There was no blaze behind her green irises this time.
Her shoulders were slumped.
Her gaze was lifeless.
There were coffee stains on the shoes she loved so much.
What could have happened in the two hours since Rynar had last seen her?
“Is everything alright?” he asked hesitantly, his own problems forgotten.
“No,” she said, voice hollow. “Everything is a mess.”
Even before she finished speaking, Rynar was in front of her. His arms twitched as he fought the instinct to place them on her shoulders. That was extremely unprofessional–just like what he wanted to propose to her.
But he hated seeing her like this. Sad. Defeated. A weird urge started to rumble inside him. Rynar couldn’t recognize it.
“I don’t know how to fix it,” she went on, as if talking to herself. She hadn’t even looked at him yet.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked.
That seemed to bring her back to reality. Alissia shook her head and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they looked determined. Guarded.
She huffed a sad laugh. “I asked something similar only a few minutes ago. I appreciate it, but you can’t help.Ican’t even help him.”
“Who’s him?” Rynar rumbled.
“Damian.”
Ah, her brother. All Rynar knew about him was that Alissia was very proud of him.
“Is he…well?” he asked.
“He’s…” Alissia hesitated. She shook her head and closed her eyes again. A sigh later, she looked up at Rynar. This time, her shoulders were straighter, as if she was slowly regaining her vigor. But she still seemed on edge. “That’s personal. Now, what did you want to ask me?”
It was Rynar’s turn to hesitate. His mouth turned dry and his brain seemed to liquefy into a puddle devoid of logic.
Nines-damn it.
Rynar was the best lawyer at Alien Inc. That meant he was the best Deruzian lawyer on Earth.
He’d faced generals, directors, and the fiercest prosecutors.
Before he called Alissia, he’d prepared arguments. Had half-drafted the contractandrevised his proposition speech three times.
But looking into Alissia’s eyes, all of his experience, all of the reasoning, all of the negotiating vanished from his mind, replaced with a single phrase.
“Will you marry me?”
5
ALISSIA
“Sure, how about next Thursday? We have the meeting on Wednesday,” Alissia said, completely nonplussed.
She usually got Rynar’s jokes. She reallylikedhis jokes, in fact. But this one didn’t quite land. Maybe it was because her mind was racing at a million miles per hour, trying to come up with ways to pay Damian’s tuition.
Rynar was probably trying to snap her out of this state. Lily had also noticed Alissia seemed off when she’d passed her desk; she’d promised her they’d talk later.
