Captive in Plain Sight

Douazecisitrei || Territory

She wanted to punch him in the face.

"No matter where I go, you seem to follow." he said, looking just as displeased to see her.

It could have been his dismissive attitude, or persistence in ignoring her, but Mila made the decision to not back down. She wasn't bending to any man if she didn't have to.

"Looks like we'll have to share." she said indignantly, sitting her things down and planting herself in the space across from him. 

At first, Daniel looked like he wanted to object, but he continued reading and paying her no attention. She followed suit, working next to him without a sound.

Daniel, however, periodically sighed in frustration, ruffling his free hand through his hair. She could only ignore it for so long.

"I'm having trouble concentrating." she said.

"I'm sorry you're having a hard time." he said flatly. "Maybe you should find a quieter place to work."

"I don't want to find another place." she said. "This is the only time of day I have to myself, and I would like to spend it here. Not the desk I'll be glued to for the next 8 hours."

After work she had to go to Salva's and fulfill her duties as model for his exhibition, whatever that meant, so it was going to be a long day.

Daniel stopped what he was doing and straightened his glasses. Mila had never seen glasses look so well-suited to a man. The only comparison she had was Clark Kent, and appearance-wise, she'd always liked Kent more than Superman.

"This has been my area every morning for the past few years and I've never had a problem until you came along." he said.

Right, technically she was the intruder.

At this point, they were at an impasse, so she leaned closer to see what was making him sigh so much. It was a page riddled with marks in red pen.

"Press release?" she asked.

He moved it further away to block her from seeing, but she already caught a glimpse.

"Sung Han honored with benchmark international humanitarian award." she read out loud.

"Wow!" she moved closer. "This is a huge deal! Don't they only give out one of these every couple years?"

"This is proprietary information, so please don't repeat it." he said. "And it's every three years."

She rolled her eyes. "I've already seen it, so you might as well let me help."

He didn't budge.

"Just from a glance, I can see the title of the award needs to either be in quotes or italicized." she said. "And 'United States' needs to be abbreviated with a period between the 'U' and the 'S.'

He looked at her perplexed.

"May I?" she asked.

Reluctantly, he handed over the release. Cockily, she held out her other hand, and he gave her his red pen as well. After ten minutes or so, she'd read through it and marked changes he'd missed. There were many.

"Thank you." he said, sounding grateful. "How are you so... good at this?"

"You're welcome." she said. "I learned this type of technical writing in grad school. I'm happy to look over anything if you want another set of eyes."

"I might just take you up on that." he replied.

"Daniel, may I ask you a question?"

"Of course." he said.

"Did you draft this release yourself?"

"I did."

"Why are you writing a press release with little knowledge of AP style?" Mila knew from experience the type of work Daniel was doing was meant for someone much more qualified. Even more qualified than her.

"Why is someone with a master's degree picking up my uncle's dry cleaning and lunch orders?" he countered.

Touché. She would have had a solid reply or comeback if he hadn't caught her off guard. She could have lied and given him the same answer she gave his uncle during her interview, but something made her not want to lie to him. Instead, she said nothing and shrugged it off.

They'd taken a few steps back, and were really at an impasse now. Trying to figure out how to proceed with the conversation was more work than it was worth.

Daniel started to say something, but Mila stopped him.

"How about a schedule." she said. "What if I take the nook from 6:30 to 7:00 in the morning, and you can have it after? Sound good?"

"I guess that works." he said.

"Good." she said, happy to resolve it. She picked up her now lukewarm coffee and left to start her day.

She could see right through Daniel. He used his standoffish and reserved demeanor to hide the fact that he's a nice guy. Despite the way their conversation ended, she still enjoyed their interaction. It was fun going toe-to-toe with someone and getting her way for once. So-much-so, she was still smiling about it a good while after—The anxious thoughts from earlier taking a back seat.

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