Nadia took another sip of her iced-now diluted and tepid-latte and sneered at the revolting taste. The cubes of ice had already sacrificed themselves trying to keep the drink cool, and now, drops of water condensing around the exterior of the plastic cup ran down her fingers threatening to dampen the files held in her hands. She had been standing here for too long.

Twisting her neck, she peaked a glance through the elegant metallic divider-separating the cafeteria from the rest of the office space. The exquisite piece behind which she was standing-or rather hiding-was more of an embellishment than a separation. Nadia was highly suspicious that she was visible through the ornate partition. Occasional looks from her co-workers had further validated her awful choice of a hiding spot. She didn't care about them though, all she wanted was to stay out of the vision of a pair of hazel eyes.

With utmost caution, she looked at the entryway. He was still there. The company's managing director, Mr Markus Vaughn, was beside him, listening to him along with a couple of other men whose backs faced her. Markus stood tall whereas the other two men, even though only a few inches shorter, looked small standing before Dylan who stood with his legs apart and shoulders squared. His hands were in his pant pockets as he instructed the men who nodded their heads about things that were inaudible to her.

Her eyes then went around the spacious office cafeteria. Nadia noticed how many of the employees had their heads turned in his direction, while several of them passing by would slow down to look at him-most with admiration, some with desire, others with envy.

There was a time when she had looked at him with similar admiration-maybe more. She shook her head feeling sympathy for her past and all their present selves. These naive people did not have the faintest idea about the devil hiding behind their employer's perfect face.

Thoughtlessly, she took another sip of her formerly iced coffee and flinched at the terrible taste. Nadia believed throwing away coffee, whether good or bad, was one of the biggest sins humankind was capable of; but after spending the last 20 minutes hiding at the worst spot possible, trying her utmost best not to break her 2-month long streak of avoiding her boss, being condemned to coffee hell was the last thing that worried her.

Nadia's gaze was still fixated on Dylan when she felt her cellphone vibrate inside her purse. That was the third call within the last quarter-hour; she was confident it was one of her teammates. Unfortunately, with one of her hands holding the sweating coffee cup and the other one keeping the files away from it, she had no way to answer it.

"Go away!" Nadia wanted to scream at top of her lungs, but the thought of giving away her location made her settle for a whisper.

She regretted choosing this particular cafeteria for her client meeting. Oh, how delighted she was only moments ago when her client, Ms Elaine, had announced that her firm had finally approved the project. Her team had spent so many days-sometimes even nights and weekends-to complete it before the deadline and Nadia had sat through the meeting looking forward to celebrating the success of her first project with her team.

All those plans had come to a screeching halt when Dylan VanAssche had appeared at the entrance and she had chosen the nearest spot to stay out of his view.

"Come on, go away!" Nadia whispered with growing impatience, "don't you have the biggest office in this company for stuff like these?"

On the other side of the office cafeteria, Dylan was no longer instructing his employees. Mr Vaughn had just handed him an iPad and the device had his undivided attention. Just when Nadia thought she was going to spend the rest of her life hiding behind the metallic divider, he passed the device to the two men, dismissing them.

With newly found optimism, Nadia watched him say something to his managing director and, for a split second, she felt her heart disappear from her chest. If she had not been staring at them like an absolute creep, she would have never caught the subtle action. Nadia could swear she saw Mr Vaughn's eyes drift to her, momentarily, before he took his leave and went away.

Before she could think of anything at all, Dylan started to walk in her direction. Her heart which had disappeared only moments ago, felt as if it was put back in its place after suffering the biggest jumpscare of its life. Nadia tried to remain calm, although the pounding in her chest made the task difficult. There was nothing to worry about, she convinced herself. It was all in her head. He didn't see her. He would pass by her without noticing. He didn't see her.

It wasn't until his eyes snapped directly to hers that the panic alarms in her head went off louder than a jackhammer. He did see her. In a state of frenzy, Nadia looked around for an escape. The first was the glass window, she shook her head-too high. Next, was the now unblocked entrance. She could casually walk by him and pretend to not see him. With all the employees gawking at him, he would not dare to stop her-except she knew, he would dare. Nadia was yet to come up with a third option when he came to stand directly in front of her.

"Looking for me, Hayden? Or practising invisibility?"

Nadia internally cursed herself for not being more careful, then straightened her posture and looked up at him with a placid look, pretending the last few minutes didn't happen. "Just waiting for a client, Mr VanAssche," she informed, a little too politely.

"Are you now?" Dylan nodded, taking a step closer. His hand came out of his pants pockets and reached for her. Instinctively, she took a step back-making his brows shoot up at the reaction-until she realised he was going for the files in her hand and gave them away, hastily.

"And where were you an hour ago?" He flipped open the file, his eyes lingered on her face for a while before dropping to the document.

"Working with my team," she lied. She was in the middle of a meeting with her client, an hour ago, but she couldn't tell him that. Considering her earlier statement, it would lead to some serious continuity errors.

"Then you must have already read the notice I sent you," Dylan said, not looking away from the file.

Nadia frowned. She had not. "Yes. I did."

"And you have no objection?"

Nadia gave it a thought. She looked at him inquisitively, wondering what new trick he was playing on her. The past two months have been a vacation in paradise for her. She was living the dream that she had envisaged years ago and she was skillfully avoiding every contact with the infernal being looming around. Yet, her ears had not been as blessed as her eyes.

People always had something to say about Dylan VanAssche. Though Nadia never involved herself in conversations with her co-workers about her boss, it was impossible to block their words out. She had learnt a lot of things about him that way, including how nothing he ever said was ever on the table for a debate. Every letter, every notice, every suggestion-even if cloaked as a request-was a command to be obeyed. So why ask for her opinion now?

"I need to read it again," she told him.

He raised his eyes from the file, "I don't have time for that, Hayden. Tell me now, yes or no?"

"You have time to come here and talk to me."

"Yes. I've wasted enough."

"Then you can waste some more."

"So it's a yes?"

"No."

"No?"

"No. It's a no," Nadia glared at him but kept her voice under control, painfully aware of their position in the middle of the office cafeteria.

Dylan closed the file and handed it back to her. Strangely, he looked content with her answer. "Since you have no objection to the notice, Hayden," he said with a knowing smile, "I'll see you at the meeting."

What meeting? No objection? What notice? Nadia stood at her spot, frowning as she watched him head towards the elevators. Then the realisation of her agreeing to him for God-knows-what struck her like a bolt of lightning, inciting every cell of her body into action.

She took several steps in his direction to go after him, before changing her mind and rushing to her team cabin to uncover exactly what deal she had just signed with the devil, tossing the awful coffee into the trash can on her way.

With her hand finally free, Nadia pulled her cell phone out of her purse. There were three missed calls from Brianna and a series of text messages from her other teammates. Most of them were frustrated pleas to answer her phone. She scrolled through them, half reading, half skipping, until one text sent moments ago by Matt-another one of her team members-caught her eye.

'Meeting with Mr VanAssche. The conference room. Third floor. At 2:30. Be late. Get fired.'

Nadia checked the current time and did a quick mental calculation. She had precisely 13 minutes to reach the conference room. If she acted quick enough, it was enough to make a short visit to her office, read the notice, and get to the meeting on time.

As she stepped into the elevator, flipping the minute flap of her mental clock from 13 to 12, Nadia could not believe she was strategizing being on time for a meeting like an escape plan from a building holding a time bomb. This is not a life-threatening situation, Nadia warned herself. I am not in mortal danger. But the mere thought of giving that VanAssche guy another reason to pick on her was enough to kick her into survival mode.

More people poured in as the elevator doors opened at a floor that was neither her stop nor her destination. The clock flipped to 10.

Nadia knew she was not going to make it. She altered her plan, pressed the button for the third floor, and called Brianna. Her feet anxiously tapped the carpeted elevator floor as she waited for an answer.

Brianna was the only person in her team whom she could rely on when it came to information about things associated with Dylan. A month ago, her teammate, Ryle, had caught her crouching behind a desk in another one of her attempts to avoid their boss. Her whole team had savoured the incident like a pitcher of lemonade on a sunny afternoon in the middle of a desert. And to her misery, they had assumed the worst.

After several attempts of trying to assure them that she was not even close to being interested in their boss-in fact, her feelings were quite the opposite-Nadia had, in time, learned to shield her brain from their suggestive jokes.

"Where the hell have you been?" Was Brianna's greeting on the phone.

"What's in the notice?" Nadia asked, dread creeping in.

"Someone's getting fired," came Ryle's sing-song, joyous voice from the background. Nadia ignored him.

"The notice, Brie. What's in it?" She asked again.

"It says you'll be working directly under Mr VanAssche on some project for the next two weeks," her colleague answered.

"Your stalking finally paid off, Nadia," Ryle commented in the background. Strike two for him, she noted.

"And why would I do that?" Nadia asked more to herself than she was asking Brianna.

Why does this keep happening to me? Was another question she needed desperate answers to. Every meeting with Dylan was either preceded or paved the way for catastrophe to wreck her ordinary, tranquil life.

"What project is it? And 'me' as in the whole team, right?" Nadia asked with a little hope that was crushed by the next answer.

"It says you'll still be our tech lead, but the project will be a solo venture. That's all. There are no details."

"Any reasons?"

"None."

Of course. She could imagine Dylan simply assuming the world would bend to a wave of his hand. Why would he need to give an explanation when everyone around him had already declared his actions irreproachable?

The fact that he had offered her an out and she had blown it off due to the lack of context, didn't help either.

"You also have a meeting with him in-"

"On it," Nadia said, slipping out of the elevators and putting her phone away. She still had four minutes to spare, which wasn't enough considering the distance she had yet to cover. With steps as rapid as her heels would allow without spraining her ankles, Nadia made her way to the unspecified meeting, striving to reach it before the countdown clock in her head struck zero.