MARA'S POV
She nearly slipped in her own shoes while trying to angle her body so the iced coffee would not spill. At the last second, she managed to shove one foot between the doors, causing them to open again.
She breathed out hard and stepped inside immediately. "Thank You, Lord."
The moment she got in, that was when she realized there was only one person inside.
A man.
Tall. Wearing a dark suit. Sharp jawline. Neat hair. Quiet. And annoyingly handsome.
Mara blinked.
Wait.
Why was there only one person riding?
She looked outside. There were still a lot of people waiting, but none of them got in. Instead, they simply stared at the elevator as if there were an invisible sign above it saying ordinary creatures were forbidden from entering.
"There's still space," she told the people outside. "You can come in."
They all shook their heads.
One man looked like he was about to say something, but he stepped back too.
Mara frowned. These people were weird. There was space. It was just one guy inside. He did not exactly look like he bit people.
Forget it, she told herself. It's not your job to understand corporate people and their weirdness.
The elevator doors closed.
Silence.
The kind of silence that made her uncomfortable. The kind where even breathing too loudly felt like it would make the standards in the room drop.
She glanced at the man.
He was just standing at the side, one hand in his pocket, looking straight ahead. He was not even looking at her. His nose was not literally in the air, but his whole aura screamed of someone used to everyone around him knowing exactly where they should stand.
Mara grimaced.
Handsome, yes, but he looked arrogant.
That was when she remembered she had not pressed the floor button yet.
She tried moving one hand, but one of the paper bags nearly slipped. Then she tried wedging the iced coffee at her elbow, but that only made the whole situation more dangerous. She sighed and looked at the man beside her.
"Could you press it for me?"
No response.
The elevator just kept going up.
She blinked. Maybe he had not heard her.
"Excuse me," she said again. "Could you press the floor for me?"
Still, he said nothing.
Slowly, she turned toward him fully. She stared at the man as though trying to figure out whether he was deaf, just rude, or simply allergic to basic requests.
After a few seconds, he finally looked at her.
And for some reason she could not explain, there was a strange weight in his gaze. He did not look angry. He did not look surprised either. It was as if he was simply measuring her, silently studying every wrong thing about her existence in five seconds flat.
That only annoyed her more.
"The button," she said again, jutting her chin toward the panel. "I can't reach it."
A brief silence passed, then he moved. He lifted his hand and pressed the floor number written on the paper she was holding.
"Thank you," she said, though her tone was far from sweet.
He only gave a slight nod.
She adjusted her stance and looked ahead again, but her mind would not stay quiet.
Unbelievable. So rude. Acting like he owns the elevator.
She fell silent at her own thought.
Owns the elevator.
She gasped softly. No, of course not. You're so overdramatic, Mara.
A few seconds later, the elevator opened on the floor she needed.
She did not even bother looking back at the man. She rushed out first, walking quickly even though she was still flustered because of all the food she was carrying. The moment she stepped out, she was even more amazed by the hallway. It was quieter, more elegant, and somehow more intimidating. Completely different from the noisy lobby downstairs.
She checked the paper in her hand and searched for the room number.
It was at the far end.
"Okay," she muttered to herself. "Calm. Professional. Mature. Don't start a fight right away."
Three steps later, her irritation returned.
Mature, mature. They were the ones who backed out. They were the ones who should be ashamed.
When she reached the office, she saw the secretary outside. A well put together woman, clearly used to pressure, and currently speaking on the phone. From the moment the woman looked at her, Mara felt like she already knew Mara was going to be a problem.
But since backing out was no longer part of her system at that point, she only forced a smile and walked straight to the door.
"Miss, just a moment please," the secretary called.
She did not stop.
The door opened.
The office was spacious. Quiet. Cold. Far too expensive looking. Inside, there was an older bald man sitting comfortably on the couch, holding a glass, looking completely unaware of the storm about to arrive.
Mara's eyes lit up.
Aha. So it's you.
"Good afternoon," she began, even though it definitely did not sound polite. "Are you the CEO?"
The older man looked at her, clearly confused.
She did not even wait for him to answer.
"Actually, it doesn't even matter whether you are or not, because I really need to say something." She set one of the paper bags down on the center table and took a deep breath. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to organize a school event? Do you have any idea how many students are counting on this? Because it looks like you don't, because if you did, you wouldn't just back out of a sponsorship like the agreement you signed meant nothing."
"Miss," the secretary tried to interrupt softly from behind her.
"No, please," Mara continued, her blood running even hotter now. "Because this is so unfair. The student council has been fixing everything for weeks. They're exhausted. And with one phone call, that's it? Internal adjustments? What is that? An excuse to back out when it becomes inconvenient?"
"Miss, he is not the CEO," the secretary said, this time louder.
But once Mara got started, she was very hard to stop.
"If you never wanted to help, then you should never have promised anything in the first place. Not make students work this hard for nothing. What they're doing is not a joke. And hoping is not a joke either."
The entire office fell silent.
The bald man was staring at her like he could not decide whether to laugh or pity her. The secretary, meanwhile, was going pale in the corner.
And then, from the doorway, a cold and familiar voice cut through everything.
"Are you done?"
Mara's back went rigid instantly.
Not because the tone was angry.
But because she knew that voice.
Slowly, she turned around.
And there she saw the man from the elevator.
He was standing at the doorway, one hand on the doorknob, his face expressionless, his gaze fixed on her as though he had been waiting for her to finish embarrassing herself this whole time.
At that moment, everything connected in Mara's mind all at once.
The private elevator.
The people who refused to ride with him.
The infuriatingly rude man.
His silence.
The secretary.
And the fact that the bald old man was not the CEO.
The CEO was the man she had ordered to press the button in the elevator earlier.
Mara slowly went pale.
For the first time since arriving there, she had nothing to say.
And for the first time too, she thought that maybe it was not just the school event she had ruined that day.
Maybe she had ruined her life too.
She saw the man's gaze shift briefly to the paper bag she had left on the table, then return to her face. "You barged into my office, ignored my secretary, insulted my guest, and lectured me before even asking for an appointment."
Mara wanted to speak, but nothing came out.
"Interesting approach," he added.
Something pounded in her chest. Shame. Annoyance. Panic. Probably all of them at once.
At last, she swallowed. "You're the CEO?"
He only raised one eyebrow.
Oh no.
Oh no, oh no, oh no.
She wanted the floor to swallow her whole. She wanted to grab her paper bag, her iced coffee, whatever remained of her dignity, and run out of the building as if she had never been born.
But because she was Mara, and because it was in her nature to make the worst possible decision at the worst possible time, the first thing that came out of her mouth was not an apology.
It was this.
"Well... in my defense, you never said so."
The secretary's eyes widened.
The bald old man clutched his chest like he was holding back laughter.
And Lucien Alcázar, CEO of Alcázar Holdings, remained silent for one long second before slowly closing the door behind him.
"It seems we need to talk, Miss..."
"Mara," she answered, almost under her breath. "Mara Cortez."
"Miss Cortez," he repeated. "From the beginning."
Mara took a deep breath and closed her eyes for just one second. That was it. It was done. She had already started this. The only thing left now was to stand by everything.
Even though she had no idea yet that that day would be the exact day that would change her entire life.
Even though she had no idea yet that the man she had first ordered around in the elevator, first rolled her eyes at, and first spoken to in a bossy tone would be the very man who would disrupt every plan, every quiet afternoon, and every certainty she had about the future.
And most of all, even though she had no idea yet that her simple act of charging in to save her friend's event would become the beginning of the messiest, strangest, and most dangerous chapter of her heart.
Because from that day on, nothing ever returned to its old quiet state.
Especially not Mara Cortez.