The days in the dormitory settled into a strange, pressurized routine. Robert spent every waking hour either at the Lucas headquarters, absorbing information like a sponge, or back at the dorm, buried in textbooks. The only reprieve was the constant, low-level war with David.
David Richard was everything Robert had been taught to view with suspicion: easy confidence, natural charm, and wealth that felt entirely unearned. Yet, David was also meticulous, a brilliant negotiator, and he possessed an innate understanding of gems that Robert—despite weeks of study—was still struggling to grasp.
Their rivalry wasn't hostile; it was intellectual. It manifested in their shared living area over business strategy.
One evening, Robert was trying to analyze a complex risk report on sourcing high-grade emeralds from a volatile South American mine. He was frustrated, seeing numbers but missing the human element.
David walked in, tossing his jacket onto the back of the couch. He glanced at the document Robert had spread across the table.
"You're looking at the wrong column," David said, his voice casual.
Robert stiffened, instantly defensive. "I'm looking at the cost-per-carat yield."
"That's what the accountants want you to see," David replied, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. "Look at the shipping losses column, month over month. They're consistently high. It's not the mining that's the risk; it's the transit. They're paying off local officials, and that cost isn't fixed. You can't budget for greed."
Robert stared at the numbers. David was right. He hadn't seen the human factor embedded in the dry figures. He looked up, his expression a mix of annoyance and dawning respect.
"How did you know that?" Robert asked, genuinely curious.
David shrugged, taking a long drink. "I talk to people. Accountants see ledgers; merchants see faces. Your job is to learn the stone; mine is to learn the man selling it. Lucas relies too much on old paper."
A reluctant respect blossomed between them. Robert, seeking to hide her intellectual struggle, began subtly leaving difficult reports out on the table, knowing David couldn't resist dropping a piece of crucial insight. David, in turn, started genuinely enjoying Robert's quiet, sharp rebuttals, seeing a unique brilliance behind the young protégé's guarded exterior.
The dynamic slowly began to change. The intellectual rivalry morphed into a late-night partnership. They would spend hours over lukewarm coffee, dissecting the day's market movements. David would talk about the story of a diamond—where it came from, the hands it passed through—and Robert would analyze its potential risk and profit.
It was during these late-night sessions that David started to notice Robert. He noticed the intense focus in Robert's eyes, the unexpected delicacy of Robert's hands when turning a page, and the surprising depth of his empathy when discussing the conditions of overseas workers.
One night, the conversation drifted away from business. David, leaning back, spoke about his own family pressure—how his successful father wanted him to ditch the gemstone trading and pursue a more conventional banking career.
"You're lucky," David confessed, sounding genuinely tired. "Theodore seems completely invested in you. You have a purpose right out of the gate."
Robert suddenly felt a sharp pang of kinship. "Purpose isn't always a gift," she said softly, thinking of her mother and the burden of the disguise. "Sometimes it's just a debt."
The hazel eyes of David Richard fixed on Robert's face. He paused, seeing past the guarded exterior to a raw, deep vulnerability he had never expected. For a terrifying, charged moment, Robert felt David wasn't looking at a young man, but at a kindred soul hidden beneath a heavy weight.
"Yeah," David murmured, his voice oddly husky. "I get that."
He quickly looked away, clearing his throat and grabbing his mug. But the silence that followed wasn't filled with business papers or market talk. It was filled with a confusing, electric tension that made Robert's binder suddenly feel too tight and David's sudden retreat feel deeply unsettling.
The professional walls were cracking. And for the first time, David Richard was starting to feel something for his roommate that was undeniably powerful, and terrifyingly, deeply wrong.