Thinking of Cadence, Aaron decided he should let her know that she could come back into their shared office now. He sent her a quick IAC message to tell her that Ashley was gone and then sat down at his desk, waiting to see if she was coming back before he headed over to the table of doom. Thoughts of losing himself in that mound of data again made his stomach churn and his head ache.

“I’ll be there in a few,” Cadence replied, and Aaron decided he shouldn’t sink himself back into the project until after he had a chance to talk to her since she would undoubtedly want...