MasukEthan looked away briefly like he was deciding how much truth would make things worse."Because I mentioned it to her that you might stop by that morning," he said quietly. "I wasn’t hiding it from her. I told her she had to leave before I got back from the grocery store and she agreed but she stayed back." He kept staring at me looking disappointed in himself.The air between us went very cold. Everything Ethan said had changed how things were but I still felt betrayed that his carelessness had led me straight into Chloe’s trap to set us apart. And to Chloe, the whole thing had been a performance designed entirely for my arrival. I stayed quiet for a moment while my brain rearranged and put the pieces together, realizing the possibilities of what he had just said."Wow..." I exhaled slowly. "So she stood in your apartment and in your shirt?" I said finally, my voice was steady even though my hands were not. "Knowing I was coming?" I swallowed hard."And knowing exactly what I would t
I read them once, folded the card, and slipped it back into the flowers in one smooth motion. I could literally feel everyone pretending not to stare. I handed the flowers back to her with a smile and said quietly,"Put them in my office please.""Yes ma'am."She took them and disappeared. I looked up and Chloe’s expression had changed slightly. Her hand paused over the fabric sample she had been holding and her jaw shifted almost unnoticeably before she continued speaking. It was for a brief moment but I saw it. It was so amusing to watch. And for the first time since this entire drama had started, Chloe no longer looked completely unbothered. I looked back at the fitting in front of me like nothing had happened. Maya was watching me carefully from across the table. The rest of the fitting session felt quieter afterward. Chloe became more reserved although still professional but she was quieter. And somehow that silence carried its own tension now. The remaining session wrapped up c
I arrived at the studio 40 minutes early. I told myself it was because I had emails to catch up on and also the fitting schedule needed one final review before everyone arrived. There were fabric notes I hadn't finished annotating from the previous session that I had to work on too and all of that was technically true. But the real reason I was sitting at my desk before eight in the morning with a coffee I kept forgetting to drink was that I needed time to prepare myself before Chloe walked through that door for our meeting. And no matter how badly I wanted to avoid it, today’s fitting meeting was already scheduled days before and I knew Chloe would be here.I opened my laptop and emails immediately flooded the screen. I pulled up the fitting schedule. I read through the first section carefully. The model confirmations, arrival times, and collection order were all laid out cleanly. I stared at one email for almost three full minutes before realizing I had already read the same paragra
"Miss Linda? Someone is here to see you."I looked up from the sketch slowly. "Who is it?"She hesitated briefly before answering. "Mr Ethan," she said quietly.The pencil in my hand went completely still and I felt the air in the room shift slightly. A part of me wanted to walk out there immediately while another part of me felt angry that he even showed up after everything I had seen. I swallowed slowly and set the pencil down carefully."Tell him I'm unavailable," I said. The girl blinked slightly, as if she wasn’t expecting that response. I looked at her in a way that said, What was she waiting for? "Okay, ma’am."She nodded quickly and disappeared. I dropped the pencil onto my desk and leaned back into my chair. My head hurt from the lack of sleep, the emotional exhaustion, and the constant replaying of yesterday's incident inside my head. I reached for my coffee only to realize it had already gone cold. I just kept my head down and focused on the lines in front of me until th
I just sat there in my car for a long time, after I had walked out of Ethan’s sight. At some point, the tears had slowed down but the ache hadn't. Even my body seemed too exhausted to keep up with the intensity of the tears anymore. Outside the windshield, people moved normally across the street. Cars passed and someone even laughed nearby.Meanwhile, my entire world felt like it had cracked open in the span of ten minutes. My phone lit up on the passenger seat. It was Ethan’s call. I stared at his name on the screen until it stopped ringing. Then it started again a few seconds later and I just turned my face away and looked out the window instead. My phone stopped ringing, then it buzzed with multiple texts. I reached over slowly and put the phone on silent before turning it face down on the seat without reading a single word. The silence that followed was worse than the ringing had been. At least the calls gave me something to be angry at. The silence just left me alone with my own
We went back to the studio after lunch. The afternoon ran into evening without warning, the way it always did when there was too much to do. The new fabric deliveries had arrived while I was out and Maya had them laid out across every flat surface waiting for me."Thank God, you are here," she said the moment I walked in. "Please… come and help me decide before I lose my mind."I laughed tiredly. "What happened now?""The new fabric shipment arrived and half of them are gorgeous while the other half look like curtains from 2007."I burst out laughing while she grabbed my wrist instantly."Come and suffer with me."The next few hours disappeared into work again. We went through every bolt of fabric carefully. We did fabric selections, checked textures, and sorted color palettes. We draped and checked, how each one would behave under runway lighting. Some were immediately out while some needed a second look and we both shared our opinions about all of them.At some point, Maya threw her
I reached for a glass of wine from a passing server and took a long sip, to give my hands something to do and to calm my nerves down."So… you came, " a voice said softly behind me.I turned slightly and saw Ethan standing next to me. My heart raced. I opened my mouth to respond, but the words woul
I left work early to come home and clear my head. I just finished dinner and was about to upload some pictures of my new collections to my fashion page.It was around 8 pm when someone knocked on my apartment door. I wasn't expecting anyone. Maya had gone home hours ago, and Anabel was busy with th
I almost didn't go.I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at my phone. I was already dressed in a beautiful emerald green dress that hugged my body perfectly. My makeup was flawless, my hair was styled, and I looked stunning. But inside, I felt like I was falling apart. I was having cold feet.I did
I woke up to my phone ringing the next morning. My eyes were swollen from crying all night, and my body felt heavy like I hadn't slept at all. I searched for my phone on the couch and saw Anabel's name on my phone’s screen.My heart stopped. For a second I thought Ethan had shown up at her place an







