Unraveling Ties

The city hummed beneath the cold gray sky, its cacophony of sounds muted by the sleek glass windows of Damian Cross’s office. Sage Whitmore stood by the window, arms crossed, staring out at the sprawling skyline below. The office was empty, save for her and Damian, who had been eerily quiet for the past half hour. His towering presence behind her made it impossible to ignore his gaze, though she wasn’t about to turn around and meet it.

It had been three days since the tense conference room encounter. The initial relief of having secured Bluebird Café’s future, at least temporarily, had faded into frustration. What she had once hoped would be a straightforward year-long assignment had become more like a test she couldn’t pass, a game she couldn’t quite figure out.

Damian hadn’t given her any more instructions after that meeting. Every task since had been mundane, small details about reports and documents that she was certain could be handled by anyone. But his presence—his shadow—loomed large, and with it, the unsettling feeling that something was brewing beneath the surface.

The silence stretched on until Damian’s voice cut through it, smooth but firm. “You’re still avoiding me.”

Sage flinched slightly, though she’d expected him to speak eventually. She refused to turn around, even though she could feel the weight of his stare pressing against her back.

“I’m not avoiding you,” she said, her tone more defensive than she intended. “I’m just… I’m not sure what you want from me.”

Damian chuckled, a low sound that set her teeth on edge. He was so sure of himself, so confident in his control over every situation. She hated how that confidence made her feel powerless.

“I’m not your enemy, Sage,” he said, taking a step closer. “You seem to think I’m manipulating you, playing games, but that’s not what I’m doing.”

Sage bit back a sarcastic laugh. “You’ve got a funny way of showing it.”

Turning, she finally faced him, crossing her arms over her chest to shield herself from his intense gaze. “I’m just here to do my job. You wanted my help with the café—fine, I’ll help. But this whole charade, the mind games, the sudden moves—it’s too much.”

Damian’s face softened for the first time in days, though it was only a slight shift. “It’s not a charade, Sage. This is business. Real business. And if you want to stay in this world, you need to understand that it’s not always about what’s on the surface.”

His words sank into her skin, but she wasn’t sure if they were meant to comfort her or to push her deeper into the web he’d woven around her. She hadn’t asked for this world. She’d never wanted anything to do with corporate America and the games it played. But now she was stuck.

“So, what’s the next move?” she asked, trying to mask her frustration with indifference. “Do you have another meeting for me to sit in on? Another thing to throw me into so I can help in some way?”

Damian studied her for a long moment, his eyes dark and calculating. Then, as if deciding something in his mind, he moved toward the desk at the far end of the room and rifled through a drawer.

Sage’s curiosity gnawed at her. What was he planning now?

After a few seconds, Damian pulled out a thin folder and turned toward her, his expression unreadable. “I need you to look over these documents. We have an important meeting tomorrow, and I need your input.”

“Input?” she echoed, skeptical. “What kind of input?”

Damian didn’t respond at first. He handed her the folder, and Sage reluctantly took it, flipping it open. The pages inside were filled with dense legalese, financial data, and technical jargon she could barely make sense of.

“Are you serious?” she asked, shaking her head. “You expect me to make sense of this?”

He leaned against the edge of the desk, arms crossed, studying her closely. “I expect you to try. You’ve been in this position before, right? Fighting to save something you care about?”

Sage froze. The words felt like a punch to her gut. The memory of the café, her mother’s dream, flashed before her eyes. The responsibility she had taken on to save Bluebird Café wasn’t just a job—it was personal. She couldn’t afford to fail.

But she also couldn’t ignore the fact that every time she took a step forward with Damian, she felt more lost.

“What’s your angle, Damian?” she asked, her voice lower than before. “Why do you care so much about me? About Bluebird?”

Damian didn’t immediately answer. Instead, he walked over to the window, standing next to her but not quite touching her. He stared out at the city, as though lost in thought, before speaking again.

“I don’t care about Bluebird Café,” he said, his voice soft yet firm. “Not in the way you do. But I care about you.”

Sage’s heart skipped a beat, and she turned her face toward him, trying to gauge the sincerity in his words. Was he playing her? Or was he being honest for once?

“You care about me?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “After everything that’s happened, after you’ve thrown me into this mess, this is your way of showing it?”

Damian’s gaze softened, though his expression remained as inscrutable as ever. “I’ve never been good at showing things the way others expect. But I’m doing this because I know you’re capable. You don’t realize it yet, but you’ve got the strength to do more than just save your café.”

Sage swallowed, her emotions swirling like a storm. She didn’t know whether to trust him or run as far away from him as possible. Every word that came out of his mouth made her feel like she was caught between two forces: one that was trying to protect her, and one that was using her for his own gain.

“Why?” she asked finally, the question hanging in the air between them. “Why me? Why not someone else?”

Damian turned toward her fully, his expression unreadable but with a certain intensity in his eyes that left her breathless. “Because you’re not like the others, Sage. You don’t play by the rules. You challenge me. And I respect that.”

Sage’s heart pounded in her chest, but she pushed the feeling down. “So, you think I can help you get what you want?”

“I think you’ll get what you want, too,” he replied, stepping closer. “You just need to trust that I’m not here to tear everything down.”

She could feel the pull of his presence, the magnetic energy between them. But she couldn’t let herself get distracted. Not now. Not when everything she cared about was on the line.

“I’m not going to let you control me, Damian,” she said firmly, forcing herself to stand her ground. “I won’t be your pawn.”

His lips twitched into a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Then don’t be. But you should know something, Sage. There’s more to this game than what you see. And in the end, you might just find yourself wanting to play by my rules.”

Her chest tightened as she stared at him. There was something in his eyes—something deeper than the calm, calculating exterior. Something that suggested he wasn’t just trying to win. He was trying to break her, to reshape her in his image. And it terrified her.

But at the same time, a part of her—an unwanted, vulnerable part—was beginning to wonder if maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t as cold and calculating as he seemed.

As Damian turned back toward the window, Sage stood frozen in place, torn between the future she was trying to build and the man who seemed determined to change everything.

Her phone buzzed on the desk, snapping her out of her thoughts. She glanced down, seeing a message from her friend, Claire, asking how things were going.

Sage typed a quick reply: Same old. Just trying to survive.

But as she hit send, her fingers lingered over the keyboard, the weight of Damian’s words still heavy on her mind.

What was he really offering? And at what cost?

With a sigh, she glanced back at him. She was about to find out.