When yet another curveball puts Andy and Lex's relationship into serious jeopardy, the stakes become higher than they've ever been, forcing the couple to fight not only for their love but also for their lives.
• - • - • - • - • - • - • - •
Life see...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Going back to Kelex after so long being away felt strange. Since I was driving Lex's car, I got to park in his designated spot in the parking lot, which made me feel opulent. It would allow me to save some time since I didn't have to wait for the bus.
Somehow, my light and optimistic mood wasn't fading off. I had a great feeling about all this, and something in me was convinced Lex would be out soon.
Maybe it was some sort of coping mechanism, and my mind was fooling itself to protect me from further harm by being convinced we were out of the woods. But it didn't matter. I needed to feel like a winner, like everything was attainable, like we got this.
There was no one I knew in the elevator, but as soon as I stepped onto the Kelex floor, familiar faces greeted me. Given the situation, it wasn't hard for people to imagine why I'd been gone so long, and their supportive smiles full of kindness made me feel conflicted about the lie. Yes, I'd been in a bad place mentally, but I was so far from it now, I didn't feel worthy of their compassion.
But it made sense why they would show so much of it. In exactly a week, Lex would be on trial in front of the Grand Jury, all the way to Washington, DC. It was only normal they'd worry about me and want to be supportive. Kelex was very attentive when it came to their employee's wellness, and that spirit was everywhere.
On my way to the Lair, I was stopped a few times by people who wanted to check on me, and hoped I was doing better. Although I really was, I forced myself to remain grave. No matter how good I felt about the outcome of my enterprise, others couldn't see it. Now wasn't the time to raise suspicions.
When I entered the Troll's Lair, all the eyes converged on me. Everyone but Mason was here, and they stared at me in utter silence, unsure what to say. My gaze met Oli's, and he gave me a slight shrug, as lost as I was about what to do.
"I'm doing better, guys," I eventually said. "I just want to work to take my mind off it." They all nodded, ready to respect my wishes. "At this point, it's all out of my hands, and I'm just praying everything goes well once the trial starts. But working will distract me in the meantime."
I'd just finished when Mason entered the room. He spotted me, his eyes instantly locking on mine, and he rushed his way to me. Before I could say anything, his arms wrapped themselves around me, and he gave me a tight and intense hug.
"My curly little baby girl, I missed you so much," he let out, squishing me harder. He energetically moved away from me, holding my shoulders firmly, his gaze scanning mine. "Are you okay? Do you want tea? More hug? Food? To talk?"
His involvement in my mental health was touching, and I offered him an indulging smile. "As I was telling everyone when you got in, I'm doing better. I don't want to talk about it, I just want to work."
He gave me some sassy pout but didn't argue. "If you wanna talk, I'm here boo." I nodded, meaning it, and he released me so we could head to our desks.
I hadn't done anything for my sign language app in ages, and I was relatively excited to return to it. In my month-long absence, the guys had done so much. It was incredible. The feature wasn't perfect yet, but it worked for video calls as well now, which was particularly handy. A new beta 0.2 version was scheduled to come out in a few weeks, so our testers could experience the changes and give us any further pointers on how we could improve it further.
