Mateo’s POV

The conference room felt smaller every day.

For two weeks, Promise and Mateo met there daily, crafting projections that satisfied both Analytics and Development. They were professional. Cordial. They debated risk assessments and growth models with the same intensity they always had, except now the tension between them had a different quality, sharper, more dangerous, threaded through with sense memory.

Promise would reach for a file and his sleeve would brush Mateo’s arm. Their hands would touch over a spreadsheet. Their eyes would meet and hold a beat too long, and the air would thicken with everything they weren’t saying.

At night, they returned to their adjacent offices,...