship with her boss that had an unpredictability that had started to give her stomachaches.

She decided to leave out any sexual harassment claims from this list, due in part to the fact that she would hate to sound like a hypocrite. He kissed her first. Then she kissed him second.

She shook these thoughts from her mind before it could ask Who would kiss third?

The lift doors opened. She raised her eyes from the floor, steeling her expression, and her gaze landed on Draco, standing at the reception desk.

Her stomach twisted.

She watched his eyes lift to hers from the paperwork he was reading. He nodded in greeting and took a deep breath, calming. She wouldn't have noticed it a week ago, but she felt like she'd been synchronized with his breathing now, the way his exhale pushed into her mouth on her inhale –

She stepped out of the lift, not knowing what her face was doing, and turned right to walk to her office. He fell into step with her.

"Morning," he said.

She looked up at him and found a hand extending a coffee cup to her. She blinked at it. It was a to-go cup, with the name of a coffee shop around the corner.

"Mr. Townsend wants to come in to go over paperwork tomorrow. Finalize things."

She took the coffee cup from him, forgetting manners entirely and saying nothing in thanks. "Okay."

"Is just before lunch alright?"

"Yes." She stared at the cup in her hands. He could have checked her schedule with Walter.

They reached her door.

"I have some ideas for the remainder of the fundraising that we can go over when convenient for you."

She looked up at him. His face was still, eyes grey and neutral, but he wasn't cold like before.

"Excellent," she said.

They stood there for a moment, in front of her office door, staring at each other, before he nodded and turned to walk back to his office. She might have been mistaken, but she could almost see his eyes slide over her neck before he turned away. She brought her free hand to her bruise, and her coffee to her lips as she watched him walk away. Perfect ratio of sweetener to cream.