Page 112 of Toxic

The consequences.

Maybe I was too flippant in rejecting the idea of moving Skye to another department?

I was in a relationship with Liam now, trying to work on myself, trying to pull myself out of the misery and depression I’d been stuck in for the past two months. Yes, I admit, without any success—but I believed that eventually, I’d get out of it. Somehow? Someday?

But now, with Skye around, there was no chance of that. Yup.

The apocalypse was upon us.

Sooner or later, Skye would find out that I was with Liam. What would he think? What if he had read those emails and finally felt ready to meet me, maybe try to repair our relationship? But I was already with someone else—it would probably look strange to him that I'd moved on so quickly. But what could I do now? What happened, happened.

A whirlwind of anxious thoughts surrounded me, pulling me apart, tearing me to pieces as my head spun. I leaned back against the wall, trying to steady myself with deep breaths. This had to be an anxiety attack.

Shivering, I breathed and breathed, desperately trying to get some air, trying to pull myself out of it. I couldn’t move, paralyzed, standing there still as the minutes passed. I couldn’t even feel happy about seeing Skye again. To be honest, I wasscared—but for some reason, I was also hard. I had no idea how that was even possible!

SKYE

The fact that Soren fainted when he saw me told me more than he probably wanted to reveal. I knew he still felt something for me; otherwise, he wouldn’t have reacted like that. It must have been a huge shock if he actually passed out. But what did that mean for me, for us?

I had only been working at the company for a few days, and now we were going to be on the same team, with him as my boss. It was a recipe for disaster, but what could I do? I had to stay professional; I couldn’t just fall in front of him and confess my feelings.

Everything had to happen gradually, naturally. Maybe I had to earn his trust again, maybe I needed to work my way back into his life. I was ready for that, to fight for him, even against that beta he seemed to be with now. I was determined, but I also knew I had to be extremely cautious.

Above all, I should avoid talking to him because that could trigger a cascade of unpredicted, intense emotions, grievances, and who knows what else—totally unexplored territory.

During this week, I got lucky and managed to quickly rent a small studio apartment close to the company building. I could get there in just five minutes. I was working half my hours forNathaniel like before, and between 9 am and 1 pm, I was an intern for DevApp. I stayed in the office for the whole workday like everyone else, but Winter allowed me to work four hours for them and the remaining four for Nathaniel.

This arrangement suited me. During that first week, I was given very simple tasks to familiarize myself with how the company operated, and now I was going to be assigned to a project that Soren had been working on for a while—a large application for the ByteBites company.

I felt a mix of excitement and stress, completely different emotions from the ones I’d experienced over the last few months while staying at my parents' house. My nervous system seemed almost overloaded by the intensity and abundance of all these new stimuli. I couldn’t even say I was particularly happy because there were just too many mixed feelings that I wasn’t able to separate from the overall turmoil reigning in me. I was filled with both fears and hopes.

That day, I sat at my desk, staring at my screen, struggling to focus. Maybe Winter was right to be worried that it would be hard to keep personal issues separate from work? I forced myself to concentrate for almost an hour. For some reason, when lunchtime came, I decided to head down at the same time I had seen Soren there previously with his… freaking new boyfriend.

This time, though, I got another shock.

I went to the cafeteria and found a secluded table. I saw Soren and that little beta guy enter, and they immediately started looking around. Soren, without much subtlety, pointed me out. The little beta locked eyes with me. I didn’t look away—our gazes firmly met. They both went to the line and eventually stopped glancing at me. I could see they were discussing something, but even from that distance, I could tell the conversation was tense.

They grabbed their trays and found a table, thankfully at a good distance from me. Still, if I sat up straight, I could see them. They kept talking and didn’t look my way.

After a while, it seemed like their argument got more intense. The little beta raised both hands and started gesturing wildly. Suddenly, he stood up. Soren rose too and grabbed his hand, like he was trying to stop him, but the beta pulled away and said something loudly—though I couldn’t hear it from where I was.

The beta turned away from Soren and started walking—right toward me!

I froze.

Oh, wow.

A confrontation?

I hadn’t expected this, wasn’t prepared for it. I was always terrible at improvising, usually letting my emotions do the talking for me.

The guy came over and stopped in front of me. After a moment’s hesitation, he sat down, staring intensely right at me.

"I’m Liam," he said.

I didn't answer. I had already guessed that. I just watched him in silence, quite intensely—that's for sure, trying to gauge what Soren might find attractive in him.

The guy was really unassuming, the kind of person you’d have to look at twice, maybe even three times, to notice at all. His face was very… normal—neither ugly nor handsome, just unremarkable. He had straight, strawberry-blonde hair that hung in loose strands around his face, almost reaching his shoulders. He also wore glasses that hid his pale eyes, which I would describe as the color of cappuccino. His eyebrows and lashes were light, similar to Winter’s, but with more of a reddish-blond shade. His nose was slightly upturned, which some might find cute, but also a bit childlike. His lips were small, delicate,and light pink, which only added to the impression that he was very young. He didn’t seem twenty-two—more like eighteen. Freckles were scattered across his cheeks and nose like tiny golden dots.

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