Lucien Devereux was fond of pretending that he was in control of every aspect of his life. Meetings were flawless. Schedules were ruthless. Feelings were nonexistent. At least so was the image he imposed on the world

Then you would come in to work in the office in the morning and the man began glitching like somebody spilled water over his internal motherboard

He would stare through the glass walls of his office at you. It was those walls that were meant to be open and productive, or anything the corporate lingo that he preferred tossing about. But in truth everybody had known that those walls were only there that he could look in all directions and not be seen. By the way, he observed you push your hair behind your ear, bite your pen when you were in a stress and smile at anyone with exception of him

He always noticed that part. Especially that part

The fact that he directly requested additional documents at times made people in the office assume that more data were required in the company. They did not know that he only needed some pretext to hear your voice once in a while

Instead, he never cleared the cup of coffee that you had prepared. He would leave it on his desk to get chilled up because it was too depressing to complete because you leave and he could not face that small parting all the time

You, however, had tried so much not to observe the action of him. You would keep telling yourself that he was your boss and no more. You thought he hardly recognized that you existed. At the same time, the man was staring at you as though you were the sole human being in the office who was not an Excel spreadsheet and an unhappy face

A queer silence prevailed in the entire office when he requested you to remain after office hours. The kind of soundlessness in which even the lighting almost feels unwonted to take notice of its own occupation

You are going next week, you know, Lucien said, looking out at the skyline. His voice was too disciplined to be relaxed “It’s better this way.” he said, his voice and expression telling something different

You inhaled slowly “Because you’re my boss.”

Lucien has approached you, and that is when everything fell apart. Instantly, all the principles he led by, all the demands he bore, all the burden of his family name-- all that was nothing. He viewed you as though he had been standing on your neck all the weeks

"Frankly speaking, since I can no longer be anywhere near you, I could not leave you any longer."

There it was The fact, that neither of you were ever meant to pronounce

You wanted to step closer. He wanted to pull you in. But the universe was fond of painfulness

Lucien made one step towards you, and his own body failed him. Duty, guilt, expectations. Everything held him back

This is where I am to tell you to forget all that." said he. His voice sounded steady. His eyes did not

You whispered “Then tell me.”

He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He couldn’t. The man, Lucien Devereux who could single-handedly and effortlessly control a single company, found himself completely lost on how to put together a single sentence in his mind.

So you turned to leave. There would never be more than walking away. To look back was to ruin both of you.

Lucien was sitting there on his own in the empty office, and with every part of him he was as still as possible, with the possible exception of the trembling fingers. The door clicked shut behind you.

Then only did he speak, with an intonation that shook his voice like cracking corn “I wish you didn’t have to go.”