Daphne ran her fingers through her fluffy black strands, tugging a little. What the hell am I going to do? She leaned back in her chair and threw her head up so that she was facing the ceiling. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours yet since her mother had come to the office, and nearly all of her co-workers were treating her differently, save for Fiona who was somehow treating her worse. Trevor, who had just dumped a few more small projects on top of Daphne’s already overflowing plate, was the only one who seemed to be treating her the same.

  I didn’t work late last night. I didn’t come in early this morning, and I don’t intend to stay late tonight. I’m already behind on all of the other work I had…

  Daphne shifted, putting her arms on her desk and putting her head in her hands. This is impossible. Her chest squeezed tightly. How was I able to deal with this before? Why did I just work so hard for so little?

  She let out a heavy sigh. She had already talked to a couple of the teams she was supporting earlier that morning about how she may not be able to get things done by the deadlines they had requested her to. They had been disappointed, but were understanding, and she had been grateful of their willingness to extend her deadlines.

  What am I going to do now? Tears stung her eyes. Do I really have no choice except to work long hours for the same pay and no respect?

  She shook her head, still holding it in her hands. I’ve just got to keep looking for a new job. I’ll dedicate some time to it this weekend again, because I can’t do this anymore.

  The offer her mother had made her at lunch the day before came to mind. She chewed on her lip, feeling tempted. No, I can’t. If I do that, I’ll never be able to walk away from Mother again, regardless of how I feel. She swallowed hard, knowing that if her mother had been less of a difficult person, she would have been letting a good opportunity slip by. Under no circumstances will I ask Mother for assistance, she promised herself. I can’t let her have that kind of power over me again.

  Daphne heard the notification sound for the work instant messenger on her computer. It was a message from Holly. Do you have time for drinks after work?

  Daphne gritted her teeth together. It’s not like I can ask Holly or Landon for help either. They are already helping me a lot. She couldn’t help but audibly groan a bit. And I’m sure Holly will want to talk about my mother after work.

  Daphne pursed her lips, unsure of what to say or what to do. It’s so difficult to talk to anyone about my mother before they know who she is. They hardly believe the stories I have before knowing that I’m talking about Kimberly Woods. As soon as they find out who I’m talking about, then all of the sudden I look like the crazy one.

  She sighed, swinging in her chair. But what if Holly is the friend who finally believes me? She let out a small laugh. I just wish she would be the first one to believe me. So many “friends” before have taken my mother’s side in the past. So, at this point, it’s really me who ought to know better.

  Still, her heart was jumping around excitedly at the prospect that Holly might believe her stories for once. I guess it’s a quick litmus test to see how close of friends we might be able to be. Plus a drink sounds great with how this day is going so far.

  Daphne turned back to her computer. That sounds good to me, she replied, hitting enter and sending the message off to Holly.

  She looked down at the folders Trevor had given her for the new, small, projects he had assigned to her. Now how to figure out how to take all of this on. Her eyes pricked again.

  “Daphne, hey,” a warm voice said behind her, whilst knocking on the wall of her cubicle.

  She whirled around, already knowing who it was going to be standing there, and met the brown eyes of Asher. Shit. I really didn’t want him to see me like this.

  She did her best to smooth her hair as she said, “Asher. How can I help you?”

  “Hey,” he said again, a lopsided smile appearing on his face. “I was curious if you’d have some time to debrief from the trip I took yesterday for the project we’re working on together?”

  Daphne’s eyes stung even more, and she had to blink rapidly to force her tears to retreat at least a little bit. When she met Asher’s eyes again, he appeared to be studying her face closely.

  “Are you alright?” he asked her.

  She bit down on her bottom lip as her tears threatened again to spring forth and overwhelm her. If I talk now, I’m going to cry.

  Asher turned and pulled up a chair, seeming to intuitively know that she was unable to respond to his question without completely falling apart.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  As Asher pulled himself into her cubicle, sitting where, up until recently, Landon had been sitting, Daphne caught a whiff of his clean, laundry soap scent. She cleared her throat in hopes of actually being able to get a few words out.

  “Not really,” she answered in a froggy voice. “My sister recently pointed out to me how many extra hours a week I’ve been working, and I didn’t realize it was so much.” She cleared her throat again, as it was trying to close up on her once more. “I’m already overwhelmed and falling behind as a result of cutting back on my extra hours, and Trevor just assigned me even more to take care of.” She gestured to the folders in front of Asher.

  She had to stop talking. She knew she was going to cry in front of this man if she kept going, and it was definitely not the impression she was hoping to make on him.

  “Wow,” Asher said, grimacing. “Did you tell Trevor that you don’t have time for anything additional?”

  Daphne shook her head. “Don’t you remember in the team meeting a few weeks ago? He told me to only say ‘yes, sir,’ going forward.”

  Asher’s frown deepened. “What the hell is he doing?” he murmured softly to himself. He looked back over at Daphne, who was barely hanging onto her emotions by a thread. “First, let’s take a couple of deep breaths together,” he said. He nodded. “Then tell me more about these projects so we can see about finding someone else to take them for you, okay?”

  Daphne nodded, taking a few, shaky deep breaths to help calm her emotions. It at least worked enough to calm down the tide of tears that was threatening to spill out.

  “Alright,” Asher said, his warm eyes meeting hers, with a small smile. “Tell me about the work, including the scope of the responsibilities.”

  Daphne nodded, her heart starting to pick up the pace now that she was calmer. He’s so close. And his lips…

  She perished the thought and the image from her mind by grabbing the folders off her desk and pulling open the materials that Trevor had explained to her. She did her best to highlight to Asher the same things that Trevor had highlighted to her, looking up at him as she was going along, and meeting his eyes. He nodded along with her, and she noticed that she seemed far more distracted by his presence than he seemed by hers.

  Her heart sunk into her chest. I’m not even ready for a new relationship anytime soon, anyway, she chided herself. I have bigger things to worry about.

  “And that’s it,” Daphne concluded, shutting the last folder.

  “That’s it?” Asher asked, raising his eyebrows.

  Daphne felt her stomach churn at his reaction. He must think I’m ridiculous for not being able to take these little projects on. I wish he hadn’t seen me so ready to cry.

  Asher sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know what Trevor is thinking, assigning additional work to you when you’re already so busy. Especially things like this that the new guy could easily handle.” He pointed over at Landon’s cubicle.

  Daphne gulped. “I was going to ask Landon,” she lied.

  “I’ll take them,” Asher replied, interrupting the rest of Daphne’s thoughts. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he said the words.

  Daphne felt herself biting her lip, and having to turn away from Asher so she didn’t look at his lips again. “You’ll take them?” she asked. “But you just said that Landon could do them.”

  “He could,” Asher replied, as Daphne began shuffling papers back into the folders they came from.

  Anything to not look at his face right now.

  “But I also know you’re already offloading work onto him, and these are small enough that I can easily handle them.”

  Daphne stopped shuffling the papers and looked back up at Asher’s face. He had been watching her as she’d been trying to distract herself.

  “You’re already doing so much for me,” she pointed out to him. She searched his eyes, inquiring in them for the reason he was also helping her.

  He was nothing like this before. I don’t know if I ever even talked to him before I came back to the past. What changed?

  Asher shrugged. “I’m helping you with that one big project, but I know you’re asking for help from some people on a daily basis. I don’t mind helping out when I can.”

  Daphne swallowed hard. “Then I guess I will leave them in your capable hands,” she said, handing him the folders and finally breaking eye contact with him, not having found the reason for his assistance. “Thank you,” she added.

  “My pleasure,” he replied with a soft smile. “Now onto the other project. You still have time, don’t you?”

  “Let me check,” Daphne replied, swinging her chair around to look at her calendar. “I still have fifteen minutes till my next appointment,” she said.

  “Perfect,” Asher replied. “I won’t need more than that.”

  Daphne turned to look at him as he walked her through what he had learned in his day long trip all over the state. She did her best to take notes as he was speaking, but she kept getting distracted. He talks a lot with his hands. She scribbled down a few of the design constraints that he mentioned. His hands are also enormous.

  She had to purse her lips in an effort to concentration on his words rather than his presence and his body.

  “That’s all I really learned,” he said. “It sounds as though this is going to be a long, complex project, so I suspect I will have to go on a couple more trips before we’ll really understand all of the pieces of this work.”

  Daphne nodded. “Makes sense to me,” she said. “Thanks for the update.”

  “Of course,” Asher replied with his warm smile. His eyes seemed to be searching hers the same way she had searched his only a little while earlier. Her heart skipped a beat.

  Don’t, she warned her heart and herself.

  “Would you be available for lunch, Daphne?” he asked.

  The sound of her name in his mouth was enough to make her stomach do flip flops. She had to break eye contact from him again to keep her emotions in check. Thankfully, she had an excuse, to check her calendar, even though she knew damn well she’d find a way to have lunch with him even if she wasn’t available.

  She pretended to look at her to-do list as well in hopes of trying to delay the answer enough to calm her pounding heart.

  “I think I can make that work,” she replied, turning back to him with a small smile on her face.

  “Excellent,” he replied, a wide smile gracing his face. “Then, I will see you for lunch.” He stood up and started pulling the chair out of her cubicle.

  “See you then,” she replied. She turned back to her computer, her heart thundering in her chest.

  It’s probably nothing. I’m probably reading too much into his intention.

  Still, she could not ignore the light of hope that had lit in her chest.