𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐜𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫

Charlie Huntington

Charlie's head pounded with every tap on his keyboard. The more he stared at the monitors in front of him, the more his eyes strained. The pieces of scattered code all over the software he was trying to figure out for hours and hours on end were sincerely messing up his sleep schedule.

"Charlie?"

Charlie swivelled in his chair at the sound of his name. And ah, there she stood, making her way over to him. Many of the people in the agency wore dark clothes and serious business attire, people on the tech floor were able to go a little more casual but still keep it professional. But not Giselle, no. She mainly mixed her simple neutral colours with pastels and flowy skirts that reached her ankles. Sometimes she had a blouse that brought out the pink in her cheeks, sometimes she had a sweater draped over her delicate shoulders. She was truly a sight-

"Charlie?" She was standing almost completely in front of him, holding out a blue folder with a serious, inexpressive face. "Are you okay?"

"I'm alright," he cleared his throat. He quickly sat a little taller, repositioning himself behind his monitors again. He felt a pit of guilt as he could no longer look her directly at her when she spoke to him.

He wanted to see her smile again, to laugh and joke around like she used to during missions. Now everything had become stiff and awkward, and he knew that was all because of what he said at the banquet those many months ago.

"Benson sent these our way. It looks like it's true what they say, Las Vegas is the city that never sleeps," her voice was soft, as usual. Charlie easily felt his headache had relaxed a little bit.

Yeah, neither can I these last few days.

She placed the folder beside his forearm on the table and left without another word. Charlie didn't look up from the monitors to see her go once again.

In all honesty, Charlie was tired in all aspects; physically, mentally and emotionally. The mounds of work had been only increasing with the new software in the agency.

That also didn't help the fact that he was trying to go through a new chapter in his life with nobody there by his side.

The idea of going to church had never startled him, yet he was never able to get the right motivation to go to a service in the past few months. He had a Bible, the faux-leather cover was almost wrinkled with how much it had been worn out. The spine of the book had completely cracked from when he was consistently reading it. Some of the pages were torn from the past aggressive flips of the pages and in certain spots the printed ink began to fade from the annotations and left over fingerprints.

Now that Bible was getting back into its good use. Charlie felt a yearning in his heart for something that no human on earth could give to him; whether that'd be salvation, mercy, or forgiveness. Or the generous blood of his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

When he wasn't at work 24/7, he was back in his small New York apartment soaking up new scriptures and highlighting verses. He tried using prayer as a weapon and talked to God as if He were his best friend.

Yet he still felt lonely. Something was missing. Something was still hurting. He still struggled some days, waiting for this sense of regret and burden to be lifted off of his shoulders.

But he didn't know what to do about it or when it would go away.

Giselle Daniels

Giselle's footsteps pounded on the floor, her heels clicking which gave her a sensational feeling. She liked feeling the pound in her heels with every step she took. It helped take the pressure off of her chest. As she continued through the rest of the floor all she could think about is how much farther she was getting from that one single person. The person who seems to never leave her head.

She couldn't stand it.

Something had changed in Giselle. She knew it had everything to do from that singular moment at the banquet. It changed her perspective in many ways, and it was a situation that she could never stop thinking about. Even though the more she did, the more it hurt.

When two people go through something, one of them shouldn't walk away. Giselle thought it was unfair, it might have been silly for her to think that way, but it was the truth. Although, she wasn't the only person that was going through something difficult at the moment.

Vanessa was forcefully tiring herself for no clear reason and Matthew was overworked from the dependency of running the agency, though he was doing a great job. Giselle tried her hardest to keep herself from focusing on the matter laying in her own hands, the act of selflessness growing upon her - though her thoughts and daydreams were unavoidable. She knew she was hurt, and she was starting to feel numb.

On top of everything else, she can't seem to go a single day in the workplace without seeing the face that makes her stomach turn for multiple reasons. In every passing minute that she has to interact with him there's a sense to run away and make sure she doesn't make things more awkward than they already are.

Were there still feelings for him? Maybe. But they were undecided half the time. There were moments where she would look over the mound of desks throughout the floor and spot him half asleep trying to code. She couldn't help but feel a certain type of deep connection with him, an urge to want more, but it was useless to think that way. He told her he didn't want anything more, and she just had to remember that.

Moving on is way too hard.

But of course making sure work was the priority was always the thing that stripped her away from her dreamy 'what if?' moments. There was work to be done, and with tension high on the tech floor, Giselle had to make sure she wasn't distracted.

She had a feeling the waters were about to be stirred anyways. There was a bright stack of folders in the colour of blue that needed to be delivered to a specific team.

A team of people who needed a distraction right about now.

A/N

And what shall this distraction be this time? 🤭