Quentin really had to stop going down to the dev floor. He was constantly finding reasons to go down in person, to wander away just enough to catch a glimpse of Em. He didn't usually go into Marketing. He didn't know what he would be giving away if he did. But today her laughter had drawn him in like a siren song.
Quentin didn't hear her laugh often. He knew her gasps and moans, the specific sound she made when he was buried deep inside her, but her laughter… that was foreign. When he saw her there, smiling and laughing with her friends, practically radiating joy, his knees went weak. He couldn't put a word to the immense weight of emotion he was experiencing. He so desperately wanted to go to her, to be the reason for her joy, but he knew his presence would ruin everything. So, he stayed perfectly still. And then she'd gone flying towards the wall and he moved without thinking.
There was a moment where she hadn't noticed him yet, where she was laughing and he could hear it clearly. If he had more courage, she would be in his arms. Then she looked him right in the eyes, in a way that always made him feel naked. He told them to get back to work and run off before he could fall to his knees.
The way he lost control around her was unacceptable. He had spent his whole life perfecting his discipline. It shouldn't be possible for one person to ruin it like this. And yet…
She probably hated him by now. He had jumped in and ruined their good times. He hadn't meant to. It was good if the company had a relaxed atmosphere. Which it did. Whenever he wasn't around. He'd always been a killjoy. He'd just never cared before. He'd never had someone he wanted to impress.
Maybe he could go back down there and clarify the situation. Explain that he wasn't a stick in the mud, they just had a lot of work to do. He would ruin his reputation, and she'd probably still think he was an asshole.
He could explain it to her privately later, maybe. She hated talking about work, but this wasn't necessarily work-related. Or he could bring it up while she was bent over and she wouldn't have time to complain. He had to push those thoughts away before he got hard.
Before he could second guess himself, he sent her a text asking if she was free tonight. Then he shut his phone in a drawer and focused on his work. He didn't want to get all caught up in whether she had replied or not. She was working anyway. She probably wouldn't see it for a while. No need to panic.
He made it through the rest of the day without checking his phone, which was easy since he spent most of it in meetings. It was easy to focus on the numbers and let the hours slip past him. He barely even though about her. Only in between, when he had to resist the urge to wander downstairs.
It was right around four thirty when he finally checked his phone. Still no response. She should have had her lunch break by nom, so she had the opportunity to read it. Did she not check her phone? Or did she see the message and not reply?
He closed his eyes for a moment. He couldn't freak out about this. It would push her away. He could force her to answer work texts, but she had no obligation to respond to his personal messages.
His secretary, Travis, was standing quietly in front of his desk, waiting to be acknowledged.
"Travis?" Quentin asked.
"Sir." He replied. "I have the report you asked for on the Q4 spending from Marketing."
"Excellent. Any insights on your end?"
"It all seems normal to me, sir, but I don't have your keen eye."
Quentin didn't actually need this report. The company audited all of their departments regularly, but normally the process was handled by his subordinates. He only was alerted if something was wrong. It would rouse an alarm if the management knew he was looking into marketing, which was why he had Travis create the report discreetly. He wanted to know if the department's spending had changed at all since the new hires had been brought on.
He didn't trust that man who was hanging all over Em. Everything about him was suspicious. He'd never worked in Marketing before, at least not according to his Linkedin. And he just so happened to join the company at the exact same time as Emilia? Unlikely.
As CFO, Quentin didn't have control over the employment of anyone under the CTO. However, if he could present some evidence to Alisa, she would take care of it for him. She might do it even if he didn't have any evidence. There was a lot of trust between the three of them. It was the main reason Novatech managed to come so far. But she'd start asking questions that he didn't know how to answer. It would be easier to take care of it himself.
Except there was nothing in the report that would indicate anything suspicious was going on. The team spending was normal. If anything, it was under budget, since they didn't use any of the money set aside for team dinners and bonding activities.
There had to be something. There was no way he was just some innocuous employee. If it wasn't financial, it had to be something personal. Quentin stood abruptly, causing Travis to jump back.
"Sir?" he asked.
"I'm heading downstairs. Field any calls."
"Yes sir."
Quentin was headed downstairs before he could really think it through. He was just doing a quick check in on the dev team progress. He was just going to ensure that the project was moving forward. He was just going to look at her, just once.
He opened the stairwell door, which led directly into the dev office. A group of employees was coming out of the break room, including that one girl who was always following Darius around. She smiled and started walking toward him. Fuck, what was her name again? It didn't really matter. He nodded to her and then went to speak to one of the other managers. He half-listened as she gave him the details of the new project. Then he gave a curt nod to her as well and headed out. The blonde girl came up to him again and he had to waste a full minute of his life making nice with her. Then he finally, finally, got away.
He stepped out into the hallway, where he should have had a clear view of Em through the window. She wasn't there… and neither was the weasel.
Quentin fucking knew it. He knew that guy was up to something. He always had to make some comment to show off how close they were. Always getting way too close. He headed towards the marketing office. He could demand to know where they were outright. He didn't feel like making some bullshit excuse anyway. He was about to barge in when he heard a sound, the same sound that had been haunting him all day.
He walked down the hallway and turned the corner to see that bastard with his arms wrapped around Em.
Quentin didn't quite remember what happened next. He knew he got angry that he was ready to tear the weasel off of her if he needed to. He let go over her but Quentin clenched his fist anyway. He;d felt a distinct sense of satisfaction watching the man tremble, feeling Em stand by his side and then he saw that she was crying and the satisfaction melted away.
Normally, Em regarded him at work with a cruel disinterest. She acted like they didn't know each other. At the moment, her rage was palpable. She was unerringly polite, but she couldn't hide her emotions; they were written all over her face.
Quentin tried to stop her, tried to explain, but she was already too far gone. 'None of your business'. It stung because it was true. She had no reason to tell him why she was crying. He wasn't the one who got to comfort her. That man was the one she went to when she needed someone to wipe her tears.
He went back up to his office in a daze, ignoring Travis's repeated questions. He basically slammed the door to his office, and stood there huffing. What was he supposed to do now? He felt his phone buzz and pulled it out.
Em: Busy
She finally replied to his text, only to shut him down completely. Of course she did. She was furious. He was lucky she replied to him at all. What did 'busy' mean? Was she just avoiding him? She'd been busy before, but normally she added something on at the end. Tomorrow, Friday, next week, something for him to hold on to.
She didn't want to see him.
He'd lived twenty-eight years of his life without her. Surely, it wouldn't be so hard to go back to that. To become the version of him that never knew her. The one who spent his days being competent and his nights with the hottest women in the city.
Except now he knew, and he'd never be able to forget. All these years before her were dry, completely tasteless. He'd spent so long going through the motions. He made his plans, he thought everything through, and he executed his vision perfectly. He thought that was all there was to life. He thought that surviving was the entirety of living. Then he met Emilia Day, and everything changed.
He didn't even know her name at first. He found it in her personnel file about a week after she started at Novatech. Emilia, who went by Em. Even on her application, she'd written 'Em'. Quentin had assumed that 'Emilia' was reserved for someone special.
Maybe if he hadn't taken so long to acknowledge his feelings, their relationship would be different. If he could have told her sooner that he wanted to be more than a hookup… She would have shut him out completely. She'd never been interested in a relationship, especially not with him. But maybe they would have ended it before he could fall this hard.
Quentin was not a weak man, not in any sense. Still, he felt completely helpless. He was never the kind to sit around worrying, though. When he had a problem, he took action. That was the only logical thing to do.
He had to talk to Em.