The hum of the elevator carried them back up to the executive floor, the silence between Bella and Jake still heavy but no longer suffocating.
They were friends now but didn't even know how to be one. It would take some time getting used to.
Bella stepped out first when the elevator doors slid open, her heels clicking against the polished marble floor as she walked toward her desk outside his office.
It was strange, how ordinary everything looked after the storm that had passed between them. The phones ringing, the distant chatter of staff, the faint smell of freshly brewed coffee drifting from the break room. Ordinary. Yet nothing felt ordinary inside her chest.
Bella slid into her chair, pulling her laptop toward her, determined to bury herself in work. Jake entered his office without another word, the door closing softly behind him.
