Meilei followed a fifth cart into the office in a dreamlike robotic state, eyeing up the piles amassing in one corner as they unstacked carts and left her with them. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume and defeated by doing something so mundane. She had no idea what she was meant to do with them all, and if more were to come, she knew that finishing this was not a one-day task. He made it clear she couldn’t leave until it was done, so he intended to have her work overtime. Looking at the boxes, she wondered if she would still be here when everyone started work again in the morning.
She would have to ask Suying or Ling to collect Yue from school, make her dinner, and tend to the bedtime routine. That fact riled up a severe internal lava in her soul, pulling a rage she hadn’t mustered in many years. Meilei’s temper snapped, and she kicked the corner of the nearest box with a sudden temper explosion that was unlike her. Hurting her toe in her sandal and flinched before hopping around and cursing him out.
Meilei sprawled out on the floor, sitting cross-legged amid a mess. Dropping the pile of papers in her hand and slumped, checking her watch and groaning at the late hour. It was after ten, the building almost empty with only sporadic lights left on, and she still had a full third of the boxes left to go. She was past the point of anger and resentment and resigned to getting this done. She had skipped lunch and dinner to plow through, but the floor still resembled some aftermath of a paperwork explosion.
Ling’s video call with Yue two hours before felt like days ago. Putting Yue to bed and saying goodnight via cell phone felt awful, and she almost broke down and cried when they disconnected. She missed her baby girl so badly that it physically hurt her heart, but she kept telling herself that this was a temporary thing to ensure her past would never touch Yue.
Yue had been asleep when she left for work this morning and would be asleep when she returned home. Her commute was now on the sub much earlier than driving in with Ling, so her wake-up time was over two hours earlier. If this continued, her only interaction with her child would be watching her sleep every night.
She had no doubts Kai would abuse the ability to force overtime on her as often as possible. She couldn’t refuse for fear of what he would do to Ling, her team, or Inhale, but it was the best way to hurt her. Losing time with Yue when she was this little was a sinful sentence.
Her stomach rumbled and gurgled, and she picked up her water bottle to try and calm it, eyeing up the endless sea of documents and hating him for doing this to her. Exhaustion weighed her down, and she had a slight headache brewing from overtiredness. She had no idea what most of these pages were, which seemed pointless. He didn’t need several years of old papers and documents to wade through when reshuffling OTS.
“You’re still here.” Kai’s snappy intrusion made her jump, and she scrambled off the floor in her ungraceful sitting position as he walked in. He had discarded his suit jacket and tie, and his shirt was slightly unbuttoned and now half concealed under a leather biker jacket more suited to the Kai she once knew, even though he still had suit pants on. It momentarily stunned her to see him this way. Causing pain in her chest that pushed her to look away from him.
“It was hardly a small task,” Meilei mumbled, glaring at his straight and tall figure once he had his back to her as he walked past and headed to his desk, leaning to pick up a few papers. He had a strong physique and the lifelong grace of a typical ‘bro.’ His mannerisms had always been very masculine, yet he seemed more casual and relaxed tonight than during the day. More fluid. Maybe it was the jacket or the alcohol she could smell coming from him.
Meilei was speechless even though, in her gut, she knew he would do something like this. She had just spent most of her day wading through this crap and missed Yue’s home time and bed routine, all for nothing. She wanted to stamp her foot and throw the nearest box at his head, but instead, she tried to cool the brewing internal rage, chewed on her lip to curb the urge to swear outright, and turned to scoop down to retrieve a handful. She tossed them into the box with obvious aggression, internally bubbling.
“Make me a coffee before you do that… I need to sober up a little.” Kai added in afterthought, even though he wasn’t all that drunk. He had only had a few drinks with the client at dinner, but it had been a long day, and he needed the caffeine boost.
Meilei clenched her jaw, dropped what she was holding, and straightened. She didn’t bother hiding her irritation and marched to the mini kitchen area in the far corner to slam canisters and cups around while making him coffee. Reminding herself that she wouldn’t argue when he ordered her to do something. She would do it and not let him see he was getting to her.
Meilei’s head almost snapped off with how she spun to stab him with visual daggers. Internal heat rose from the depths as her insides became a molten volcano close to eruption.
Slow-drip coffee required grinding, brewing, and waiting an age to watch it filter down into a cup. He was seriously driving her insane.
“Yes, Mr. Xuchen.” She replied haughtily and shoved the instant sachets aside with his almost done first cup. Rummaging for the tools to make him proper coffee the way Ling liked to drink it and mumbling a thousand insults at him under her breath. She just had to do these two things, and then she could leave. She kept reminding herself over and over.
Kai watched her angry little tantrummy motions as she aggressively set about the task and smiled to himself. He was getting a kick out of seeing her silent hatred, and after a long day of brutal clients, he needed a mood lightener. Nothing felt better than making her loathe him.
He turned his attention back to his cell and reread Anna’s message.
“Don’t work late. Go home and sleep. You looked tired all day, and I worry about you. You’re not Superman, and I want to see you make it to your next birthday.
Xxx”
Kai frowned and exhaled heavily, knowing he should respond. He had parted ways with her a half hour ago, telling her he needed to return to OTS. Anna was his friend, and he cared about her even if sometimes it didn’t seem like it.
She had been by his side in Yanhue for so many years, and they had a history going back to college. She was American and had followed him in his line of business, shared classes, and bonded. She was a permanent fixture in his life after she officially joined Yanhue around three years prior.
He had made the mistake of a drunken one-night stand with her while going through some of his darkest moments and regretted it as soon as he sobered up. He hadn’t wanted to lead her on or give her reason to think they would ever be more than they were now. That one night had been nothing to him, but it had been everything to her, and he still regretted how it changed their dynamic.
Minhui adored and trusted her and had convinced their parents that Anna was his future. His father had placed Anna in every project Kai headed, and for three years, she had been following him from city to city as he expanded Yanhue’s reach. His parents thought he was being stubborn and holding out because he was not yet thirty, but Kai had no interest in ever being tied to a single woman again. Marriage and kids were not in his plans.
“I’m fine. I know my own limits. X”
He replied, finally, knowing that sometimes he was too distant and cold with her when she had never done anything wrong, but he had no headspace to obsess about women. He was married to his job. He had his family to worry about, and his life had little room for anything else.
Meilei’s disgruntled noises drew his attention, and he glanced over to see her wresting with an unopened bag of coffee beans, slamming drawers to find scissors or a knife, and tugging the top of the pack in vain to tear it. She looked close to throwing it at him, and he frowned, irritated by her presence now he was here.
Kai got up and walked over to where she was losing a battle with a bag and reached over her shoulder to tug it out of her hand with force. Meilei didn’t expect him to come up at the back of her like a stealth puma stalking its dinner and yelped in fright at the sudden feeling of him, tossing the bag upwards in reaction so that even his grip couldn’t stop it.
It looped in mid-air and hit the floor with an ungracious splay of dried heaviness as they both leaned to grab it simultaneously. It was an instinctual reaction. Uncoordinated and bending to swipe the bag, two temples collided like being hard slapped by a book and knocked their heads painfully.
“Ow,’ Meilei recoiled with a wail, rubbing her head while Kai shot up in reactive anger.
Kai was momentarily stunned that she would have the nerve to retaliate, and his eyes flicked from one of her pupils to the other as his hostility grew. His temper grew like a black cloud of destruction, brewing serious turbulence.
Meilei didn’t know how to respond to the venomous words thrown in her face, so she pushed him back with both hands flat on his chest to get him out of her space. Her temper spike wasn’t enough to curb the tremble in her limbs or how intimidating he could grow in one click. Her fight quickly died, leaving that feisty show in the gutter.