Chapter 2: Surprise

JAPHETH POV

The door handle was cold under my palm as I pushed my new office door open. A familiar, flowery scent hit me before I even saw her.

A gasp. My head snapped up. Everything else stopped.

I wasn’t expecting to see her here, not in this building, and definitely not in my office. I hadn’t thought twice about what Dad meant by *be nice to your new assistant*. Now I understood exactly what he’d meant, and I understood, too, that he’d known the whole time and hadn’t warned me, which felt like its own kind of ambush.

“Peaches.” Her name came out as a whisper, strange in my own ears, like I hadn’t said it out loud in so long I’d half forgotten the shape of it.

She blinked, cleared her throat, and gave me a tight, professional smile. “Mr. Montgomery. Good morning, and welcome to your new office.”

*Mr. Montgomery?*

I stood there a second too long, waiting for the rest of it, the eye roll, the *goldfish*, something that sounded like the girl I used to know instead of a stranger in a blazer reading off a script.

It didn’t come.

“You didn’t come to the party my family threw two nights ago,” I said, quieter than I meant to.

“I sent Kate a message that I couldn’t make it. As you know, I’m your assistant, temporarily,” she said, with a slight emphasis on *temporarily*, “and my office is right there.”

Her stare was cold enough to give me a chill. Green eyes, ice.

She’d changed. Hair cut short, just above her shoulders, same color, though. Fewer freckles. Same full lips, painted red now. I could have picked her out of a thousand strangers in half a second, and somehow she was still managing to feel like one.

“What happened to you, Peaches?”

She looked genuinely thrown. “What happened to *me*? Nothing happened to me, Mr. Montgomery. If you’d rather not have me as your assistant, feel free to ask HR for a replacement.”

“That’s not what I mean. Stop calling me Mr. Montgomery. You’re my best friend, for God’s sake…..”

“Were,” she cut in. “Ex–best friend. You’re my boss now, so it’s only appropriate that I address you as”

“I’m your boss. So do as I say.” I hated how it sounded coming out of my own mouth.

“Sure.”

“I came to see you before my flight to London. You weren’t there. I wanted to apologize, Peaches. But you never answered my calls.”

“It doesn’t matter. That was four years ago,” she said, flat.

“That’s it? You threw away years of friendship over one mistake, and you made mistakes too.”

“I don’t want to be your friend, Japheth. Can’t you understand that? Your friends, your classmates, your girlfriends, they all thought I was your slave. Your dog on a leash. Your personal maid.”

“Did I ever once listen to them? How many times did I fight for you? Choose you over a girlfriend? Defend you against those losers, how many times, Peaches?” My voice filled the room. I hadn’t planned on fighting this early in the morning, on my first day back, in a suit I’d put on hoping it would make me feel more like a man capable of running a company than a boy still arguing with the same girl over the same wound.

“I don’t care anymore. I have friends now. I’m sure you made plenty in London.” She didn’t look affected at all. The coldness of it actually made me shiver.

“You’re being immature.”

“You’re an asshole.”

“Watch your tone. I’m still your boss.”

“My apologies, Mr. Montgomery,” she said, quiet now.

“Don’t I get a welcome-back hug?” I asked, hoping,  now that we’d finally said something real, she’d give an inch.

She rolled her eyes. “That would be inappropriate.” She reached for the folder on my desk, gathering the last of the paperwork to hand off before the meeting. “You have a meeting in four minutes.”

“Peaches”

“Here.” She held the folder out to me, and I took it without thinking, my hand closing over hers for half a second longer than the handoff required.

That was when I felt it.

Cold. Small. Unmistakable, pressed against my knuckles.

I looked down before I could stop myself.

The ring caught the light from the window behind her, not costume jewelry, not something she’d have worn without meaning it. A real stone, set the way a man sets it when he’s asking a question he’s already sure of the answer to.

My chest caved in. “You’re engaged?”

She followed my eyes to our hands, and something in her face shifted, not surprise, not quite. Like she’d been waiting to see how long it would take me to notice.

She didn’t pull the folder back. She just watched me hold it, hold her, both at once, like she was waiting to see how long it would take me to let go.

I didn’t let go.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, and that was when the door swung open without a knock.

“Japheth.” My father, already checking his watch. “You’re needed. Now.”

Peaches slid her hand free before I could stop her.

“Go,” she said, not looking at me. “You’re the CFO. You don’t want to be late your first day.”

I looked between her and the door, and for the first time in four years, I genuinely didn’t know which direction I was supposed to walk.

I walked through the door. What else was there to do  chase her down the hall in front of the whole floor, with my father already three steps ahead of me, already talking, already treating this like any other Tuesday?