Morning at work.
Neville felt sothing was wrong the mont he stepped out of the anti-grav lift.
Not wrong like the normal workplace chaos, but wrong in the way that a room full of people who were clearly talking three seconds ago suddenly beca silent.
These people turned their heads at the sa ti. He could feel dozens of pairs of eyes tracking him as he crossed the lobby. He even saw a woman from the logistics departnt actually nudging her colleague and pointing with her chin.
He blinked twice before picking up his pace. He headed straight for the secretarial departnt, keeping his expression neutral while he internally scread.
He didn’t even make it through the door when Sarah hit him like a guided missile.
She appeared out of nowhere and grabbed both of his arms. She hauled him sideways into the break area with a strength that was frankly alarming. It made him beco conscious that Sarah was also an alpha.
"Hope."
"Good morning to you too, Sarah—"
"Don’t you ’good morning’ !" Her eyes went wide, her floral pheromones spiked with excitent, filling the area. "Why didn’t you tell ?!"
Neville’s brain ran through possible interpretations of this question and carefully asked, "Tell you... What, exactly?"
Sarah looked at him as though he had asked what color the sky was.
"That you and Mr. Maxwell—!"
She made a sweeping gesture, and several things that he didn’t quite understand, but still tried to understand sohow.
"You and him! Together! Dating!"
Oh, so that’s—wait, huh?
The blood drained from Neville’s face so quickly that he felt lightheaded.
"H-how did y-you—" he stuttered as he asked.
"How did I find out?" Sarah’s grin turned feral. "Hope. Sweetheart. Everyone knows."
"What do you an, everyone—"
"I an, everyone. The whole company. Half the planet, probably. Most likely, also half the universe."
Looking at Neville’s disbelief expression, Sarah simply activated her light brain. The holographic display blooming between them, and flicked through several tabs. Even so, she found what she was looking for pretty quickly.
"It’s all over StarNet." She angled the display toward him. "Look. It’s your date."
He saw the headline first. It was bold and even shaless:
BACHELOR NO MORE? Maxwell Corporation CEO Grayson Maxwell Spotted With Mystery Companion at Xylos Aquarium — EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS
Below it, a series of images of Grayson and his back.
They were walking side by side through the dim blue corridors of the aquarium. Their silhouettes against the massive tank of bioluminescent jellyfish.
And the one that made his stomach drop was the one that had their hands caught, clearly intertwined, from around thirty ters away.
There was no way to explain that one otherwise.
The photos were everywhere. The original post had been shared and reposted thousands of tis. Comnts flooded in an endless scroll of speculation, excitent, and possessive fury.
"WHO IS HE??? Drop the na NOW."
"Grayson Maxwell really went and fell in love before . I can’t breathe."
"Who is that?? He looks so good! Is he an artist?"
"He looks so small next to him, aklsdjfksd my heart."
"If he hurts our Gray, I will personally launch myself into the stars."
Neville felt cold sweat trace a deliberate line down his spine.
Back on Earth, he had been a normal person. So, getting this much attention for just holding hands with soone was really overwhelming.
To be fair, Grayson wasn’t even a person in the entertainnt industry. So, he thought that he would only deal with rich people, the likes and their enemies. But now, it seed that public judgnt was even inevitable.
"If Grayson has sasaeng fans..." he muttered, more to himself than to Sarah, "I’m glad he gave that gun."
"What?"
"Nothing." He closed his eyes and sighed. "Sarah, I—"
Sarah interrupted him and clasped his hands.
"You don’t have to explain anything. Holding hands in public like a couple of lovestruck teenagers..." Sarah was practically vibrating. "Ah~ you two look incredible together. That picture—"
Actually, Neville also thought that they really looked good together in that picture. But he absolutely could not say that out loud. Nope.
"I— it’s fine," he managed to say, not realizing the faint blush on his cheeks.
For a mont, Sarah’s warm gaze on him dimd. She murmured to herself, "...soone’s not going to like this."
Neville frowned and asked, "Who?"
But Sarah just shook her head, the darkness clearing as quickly as it had co.
She patted his shoulder twice and straightened up. "Anyway. The boss has been waiting for you. He said he needed to talk about sothing."
"About the articles?"
"Probably." She gave him a gentle push toward the door. "And Hope?"
He looked back.
She grinned. "Congratulations."
Neville felt the sincerity, but he also saw that it didn’t reach her eyes.
Seeing that he was still standing there frozen, Sarah waved goodbye as she urged him to go.
"Go on." She said.
Neville nodded in confusion and went his way.
○●○●
Neville knocked twice and entered on the second. But hearing the noise, he didn’t greet out loud and just entered. He was about to walk to his table when he stopped mid-turn.
Grayson was standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, his back half-turned, one hand resting on the edge of his desk.
A three-dinsional holographic display hovered before him, projecting the sharp, high-definition image of a woman who resembled Grayson a lot but with an expression that was about four hundred percent warr.
Gloria was beaming as she continued to talk.
[—and I told Thiago this morning, I said, ’Thiago, did you see the news?’ and he said ’Mom, it’s six in the morning,’ and I said, ’I don’t care what ti it is, my son is finally in love—’]
"Mother." Grayson’s voice was strained with patience. "I told you, the photos were taken without—"
[Without permission, yes, yes, very concerning, I’ve already contacted the legal departnt. But Eason.] Gloria’s eyes sparkled. Her holographic hand pressed against her chest. [You were holding hands. In public. My son, who once told a journalist that his ideal partner was ’irrelevant to the interview,’ was holding soone’s hand in an aquarium—]
Grayson pursed his lips a little.
It seed that Gloria had been going on and on about this without a break, and Grayson was already losing it.
That was the mont when he spotted Neville a few ters away. The mont their eyes t, sothing changed in his expression.
"Neville’s here," he said.
Neville completely froze.
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