The moment Azaria's heels clicked out of his office, Cassian leaned back in his chair and let the smallest chuckle escape his lips. Not the arrogant kind, no. This one had… depth.
He murmured to himself with a smirk,
"So, Miss Quinn has a crush."
I saw it all — the wide eyes, the parted lips, the way she stared at my chest like it held answers to questions she didn't know how to ask.
I reached for my shirt on the edge of the desk, still slightly damp with coffee. Her fingers had brushed mine, hesitant and trembling like the wings of a caged bird.
That small moment — the way she froze, the way her breath hitched — played on a loop in my mind.
I should've been annoyed, but instead… I'm intrigued.
I can't even bring myself to be annoyed — it's so cute.
His chuckle paused, a glint of mischief in his eyes, before he continued out loud to no one but the shadows in the room.
"She's either the clumsiest girl I've ever hired," he muttered to himself, "or she's just breaking too easily. Either way, it was fun. It was interesting. And cute."
But beneath that smirk was calculation. Cassian didn't just enjoy chaos — he studied it. Watched it like a man setting fire just to see how high the flames would rise.
He smirked and turned back to his screen, but part of him lingered in that moment, as he kept on soliloquizing and laughing all to himself —
⸻
Later That Day
In a sitting room that looked like it wasn't for rich people, neither was it for poor — the kind of place where the furniture carried both warmth and struggle — I and Anna, my best friend, sat deep into our usual evening gossip mode.
"Anna, I swear to God, if I die early, it's because of Cassian Ward."
Her laugh echoed across the room like a guilty bell. "Wait—what did he do this time?"
"Girl, it's a very long story. Get your popcorn and sit while I explain the cinema show that happened at my job today. I accidentally spilled coffee all over his shirt… and this man — this devil of a fine man — just stood there and took off his suit and shirt like we were filming a perfume ad."
"Wait. What?"
"He was shirtless, Anna. Shirtless in front of me. In his office. Alone. Muscles. Hair. Gold chain. His abs. Everything was… exposed."
Anna screamed on the sofa as she tapped my back like, continue, girl.
"Girl! Did you faint?! Because according to what you said, it's worth fainting for."
"I wanted to. I nearly did. My heart? In shambles. My ovaries? Gone. I didn't faint yet, but I'm sure my soul left me and went on an errand at that moment."
We both laughed so hard I dropped the comb in my hand. It was past midnight, and I was still reliving the moment like it was some forbidden episode of a show I wasn't supposed to enjoy.
"But seriously," I said, flopping onto the chair, "he didn't even shout. Just calmly told me to take the shirt to dry cleaning and… undressed."
"And you stood there like a statue?"
"No. Worse. I stared. Like I was bewitched. Anna, that man isn't just attractive. He's… unreal. Like carved from sin itself. His whole body had mouth calling onto me like girl come over and have a taste."
"Girl, you're finished," she teased. "You better anoint your eyes before going to work tomorrow."
I laughed, but deep down… I wasn't sure if I was ready to face him again.
I didn't have the nerve to.
Anna got up to pour more wine — cheap red, bitter as our love lives — and I slumped back, staring at the ceiling like it held all the answers.
"Do you think he knows?" I asked.
Anna turned, glass in hand. "Knows what?"
"That I was staring… like, staring-staring. The kind of stare you feel in your bones."
She laughed. "Oh, babe. He definitely knows. That man looks like the type who counts how many seconds people look at him."
I groaned into a pillow. "I'm changing jobs."
"You're not."
"I am."
"You won't even last one day away from that fine demon."
I sighed. "He probably thinks I'm a mess."
"You are a mess. But at least you're a hot mess. With a crush on your boss."
I threw a pillow at her, and we both burst into another round of laughter — the kind that made your chest hurt.
Still, when I finally got into bed that night, I didn't laugh. I just stared at the ceiling, heart thudding quietly in the dark, wondering…
What if I wasn't the only one who felt something?