The next morning, Vale Enterprises' executive floor hummed with quiet energy. Emails clicked, printers whirred, and phones rang in muffled tones. The world, for everyone else, seemed normal.
But for Adrian Vale, something had changed.
He wasn't the kind of man to get distracted. Precision was his habit; control was his craft. Yet, his mind kept flickering back to last night — to her.
The way Alina had looked across the table, eyes sharp but softer than usual. The way her laughter had slipped past her guarded tone. And that small, rare smile she hadn't even realized she'd given him.
He'd told himself it was nothing. But nothing shouldn't replay itself this many times.
---
Across the Street
At Aurora, Alina Ross was having an equally unproductive morning.
Her office was flooded with sunlight, reflecting off the tall glass windows, but her thoughts were tangled in shadows of yesterday's dinner. She'd already rewritten the same sentence in her email draft three times.
"Maybe you should just admit you're distracted," Sophie teased, sliding a document across her desk.
"I'm not distracted," Alina replied automatically.
"Right," Sophie said with a grin. "And I'm the queen of England."
Alina sighed, pushing back her chair. "He just… throws me off, okay? It's infuriating."
Sophie tilted her head. "Infuriating or interesting?"
Alina glared, but her silence said everything.
---
At the Conference Call
A video call later that afternoon forced them into the same screen again.
Two separate companies. One joint project. Two pairs of eyes pretending not to notice each other too much.
"Mr. Vale," she greeted curtly.
"Ms. Ross," he said smoothly.
Their voices were polite, professional, but beneath the surface ran an invisible thread — taut, humming with something they couldn't name.
They discussed logistics, budgets, and floor plans, but halfway through, Alina noticed Adrian's subtle smirk when she made a point he'd already thought of. It wasn't arrogance — not entirely — more like amusement.
"You find something funny?" she asked, brow raised.
Adrian's lips curved slightly. "Just admiring how passionately you argue about hotel carpeting."
"It's called attention to detail," she shot back.
"Of course. And I respect that," he said easily, leaning back. "Even if you're wrong about the color scheme."
Sophie muted her mic just to laugh quietly off-screen. Liam, on Adrian's side, did the same.
---
Internal Storms
After the meeting ended, Alina sat back in her chair, heart pounding. Why did his teasing affect her so much? It wasn't even cruel — just lightly edged, the way he always seemed to play with her reactions.
Maybe that was the problem. He noticed her reactions. He always had.
And worse — she noticed his.
The way his tone dipped slightly softer when he spoke directly to her. The way he seemed to listen, even when pretending not to.
It was infuriatingly magnetic.
---
Meanwhile, at Vale Enterprises
Adrian was staring at his computer screen, but the words on his report blurred. Liam leaned against the doorway, holding two coffees.
"You look like a man trying not to think about something," Liam said casually.
Adrian didn't look up. "You're imagining things."
"Sure," Liam said, smirking. "And the fact that you haven't corrected Ms. Ross's report yet? Totally normal."
Adrian shot him a look. "You have too much free time."
Liam just laughed. "She's getting to you, boss. Admit it."
Adrian's tone turned cold. "She's a rival, not a distraction."
But the pause that followed betrayed him.
---
The Text Message
That evening, as Alina was preparing to leave, her phone buzzed again.
Another message from him.
> Adrian: "The proposal from today — well-argued. Even if your carpet choice is still questionable."
She rolled her eyes but smiled despite herself.
> Alina: "You're impossible."
> Adrian: "You like impossible things."
Her fingers froze on the screen. She stared at his message longer than she should have.
He didn't send a winking emoji. He didn't add punctuation that could soften it.
Just a simple statement — confident, teasing, dangerous.
And she hated that it made her blush.
---
Late-Night Thoughts
At home, she dropped onto her bed, staring at the ceiling.
She should be thinking about work, but her thoughts spiraled back to him — his tone, his smirk, that maddening confidence.
She pulled the pillow over her face. "Why is he like this?"
Because he was everything she tried not to feel — calm where she was chaos, teasing where she was serious, infuriatingly certain where she second-guessed herself.
She turned off the lights and muttered into the dark,
"I don't like him."
But her heart whispered otherwise.
---
End Scene: Adrian's View
Adrian stood by his window, city lights flickering below, phone still in his hand.
He reread her last message — You're impossible.
A small smile touched his lips.
"She'll come around," he murmured, half to himself.
And for the first time in a long while, Adrian Vale didn't feel so cold.