CHAPTER FIVE - AFTER TOUCH

The next morning, Aiden arrived before sunrise.

Again.

He needed the quiet. Needed space to think. Not about campaign deadlines or investor briefs, but about Julian. And that moment on the balcony.

The touch.

It hadn’t been accidental. It hadn’t been casual. It lasted just much longer than it should have. A second too long for someone as calculated as Julian Vince.

And now?

Now Julian was pretending it hadn’t happened.

The man had walked into the office forty minutes after Aiden, brushed past his desk without a word, and sealed himself into his glass room like nothing had shifted between them. Like nothing had passed between skin and bone last night on that balcony.

Fine. Aiden could pretend too.

He buried himself in the Sonder rollout plan. Organizing pitch slides. Cleaning visual mockups. Every now and then, he caught his reflection on the screen, tension drawn across his jaw, the frown between his brows.

By 10.30am, Clarissa dropped a folder on his desk.

“He wants you in the conference room.”

Aiden nodded, lips tight. “Alone?”

She shrugged. “Didn’t say.”

Aiden found Julian already standing by the massive screen at the end of the glass-walled room, sleeves rolled, tie loosened. Again.

Like he’d been dressing just barely enough to remind people of the rules he could break.

“Sit,” Julian said without looking up.

Aiden did.

Julian turned toward the screen. “I want your honest opinion on these revisions.”

“You usually prefer silence,” Aiden said before he could stop himself.

Julian’s expression didn’t change. “Not when I’m trying to make something better.”

The slide deck loaded on screen. Julian clicked through without commentary. They were good and polished, aggressive, safe.

“Too safe,” Aiden said.

Julian glanced over.

“They don’t breathe,” Aiden added. “No risk, no tension. Just clean colors and buzzwords.”

Julian didn’t argue.

Instead, he stepped away from the screen, walked behind Aiden’s chair, and stopped.

The air thickened.

Aiden’s spine straightened.

Julian leaned down… not touching, not quite, but his voice landed at Aiden’s ear with quiet precision.

“You keep talking about tension,” he said. “Do you know what it actually feels like?”

Aiden’s pulse hit harder. “I know when it’s there.”

“Do you?”

Julian placed his hand across the chair where Aiden was sitting. Not on Aiden. But very close.

Aiden exhaled slowly. “You are making me feel uncomfortable please”

“No,” Julian murmured. “I’m trying to see if you understand the power of restraint.”

Aiden turned his head. Their faces were too close. “And you think restraint is power?”

Julian didn’t blink. “Only when it hurts to hold it.”

They stared at each other. One breath. Then another.

And then Julian stepped away.

Just like that.

The temperature in the room dropped. The spell broke.

Julian moved toward the window. “Revise the concepts. Push them further. Make me believe you still have something sharp left.”

Aiden stood, jaw tight. “Why do you keep testing me like this?”

" Am not." Julian said as he turned back.

Later, at noon. Carter found Aiden alone in the lounge, just eating his half sandwich–pretending it didn't test like sawdust.

"You look like you have seen a ghost." Carter said.

“I think I’m working for one,” Aiden muttered.

Carter raised a brow. “Vince gave you that special brand of psychological judo?”

Aiden said nothing.

Carter laughed. “Careful. The last guy who got too close to Vince? Ended up transferring to Berlin. By request.”

“Why?”

“No one knows. He never said. Just packed up and left one Friday night.”

Aiden leaned back. “Sounds dramatic.”

Carter sipped his coffee. “With Vince? Drama’s a feature, not a bug.”

That evening, Aiden stayed behind again.

He told himself it was about work. That he was refining the Sonder campaign, finalizing edits, preparing for Friday’s pitch. But part of him knew that wasn’t the full story.

He was waiting.

The glass office stayed dark.

Julian didn’t return.

Around nine, the elevator doors opened.

Aiden looked up to see who.

Julian just stepped out, he was carrying nothing with him, only his phone.

He did not speak to anybody. He just walked past Aiden's desk and went into the empty strategy room without a word.

Aiden hesitated.

Then followed.

Julian stood at the whiteboard, reading the timeline Aiden had left pinned there. He tried reaching one of the markers slowly, he was literally just absent minded.

“Are you not going to ask me why I am still here?” Aiden said quietly.

“I already know.”

Aiden crossed his arms. “And why’s that?”

Julian turned to face him. “Because you can’t stop thinking about it either.”

The silence between them cracked.

Julian stepped forward, slow.

Aiden’s breath hitched.

“I told myself I wouldn’t touch this,” Julian said. “That I wouldn’t let it happen.”

Aiden held his ground. “And now?”

Julian stopped just in front of him. Not touching him.

“I don’t know,” he said.

Aiden’s heart started to beat faster in his chest, loud and very unrelenting.

“You were saying restraint is power right,” he whispered.

Julian’s voice was low. “It is.”

“Then prove it.”

Julian’s hand twitched… just once. Then he stepped back.

Turned away.

Aiden stared at him, throat dry.

Julian didn’t face him again. “Just go home, Aiden,” Julian said.

“Why?” Aiden asked.

“If you don't go, I won't go”