Chapter 1 The New Guy
BETWEEN THE GLANCES
A novel by Elyrienne_02
Chapter One — The New Guy
I’d been working at Lumen Creative long enough to know that the office had its own ecosystem.
There were the people who arrived ten minutes early with coffee in their hands.
The ones who lived on deadlines.
The ones who somehow knew everyone’s business.
And then there were my friends—the people who made the long working days bearable.
I had never been interested in mixing my personal life with my work life.
Especially not romance.
I’d seen what happened when coworkers got involved.
One person told another.
Another person added something.
And before you knew it, an innocent conversation had become an office-wide love story that neither person had agreed to star in.
No, thank you.
My workplace was going to remain exactly that.
A workplace.
So when my friends started talking about the new employee joining one of the other teams, I barely looked up from my laptop.
“Apparently he’s really handsome.”
“Like, seriously handsome.”
“I’ve already seen his picture.”
Someone laughed.
“You’re all impossible.”
I kept typing.
“What’s his name?”
“Zee.”
I nodded absentmindedly.
“Okay.”
My friend stared at me.
“That’s all?”
“What else am I supposed to say?”
“You’re not curious?”
“No.”
That was a lie.
Not a complete one.
I simply wasn’t curious enough to care.
Until later that afternoon.
I was walking back toward the main office when I saw someone standing near the entrance.
Tall.
Calm.
Talking to one of the managers.
I slowed for half a second.
Oh.
So that was Zee.
He had the kind of presence that made people notice him without him seeming to ask for attention. He smiled easily, spoke politely, and carried an almost golden-retriever kind of energy when he was around people he knew.
The first thing I noticed was his face. His eyes had long eyelashes and a strange little spark in them, the kind that made it difficult not to look twice. His face was rounder than I expected, with full lips that somehow made his smile even more noticeable.
He looked exactly like the kind of person my friends would spend an entire lunch break discussing.
Unfortunately, I understood why.
I looked away almost immediately.
Handsome? Sure.
Interesting? Maybe.
Relevant to my life? Absolutely not.
I walked past him and went back to my desk.
And that should have been the end of it.
Over the next few weeks, Zee slowly became part of the office.
Not mine, exactly.
But our larger circle.
He’d join everyone for lunch.
Someone would drag him into a coffee run.
There would be jokes, teasing, random conversations and the occasional after-work plan.
I was around for most of it.
But I never made an effort to get particularly close to him.
Not because I disliked him.
I didn’t.
If anything, I found him easy to be around.
But I had rules.
And I liked my rules.
I didn’t flirt with coworkers.
I didn’t encourage unnecessary attention.
And I definitely wasn’t going to give the office something to gossip about.
So, while some of the girls in our group became comfortable enough to tease Zee constantly, I remained mostly an observer.
Sometimes I’d catch him looking at me.
Sometimes our eyes would meet across the room, and I’d be the first one to look away.
I told myself it meant nothing.
It was nothing.
At least, that’s what I told myself.
Our conversations were ordinary.
Work.
Friends.
Food.
Weekend plans.
Nothing that could possibly mean anything.
We were simply two people who happened to work in the same building.
Until my brain decided to ruin that perfectly uncomplicated arrangement.
