Chapter two: The Meeting.

She couldn't get any sleep,that night.

Two years together, reduced to a single text.

She was  bruised on the inside,

Still, rent didn’t care about heartbreak.she walked into Beam & Byte Cafe the next morning and pretended she wasn’t shattering quietly.

The bell over the door chimed,The room reacted with voices thinning, postures straightening, The air shifted like someone important had just stepped into the center of it.

Asha didn’t look up,She grabbed a tray of drinks, pivoted and collided hard with a stranger.

Coffee splashed across a suit that probably cost more than her laptop,A steady hand caught her waist, stopping her fall His touch was firm but controlled, the kind that said he wasn’t used to letting anything slip.

Asha inhaled sharply, shaking herself back to reality.

“You alright?” His voice was deep, quiet, and unfairly steady,

She swallowed. “I should be asking you that, SorryI’m… not at my best.”

His gaze searched her face like he could read the cracks beneath her expression,she  looked away quickly.

She held out a napkin, He didn’t take it

Instead, he guided her wrist toward his sleeve, letting her dab the coffee off the fine fabric, The move felt intimate,too intimate for a café full of people Her pulse kicked, and she hated that it did.

“You missed a spot,” he murmured,she paused butHe seemed to notice.

Then he stepped back, straightened his jacket, and walked out without a word,No order, No complaint, No explanation.

Asha stood frozen, pulse too loud, emotions too close to the surface.

The next morning, when the bell chimed again, she didn’t expect him,

He entered like a storm dressed as a CEO tall, precise, self-contained, eyes sharp enough to cut through her lingering heartbreak His gaze found her instantly

Kian Vale,

She recognized him from the billboard across the street youngest CEO in Vale Systems history,Billionaire,Tech mogul, The man whose company basically wrote the rules the industry played by and also the arrogant man from the other night who was fucking the dirty slut .

And he was standing in front of her like yesterday’s collision had been intentional.

“We have unfinished business,” he said,her grip tightened on the counter “What business?”

He stepped closer,Not enough to touch, but enough to change the temperature around her

“You didn’t just spill coffee, You recognized my sleeve.”

He lifted his cuff slightly, revealing a microthread sensor embedded along the seam,tech so discreet most people wouldn’t know it existed “ but You tracked it with your eyes before you apologized,” he said softly, “Most people don’t notice it at all but You did Even while distracted.”

Her heartbeat stuttered He’d seen more than she meant to show.

“I need someone with your skillset,” he continued, “Quietly.”

He placed a sleek black access card on the counter,No name, Just a silver crest.“Short-term cybersecurity contract. Off-record.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” she said, but her voice lacked its usual fire,“I know your hands are steady under pressure” His gaze flicked to her wrist, a ghost of yesterday’s touch lingering  “I know you see what others miss,And I know you’re trying very hard to pretend nothing is wrong.”

She was quite for a few seconds then she spoke 

“What’s happening at Vale Systems?” she asked,

“You’ll find out at seven,” he replied “My penthouse.”

“And if I don’t come?”

His expression didn’t shift, but something in his eyes darkenedfocused, determined,

“Then I’ll come find you.”

The words hit her in a place place that was stil raw from heartbreak, but instead of breaking her further… they steadied her.

He walked out, leaving her breathless and buzzing with a mix of nerves, curosity, and something dangerously close to hope.

Asha didn’t know why he wanted her,

She didn’t know what he needed,

She didn’t know how she had gotten tangled in his orbit this fast.

But she did know one thing

Her heart was broken,

Her life was glitching,

And Kian Vale looked like a problem she wasn’t not ready for but couldn’t walk away from.