Later that afternoon, the executive floor was practically a ghost town.
With Julian down in a legal briefing and no pressing files on my desk, I was reduced to mindlessly organizing my digital folders just to look busy.
The quiet archive room from lunch was still lingering in the back of my mind, but the absolute stillness of my desk was making the hours stretch like molasses.
I was in the middle of renaming a spreadsheet when my phone buzzed on the blotter.
A video call.
William.
A bright flare of excitement chased away all my boredom.
I quickly reached into my drawer, popped my AirPods into my ears, and propped the phone up against my desk organizer before hitting answer.
When the screen cleared, I blinked in surprise.
Instead of the familiar, crisp white walls of his luxury hotel suite, the background was a dizzying expanse of soaring glass ceilings, indoor palm trees, and opulent, gold-trimmed storefronts.
