It was Friday.
Most people trickled into the office with that end-of-week ease — light banter, fresh pastries near the kitchenette, calendars already leaning toward Monday.
But Liam Vos came in early.
No headphones.
No swagger.
No false urgency.
He sat at his desk before anyone else arrived, opened the PTL dashboard, and just... worked.
Not as a placeholder.
Not while plotting his next delay.
Not while looking for a way out.
Just doing it.
Each test log entry required care. Small clicks. Notes. Verification fields.
He stopped skipping lines. He didn't batch entries or try to look busy.
He gave the work the attention he'd denied it for weeks.
Because now, there was no one else to fool.
By 10:30, Emilia had checked in to see if he'd signed the offboarding paperwork.
He hadn't. Not yet. But he didn't avoid her either.
He simply said, "I'll give you an answer next week."
She didn't press. Maybe she didn't need to.
At lunch, Mateo passed by his desk and nodded. "You're flying through today."
Liam smiled — a real one. Tired. But real.
"Trying to make peace with the beast."
Mateo chuckled. "It's a beast, alright."
No more pretense between them. Just two men who had both carried the same burden, one because he had to, the other because he'd avoided it until it owned him.
That afternoon, as the office buzzed with energy for weekend plans, Liam stayed quiet.
When the clock hit 4:45, he stood.
He didn't pack his things.
Didn't draft a farewell email.
Didn't log out.
Instead, he walked to the PTL dashboard, clicked Submit on the last batch of logs... and just watched the screen refresh to empty.
No backlog.
No avoidance.
No spotlight.
Just... done.
He exhaled.
On the way out, he saw Anika by the elevators.
She didn't say anything.
Neither did he.
But this time, when they locked eyes — she nodded.
And he nodded back.
Not as rivals.
Not as witnesses.
Just... people who had finally stopped pretending.