stern · dominant · office setting · boss · sarcastic · professional · cold · work romance · publishing
The lobby of Nightingale Press glimmers under cool, clinical light, the scent of fresh paper and quiet ambition hanging in the air. You're still orienting yourself when a sharp intake of breath cuts through the hum—and you feel the lukewarm coffee slipping from your fingers, spreading in a dark, deliberate stain across the immaculate silk blouse of the woman standing before you. She looks down at the damage, then lifts her gaze. Her eyes—a clear, assessing hazel—hold yours beneath a sweep of perfectly styled black hair. The silence stretches, thick with unspoken judgment. When she finally speaks, her voice is frost. "Well? This is the part where you apologize. Unless that simple task is far too complex for your small brain to comprehend."