Aliana stood in front of the mirror, her fingers lightly brushing the faint bruise on her neck. The ointment left a cool sheen on her skin not able to cover the injuries underneath. One full day of rest had passed. One full day of sitting in Joseph's apartment, trying to forget the incident.
She had skipped work yesterday. She had no energy to even pretend to be fine. Now she was forcing herself to return. Her hair was half tied, her shirt buttoned wrong twice because her hands kept trembling.
She capped the ointment and exhaled slowly. She felt the need to check her phone once again but she had lost it in the panic but she was still glad that her suitcase and the diary was safe and sound. But because of no connection with the outside world she felt a lot more alone now.
The last twenty-four hours had a heavy quietness wrapped around them. Joseph had barely spoken to her since that moment on the floor. He wasn't cold exactly… just careful. Careful in a way that left her unsure of everything.
Like yesterday afternoon, when she'd heard a soft knock and saw him standing there with a bowl of soup. The moment she started to say thank you, he quietly cut her off.
"It's hot. Be careful.""I—Joseph, I—""I'll be in the study. Call me if you need something."
Door closed.
Even at dinner, he had pulled a chair out for her, placed the plate down, and stepped back like he didn't trust himself to stay too close. Every time she tried to start small talk asking about his meetings, his hand, anything he kept it short.
"It's fine.""Yes.""I'll handle it.""You should rest."
And then he disappeared into the study again.
Now, as she smoothed her shirt and adjusted her hair, she wondered if going back to the office would finally break this strange, suffocating quiet between them.
She bent forward, inspecting her bruise in the mirror one more time, tapping a bit more ointment over the fading red marks.
A knock sounded on the doorframe.
She looked up. Joseph stood there, leaning slightly inside the room after pushing the door open a little. His hand still hovered near the knob as if he wasn't sure whether to step in or step out. His eyes flicked to her neck before darting away.
"You're… getting ready for work?" he asked quietly.
She swallowed, nodding once. "Yeah. I have to go back eventually."
He shifted his weight, the tension in his shoulders obvious even in his stillness. He looked like he had practiced something to say, but the words got stuck somewhere on the way out.
She reached for her bag. "I'll be quick. I just need to—"
"You don't need to rush," he cut in softly. "I came to… check if you need anything."
She opened her mouth—finally ready to ask him why he had been avoiding her, why he wouldn't look at her for more than a second—
But he glanced toward the hallway, tightening his grip on the doorknob.
"I should let you finish getting ready," he said quietly. "Breakfast is on the table."
On her way out she notices that the breakfast is really on the table but he is not in the house. She goes to work after the resignation for her three month notice period. It is then, when she walks into the office, she sees Jane who instantly notices her and approaches her. Aliana unconsciously tries to cover her neck even though she is having a light scarf around the marks on her neck.
Jane is like, "Aliana, where were you? Why didn't you answer any calls or reply to any emails? You just disappeared." She is awfully concerned. And Aliana is taken aback. She is like, "I am sorry, I lost my phone," she replies. Jane is concerned but she nods.
"You do look pale… are you sick?" she asks, and Aliana just shakes her head saying she might have caught a flu and she will be going to her desk. And as she is about to move, Jane stops her, telling her (in a little embarrassed way), "Your desk has been moved. It is not there."
Aliana looks at her and then says, "Moved?" And Jane is like, "Yeah, a few new members were added to the team so we had to move your desk to the second office." Aliana nods because she doesn't care that her office has been moved and the fact that she is here for the last months so whatever they do she just wanted to end these days. She says that she will pick her stuff from there and moves. Jane nods.
Aliana, when she steps up to her desk area, she pauses and is horrified by the girl who is sitting at the desk that was once hers. It is Beatrice.
"You?" she says out in a very cold and disgusted way.
Beatrice looks up at her and her eyebrows knit. "Did you say something?" she asks. Aliana breathes in deeply and she feels this immense jealousy in her chest. The thought suddenly rushes past her mind that Arman didn't take long to bring her closer to him when he got the opportunity. And the fact that he was so desperate to make this change.
She acts like she is here to get her stuff and then Beatrice says to her that yeah, she left her things on her new desk. She says okay and leaves annoyed.
While she is grumbling under her breath she finds the office that she has been transferred to and notices that it is more like a run-down thing. A crappy desk with stains like arts and crafts stains and a chair that is not even a proper one, it is just some stupid steel one. She is annoyed. Her things are thrown almost on the table.
"What the hell," she hisses.
After that, while she is fixing her things annoyed, she starts throwing the stuff like the vase that has been broken and the glue bottle squeezed as if put for spite. She is throwing the stuff when she sees Arman rushing in through the door and his eyes landing on her and then him grabbing onto her shoulder. He is clearly distraught.
"Where were you!?"
You said:why in present tense?ChatGPT said:
Got you. I'll rewrite it in past tense while keeping your style, the mood, the tension and the emotional undercurrent. Here's the corrected past-tense version.
On her way out, she noticed that breakfast was actually set on the table, but he wasn't anywhere in the house. She left for work anyway she walked into the office and the moment she stepped inside, she spotted Jane. Jane instantly noticed her and hurried toward her.
Aliana's hand moved up on its own, trying to cover her neck even though she'd wrapped a light scarf around the marks. Jane looked genuinely worried as she asked, "Aliana, where were you? Why didn't you answer any calls or reply to any emails? You just disappeared."
The concern threw Aliana off. She forced a small smile and lied, "I'm sorry. I lost my phone."
Jane didn't look convinced, but she nodded anyway. "You look pale. Are you cold?"
Aliana shook her head, saying she might've caught a flu and that she was going to her desk. She tried to walk past, but Jane touched her arm and stopped her, looking a little embarrassed.
"Your desk isn't there anymore," she said. "It was moved."
"Moved?" Aliana asked.
"Yeah… we added a few new members to the team, so your desk was relocated to the second office."
Aliana nodded, not caring about where they put her. She wasn't planning on staying long. She just wanted these last months to crawl by so she could be done. She said she would pick up her things and move.
But the moment she stepped into the old desk area, she froze. Her stomach dropped when she saw who was sitting at the desk that used to be hers.
Beatrice.
"You?" Aliana blurted out, her voice sharp and cold.
Beatrice looked up, her brows pinched. "Did you say something?"
Aliana took a slow breath. Jealousy burned hot in her chest, sudden and ugly. The thought hit her hard. Arman didn't waste any time bringing this girl closer the second he got the chance. He really was desperate to make that change.
Aliana pretended she was only there to gather her things. Beatrice casually told her that everything had been placed on her new desk.
"Okay," Aliana muttered and walked off, annoyed.
Still grumbling under her breath, she found the second office. It looked rundown. The desk was stained like some kid had used it for arts and crafts, and the chair wasn't even a proper office chair. It was a sad, wobbly stool. Her things were tossed across the table without a care.
"What the hell…" she hissed.
She started cleaning up, tossing broken items aside, like the cracked vase and the squeezed-out glue bottle that looked like someone had crushed it on purpose. There wasn't a dustbin anywhere near her new desk, so she picked up the mess and stepped out into the hallway to throw it away.
As she walked toward the bin, Arman came from the other side of the office corridor. He looked drained, eyes shadowed and unfocused, but the second his gaze landed on her, something inside him snapped awake. His steps quickened. In a few strides, he reached her and grabbed her shoulders, making her flinch.
"Where did you go?" he hissed, his voice tight, as if he'd been holding his breath for hours and could barely get the words out.