Still irritated with Natalie for ignoring his mails, Levi wasn't exactly brimming with joy while he stood on stage and addressed the impressionable crowd of young graduates.He would have preferred to be back at the office, squaring off with the woman he'd quickly deemed to be the number one threat to his peace of mind.But he was a professional, so he pushed his personal turmoil aside long enough to deliver his best performance yet.For ten minutes, he said all the right things and quoted all the pioneers of innovation and entrepreneurship. His impassioned speech would have inspired even a rock.Halfway through his address, Levi noticed Angela, sitting in the front row, frantically typing away on her laptop. The grim look on her face told him something was wrong. He figured it was some schedule conflict or a crisis with the dev team, and he trusted her to have it under control by the time he wrapped up his speech.Twenty minutes later, after a Q&A session about Chassis and an imprompt

Long after Levi left the third floor, Natalie was still in the meeting pod, replaying their chat.She thought she knew heartbreak in the backseat of Paul's car, but whatever that feeling was, it didn't come close to the searing ache in her heart.As she looked through the contents of the bag Levi had left her, she felt like someone had plunged a knife deep inside her chest and twisted her heart out.Each item in the bag had been carefully chosen— from the OTC medication to the Band-Aids and sweets and chocolates. Nobody had ever shown her the level of attention and care Levi had put into his version of a self-care bag.How could she have been so wrong about him?Could her run-in with Paul have twisted her sense of reality about all men?From the moment she met him, Levi had been nothing but kind to her. But she'd repaid his generosity with lies and arrogance, and self-pity.He never found her pitiful, not even once. Well, maybe not until she made herself pathetic in his eyes.She brea

The chat exploded for another day.No one knew what went down between the big boss and the girl from the office support area. After all, the blinds were closed for a large part of their meeting. So all they could do was speculate.And speculate they did.The longer Natalie remained mum, the more ridiculous the gossip and theories became.Someone suggested her brother had died, and Levi had come to the third floor to break the news to her.A few people didn't buy this, though, insisting that wasn't the case at all. It turned out Natalie had embezzled company funds to pay for her brother's treatment. Levi, being so kind-hearted, had given her the option to resign quietly.Natalie siphoning money from Chassis seemed to be the most plausible story, and it held steady for a few hours until someone claiming to be in the know came up with the juiciest explanation. Natalie and the big boss were in a secret relationship, and the fight in the meeting room was their first lovers' quarrel.Natali

Levi's reign of terror began when one of the devs from the R&D team picked up a bug during a beta run of the new game, causing a crash to desktop seconds into startup.The devs tried to sort it out themselves in the basement. But by the time the news of the bug hit the tenth floor, they were already swimming up shit creek with no solution in sight.An unexpected bug and an incompetent team of developers were the perfect outlets for Levi's rage, which had been brewing quietly since his confrontation with Natalie.He grabbed his laptop, raced to the basement and announced everyone would work through the night if they had to. Nobody was allowed to so much as scratch themselves until there was a fix in place.He took up residence in one of the meeting pods and joined the fray.Angela came in a couple of times to check on him, leaving behind a cup of coffee each time. By the time he looked up from his screen, there were six or so lined up on the table and two unopened sandwich packs.He ya

Sparrow Beach was so small it took tourists a little over an hour to cover it in its entirety, and that's how long it took Natalie to show Emily around."So why is it called Sparrow Beach? I haven't seen a single sparrow since I've been here?" Emily asked as they paused in the town square, and she snapped photos of the statues of the founding fathers.Natalie shrugged. She'd spent twenty-four years of her life here but couldn't remember seeing sparrows either. There were lots of gulls, though. "I suppose it sounded better than Gull Beach?"The sun beat down on them hard as they walked around the square, sipping their lemonade. Natalie fanned herself with her hand to drive away the unyielding heat. The humid weather all year round was probably the only thing she didn't miss about this place.She took her friend to Long Street next, the longest road in town and the only way to get in or out. It was also home to the grocery store, pharmacy, butchery, barbershop, pub, coffee shop, bakery