Nothing...right?

He was the kind of man people adjusted themselves for.

Not because he asked them to.

Because he never needed to.

Power followed him too naturally. Control sat on him too easily. He didn't chase, didn't explain, and never softened.

Rooms shifted when he entered.
Decisions bent without being told.
And people learned very quickly not to stand in his way.

And then there was me.

I wasn't easy.
I wasn't obedient.
And I had no intention of becoming something his world could move quietly.

I didn't adjust.
I didn't step back.
And I definitely didn't follow rules that weren't mine.

It started as a deal.

It didn't stay one.

"You should stop testing me," he said once.

"Or what?" I asked.

His expression didn't change.

"You'll find out."

When I was collapsing, he caught me before I hit the ground.

"Try not to die here," he said.

A pause.

"Paperwork is annoying."

Nothing about him was loud.
That was the problem.

A man too used to winning.
A girl too difficult to move.

And the kind of collision that doesn't ask permission to end.