Chapter 7

Jules slammed her office door shut and made a beeline for her desk, fingers already working the first two buttons of her shirt collar.

Gasping for air, she leaned into the desk, both hands placed on it as she tried to hold herself, staring at the desk like it held the answer to why her heart was racing.

“Oh god." She whispered, taking deep breaths like she'd been holding her breath—well, she was.

‘Thought it'll be that easy to get over him, didn't you?’ a voice in her head mocked.

“Three years should have been enough to get over him.” She muttered aloud. "I kept myself busy, didn't I? Distracted myself. So why the hell do I feel this way seeing him again?” She said to herself.

“Ma’am?"

Jules spun around, horror on her face at the fact that someone had caught her speaking to herself.

"What is it, Zee?” She calmly asked her blonde assistant who stood confused at the door.

Zee took cautious steps forward and stretched out the item in her hand. “You forgot your phone." She replied.

Jules just took it from her and circled to her chair behind the desk. “Thank you. You can leave." She sank into the chair.

Zee slightly tilted her head. “Ma’am, is everything alright?”

Jules paused for a while, then raised a brow. "Does anything look wrong to you?”

"No. I—I’m sorry." Zee stammered and quickly stepped out, shutting the door behind her.

As soon as she heard the door shut, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Just keep up the act, Jules. He shouldn't have an effect on you anymore. You're done with him, remember?" She pulled open the last drawer in the desk and pulled out a bottle of whiskey.

She uncocked it and poured a little into a shot glass, then gulped it immediately, wincing a little from the sting. But at least it calmed her down.

“Back to work." She whispered to herself and rolled her hair into a bun after shutting away the bottle, ignoring the voice in her head.

Few minutes later, a soft knock echoed through the room and as she lifted her eyes, an unfamiliar head popped through.

“Can I help you?" She asked, her brows raised.

Instead of an answer, the man walked into the room, holding the door open.

Nolan walked in.

Her breath caught. But she couldn't look away. It was too late.

“Can I help you?” she asked again, forcing her tone to remain even as he approached.

The other man left the room and shut the door.

“Jules." Nolan called. Her name rolled off his tongue like a memory.

A shiver ran down her spine, hearing him call her name. And to hide the panic on her face, she shifted her gaze to the pile of files on the desk and took out one.

"It's Juliette.” She corrected, her tone clipped.

Nolan ignored her correction and just studied her. She looked better than he imagined when he thought of seeing her again—incredible, strong. Collected. Stunning in a way that made him wonder what she'd been up to aside working her way to the top.

“Jules, we need to talk."

“About what?" She asked without lifting her eyes. “Is it your company? Anything we missed at the meeting?"

“You know what I mean,” he said, jaw tight

Jules paused and lifted her eyes to those blue eyes she had to remind herself to forget each time she stared at her son.

He looked good—too good, even after all these years.

Safe to say whoever he was with now was taking good care of him.

"If it's not professional. I don't want to hear it.” She finally replied.

Nolan swallowed, his mind racing, thinking of a way to get her attention. ‘She’s more stubborn than I expected,’ he thought, watching her scribble things on the file in front of her.

The strong familiar scent of his cologne clouded her senses as if fighting to overcome memory of how he'd humiliated her that reception night.

“I thought you should know I found out the truth." He finally said.

“What truth?” she asked, her voice flat.

“I’m not infertile. The tests—They were wrong. I was wrong.”

A wave crashed through her chest, but still, she didn't look up.

“Well, congrats then. You can have kids now.”

“Jules, stop it."

She looked up this time. And for a second, they were no longer CEO and tech tycoon—just two people with a thousand unsaid things between them.

He still looked like the man she once loved. Too much like him.

“What are you here for, Mr Cross?"

An awkward silence ensued after. A kind of silence none of them ever thought would occur when they were in the same room.

They felt like strangers on the surface. But yet, there was an undeniable familiarity that just wouldn't die.

Jules' fingers tightened around the pen, trying to hold the stare and shove down the feeling in her throat. “You think you can just walk in here and push words out of my mouth?” Her voice was unbelievably calm.

Nolan was quiet. He let her speak.

“It's been three years, Nolan.” She continued. "I've walked away from all that, as you can see. And I'm not willing to look that way again." She said with a note of finality.

For three years, she'd had to live with the memory of how he'd rejected her—the words he'd said to her and her unborn child in front of the entire world.

Now he thought he could walk into her office like he’d walked into her store years ago, and demand her audience.

She wasn't going to let that happen.

She turned back to her work, her voice becoming more serious than ever. “As you can see, sir. This is a professional space and I do not talk about things that don't add value to it.”

Nolan swallowed hard. Her words hurt. But what hurt most was the fact that he understood her anger.

He was foolish to have acted the way he did that night. He should have listened to Kai, he should have listened to her.

Now she wasn't going to make it easy to even speak with him like she did years ago.

But if she thought he was going to give up now after finding her again, then she didn't know him as well as she used to.

Not anymore.