Val moved to sit, locking gazes with the woman from before, and for those two slow beats of her heart, Val let every raw and explosive emotion and instinct she felt toward the woman flood into her bright brown eyes, smoldering in the carefully curated lighting of Butterworth’s. Breath, hands, nails, hints of teeth, the sound of sharp gasps and sharper screams.

A single beat, and it was sales projections vs. stock projections, it was Thom asking her to get involved with Sales at one of their new projects. “I’m not Sales, I’m not Finance.”