Page 108 of Toxic

And then I saw it.

The short colleague reached out and took Soren’s hand, their fingers intertwining. It wasn’t a friendly gesture—it was intimate.

My heart, which had been soaring like a bird toward the sun, suddenly plummeted. It was as if the ground beneath me had opened up and revealed an inferno of fire.

Soren had a new boyfriend!

I was too late. Stunned, I stared at their entwined hands.

Then, the short beta lifted Soren’s hand and kissed it—a quick, loving kiss. I almost gagged, realizing just how close their relationship already was. Could it be Liam? The guy he mentioned a few times as his best friend, who wanted Soren to fuck him?

And most importantly, had I already lost? From the start?

Maybe I never had a chance anyway, but since Winter had hired me, I’d started to cautiously hope I could work on one, and now?

No, no, no—I couldn’t give up. I pressed my lips together. Nothing was ever truly lost until Soren told me himself. People left each other at the altar, after all.

Still staring, I ate without a rush, not wanting to leave just yet, waiting until they finished their meal and left. Only then did I finally get up, moving slowly, and left the cafeteria.

My head was spinning with thoughts. This wasn't what I expected, even though my parents had warned me about this scenario. I should have known from the beginning that it was a very real possibility—Soren easily attracted attention. His looks and aura had an almost gravitational pull, at least for some people drawn to the bad-boy type. I’d known that for a long time.

Despite what I’d just seen, I firmly refused to give in to despair—not now, when I’d overcome the first hurdle and gotten into this company.

Determined, I slid into my car, pulled out my phone, and opened a web service that offered apartments for rent. I was up for the challenge.

SOREN

That morning, my head was hurting worse than usual. Liam was driving while I sat next to him, massaging my temples, feeling a sharp, throbbing pain.

"Director Nolan wants to talk to me," I muttered, without much enthusiasm, avoiding looking at Liam.

"I wonder why. There’s a rumor going around that they’re forming an additional team. Maybe they want you to join it?" Liam worked in a different department, handling database management, while I was in the mobile projects division directly under Manager Durden, with Director Nolan as head of the department. Still, Liam was always up to date on all the gossip.

Director Nolan oversaw a few different teams, including the graphics department and several specialized programming teams, each with its own manager. I’d also heard from a colleague that they were planning to form a new team by splitting off part of the one managed by my current supervisor, Durden, a perpetually dissatisfied, prickly omega. His team had gotten quite large after hiring additional people for the ByteBites project.

"Maybe, but what difference does it make? We're already embedded in the ByteBites project. I don’t think they’d reassignus to anything else. Everyone already has their roles; we're all in too deep," I replied, with more irritation than I intended, staring out the car window at the streets passing by. Suddenly, I felt Liam’s hand on my knee and flinched slightly.

"Hey, I was thinking about this weekend. What would you say to a trip to the beach? It’s September, but the weather’s still warm, and the water’s nice. We could swim and relax a bit."

I frowned, not really into the idea. I was black-haired but with very pale skin, so I hated intense sun. What was I supposed to say? I shrugged slightly. "If you want."

"But do you want to? Do you feel like going?" Liam asked cautiously.

"I don’t care. We can go or not," I grumbled, annoyed. For the past two weeks since Liam and I had officially started seeing each other, I’d been an unrepentant bitch. Liam had the patience of a saint to put up with me because I couldn’t stand my own behavior. I was constantly on edge or just checked out, avoiding eye contact and, as much as possible, refraining from touching him.

Liam pulled the car into the parking lot, and I jumped out with relief, glad to finally be in a more open space where his energy wasn’t suffocating me so much.

But I was wrong if I thought I could escape him. Liam quickly got out of the car and walked over to me, taking my hands in his, which made me clench my jaw tighter.

"Maybe the trip would help us relax for a bit. I know how you love swimming. We’ve had so much work these two months; it’d be nice to just chill."

"Fine, fine, we can go," I muttered, just to get him to let go. I didn’t want to yank my hands away. For the last few weeks, I’d made a real effort not to show how much I hated his touch and his closeness. "But I’ll sunburn!"

"I’ll put sunscreen on you…"

Gosh, another dreadful idea. I fought hard not to wince.

Liam stared at me for a moment. I forced myself to meet his gaze and finally managed a crooked smile. He immediately brightened up. God, this was hard. What had I gotten myself into? My damn life… I hated it six months ago, and now I hated it even more. Before, I was forcing myself to be in the Kingdom of Promises, and now I was forcing myself to be in a relationship with a person I wasn’t attracted to. When the hell would this torture end?

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