*chapter song included*
Sereia's POV
"I'm sorry but you can't enter," the new security of the building told me. "If you don't have access, you can't enter."
"I just need to speak with Elliot," I told him. "I'll be in and out before you know it."
"If the big man finds out that I let you in to see him without access, we're both in trouble."
I sighed out of frustration. I've been trying to get him to let me pass for the past five minutes.
"Do you know who she is?" I heard a familiar voice ask him. "She was the former director of this company."
I turned to see Hana glaring at the security. "How dare you try to embarrass royalty like that? Let her in."
"But she doesn't have access-"
"I will take the blame if she gets in trouble," she told him before she swiped her card and dragged me along with her.
"Hana," I said her name, feeling quite embarrassed, as we walked to the employee elevator. "Thank you."
When we reached the long line to use the elevator, she finally hugged me.
"How have you been?" she asked. "Where have you been?"
I smiled as we released from our hug. "I'm good. I've moved to Maine."
"Wow, that's great Sereia," she smiled back.
"How are you doing?" I asked and she shrugged.
"You know the usual," she said. "Still holding people's piss for them."
The elevator doors opened and a good amount of people got in.
"Well, nothing lasts forever," I tried to comfort her.
She laughed. "I hope not. Why are you here though?"
"I just came to say hello to the big man since I'm in town."
She stayed quiet as she fell into deep thoughts.
"Hey, Sereia," she started. "I hope you don't take offence to me asking this and you don't have to answer if you don't want to."
"What do you have to ask?"
She hesitated at first. "By any chance, did you and Mr. Harrington have a thing?"
My heart started to bang against my chest. "Why would you think that?"
"It's just since you've left, he's been acting a little unhinged and meaner to everyone," she explained. "People say he must be grieving from his divorce, but I don't believe it."
"He stares at your office all the time," she said. "Even when the new director isn't there and I can see the hurt plastered all over his face."
"And he's always treated you differently from the others," she added. "Especially when he made me sign an NDA about your drug tests. Normally, he wouldn't do that. I just figured that he didn't want people to know he allowed a drug addict to be the director."
I cleared my throat uncomfortably. "Yes, we did have something, but it's over now."
I won't lie to her.
"Then why are you here?"
Why am I here?
I stayed quiet as the elevator doors opened and we finally got to enter.
She didn't try to press me on the matter, considering that the elevator was full of staff.
"Well, this is my floor," she said as we stopped on the 30th floor. "It was nice seeing you again Sereia."
We hugged before the elevator continued to the top floor.
Suddenly, a wave of nervousness washed over me, and my fingers began to fidget uncontrollably.
This would be our first time seeing each other in two months.
I don't know how he will react, especially after everything that happened between us.
I slammed the door in his face for crying out loud.
The elevator doors opened and when I stepped out, all eyes were on me.
I could hear the gasps and the immediate chatter as I made my way to his office.
His assistant wasn't at her desk, which only heightened my anxiety.
I paused, taking a deep breath to steady myself, and then knocked before slowly pushing the door open.
The moment I saw him, my heart ached with a painful familiarity.
He was sitting at his desk, looking down, completely unaware of my presence.
My heart ached at the sight of himâshoulders slightly hunched, lost in thought.
The familiar weight of everything I had tried to forget in the past two months came crashing down on me.
I had prepared myself for this moment, but seeing him like this, so distant and unaware, made it hurt even more.
I cleared my throat.
"I said no visitors," he angrily growled, still looking down.
The cold aura around him struck me.
"Even me?" I asked, trying to force a smile.
Suddenly his whole body stiffened before he looked up at me.
His face remained unreadable. His eyes didn't widen, his lips didn't smile or frown. He didn't even blink.
He didn't want to see him.
"This was a mistake," I said as I quickly turned around. "I'm sorry."
"Wait," his voice stopped me just when I was about to turn the doorknob.
I turned around to see him standing behind up and beginning to walk towards me.
"I'm sorry," I told him as tears of guilt escaped me. "I'm sorry that I left without saying goodbye, I'm sorry that I slammed the door in your face, I'm sorry that I held you back-"
He immediately wrapped his hands around me and pulled me into his chest.
"I'm sorry," I cried to him as I leaned into him and wrapped my hands around his waist.
"I've missed you so much," he said as he squeezed me so tight that I began to suffocate.
"Too tight," I struggled to say and he immediately loosened his grip.
"I'm sorry," he apologized, not wanting to let me go. "I've just wanted to hug you for a very long time."
"I just came to say I'm sorry," I told him and he immediately let me go. "I'll go now, you seem busy."
"Why?" he asked. "Why did you leave me? Why are you leaving me again?"
"Elliot, I'm no good for you," I told him. "Look at how well you're doing without me."
"Well?" he asked. "I can't tell the last time I was well. Every day I feel sick to my stomach because you're not here with me."
"There hasn't been a single moment in two months where I don't think of you. You torture my every thought. I can't even get to sleep because you appear there too."
"Your annoying absence maddens me," he said. "I'm going insane because I can't get you out of my head while you're living your best life without me."
"How can you enjoy life knowing that you took my heart and ran away with it?"
"Elliot, I'm sorry," I answered softly as I held back my tears. "This is what's best for you. I'll only cause trouble."
He glared at me. "Who the hell are you to say what's best for me? You think torturing me is best for me?"
I stayed quiet as I watched him.
"Tell me Sereia," he said. "Tell me again that it was all fake and that you don't feel anything towards me."
I can't.
"Tell me!" he shouted.
I began to cry again. "I'm sorry."
"I know I've embarrassed you and made you feel like you were not worth it, but it's far from the truth," he said. "I love you and you mean the world to me. No amount of money or success will ever make me forget about you."
"Tell me that you don't love me," he requested and I bit my lips as my tears flowed. "Tell me."
"I don't-" I choked back the lie I was going to tell.
I don't want to lie to him again.
"I can't say that," I shamefully said.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Because it would be a lie," I told him. "I don't want to lie to you again, Elliot."
"Well, tell me the truth," he begged me, his eyes soft and his face full of hurt.
"I love you, Elliot, and I want to be with you," I told him. "I want to be the woman you wake up to every morning, the one you tell jokes to, and share your secret culinary skills with."
"I want to work with you again and kiss you until my lips become swollen," I admitted. "But I shouldn't. All I've done is lie to you and play you."
"I forgive you," he said as his gentle hands held my face. "Please stop pushing me away and denying happiness with me. Give us a chance. You're the only woman I can ever see myself with."
As he spoke, I closed my eyes, overwhelmed by a painful conflict within me.
It was a deep ache, born from my desire to agree with him, to embrace the possibility of a future together.
Yet, alongside that yearning was the painful truth that I knew deep down: I wasn't right for him.
No matter how much I wished it could be otherwise, the realization settled heavily in my chest, making the moment feel like a bittersweet betrayal to both of our hearts.
It was a war of hearts.
I felt his lips give me a quick peck. "Let yourself be happy for once."
A tear escaped my closed eyes when his lips left mine.
I knew that I wanted him more than anything.
The temptation was killing me.
I couldn't hold myself back anymore.
The yearning was too strong to ignore; my heart knew what it wanted, and it was him.
I love him and I want to be with him.
I wiped away my tears as I opened my eyes to see him patiently waiting on my answer.
"Let's be happy together," I smiled and his face instantly lit up. "I love you, Elliot."
"I love you too, Sereia," he responded, his voice thick with emotion.
He took a step closer, closing the distance between us.
Slowly, almost reverently, he leaned in. Our lips met in a long-awaited kiss, tender and full of unspoken promises.
It was a kiss that spoke of all the moments we'd missed, all the pain we'd endured, and the hope for a future built together.