“Excuse me?” Reyes raised an eyebrow, his voice low and measured, but the steel in it was unmistakable. He had always prided himself on maintaining a professional demeanor, but Christine’s audacity had caught him off guard. “You think I’m rude?”

Christine, her arms crossed defiantly, met his gaze without flinching. “If I had known the CEO of Fortune Productions was this rude, I wouldn’t have accepted the job,” she shot back. The words hung in the air, heavy and charged, as a few nearby employees paused in their work, their eyes darting between the two.

Reyes felt a surge of anger rise within him, but he quickly tempered it. He...