KAI

Kai rubbed his hands together nervously outside of Iko's apartment. After what had happened to Thorne when he'd run into Cress at the bar last weekend, he should be thanking the stars for giving him Iko. He was lucky to be there, lucky that Cinder had a friend who believed his side of the story and wanted to find an opportunity for him to explain himself.

Iko had texted him while he'd been at work, so he'd driven over here like a husband whose wife had just gone into labor and didn't want her to give birth in the car. The tie that he still wore on his neck was suffocating, but he didn't move to loosen it. It symbolized the part of his life that he'd tried to forget about for a while with more casual clothes and an optimistic attitude. It hadn't gotten him very far.

This was him. This was who he was destined to be. There was no point in denying that anymore.

He knocked, reminding himself to stop holding his breath.

Iko's face greeted him, an uncomfortable smile on her face. Her hair was dyed maroon today, and he would have complimented her because it was actually more flattering than the blue braids she'd worn at the Masquerade, but he was too riled up. She nodded briskly at him and opened the door just as someone called in the background, "Who is it?"

The second he stepped in, Cinder shot to her feet from her spot at the kitchen table, looking murderously at Iko.

"What is he doing here?"

Iko was not doing a very good job at hiding her discomfort. "Surprise?"

"Cinder, I'm sorry to surprise you like this—"

"Was I talking to you?" She did not look at him when she said it, only continued to stare down her best friend, who was now trying to inch her way behind Kai, perhaps to block the door. "No, I was talking to Iko, who has some major explaining to do!"

Though Iko was now behind him, Cinder still managed to avert her eyes from Kai's. He took the cue and silently walked over to the table to observe them, trying to hide his bitter disappointment. He hadn't expected her to respond well to his presence, but he had imagined the scenario to pan out somewhat differently. Being in the same room as her made everything ache so much deeper; it'd been far too long since he'd seen her beautiful face.

"Cinder, please calm down," Iko tried, as Cinder rounded on her.

"Calm down? Calm down?! You call yourself my best friend, and yet you bring this- this- liar here while I'm here, in what I can only imagine has been a pre-meditated ambush!"

"Perhaps my methods weren't admirable, but Cinder—it's Kai! Whom you love."

"Loved," she snapped. She might as well have been punching him in the gut. He really shouldn't be witnessing this.

Iko pointed at him. "Kai explained the situation to me. It's not ideal but it's not what you think—it's not what I thought. Yes, he lied, but there's more to the story than that." She squinted at Cinder. Kai couldn't see her facial expression, only her back. "It was more like…lying by omission?"

Cinder threw a hand up in the air, her ponytail bouncing behind her. "It's still lying."

"Please hear him out before you make any rash decisions."

"I've made my decision," she snapped.

Kai closed his eyes. "You have?" he whispered.

Cinder's back went rigid. Iko raised her eyebrows and nodded towards him, mirroring the silent pleading in Kai's eyes. Only he wasn't sure if Iko was really gunning for him anymore, or just hoping that Cinder wouldn't beat her to a pulp.

"If you've already made your decision," he said, "then will it hurt for you to just let me give you some closure? I don't think I can bear you not knowing the whole truth."

This made Cinder spin on her heels. Red-faced, she narrowed her eyes. "Maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to have an affair while you were engaged!"

"I didn't have an affair!" His shouting startled all three of them, and a deadly silence ensued. He unclenched the fists he had just slammed on the table and took a deep breath, trying to steady his voice and speak like the gentleman he was so used to being. "I'm being forced to marry a woman that I hate because we'll lose Rikan Corp if I don't. It's a business arrangement, Cinder. That's all it's ever been and all it ever will be."

Cinder crossed her arms. "You have two minutes."

Two minutes? Where would he even begin?

"My grandfather started Rikan Corp shortly after my father was born, aptly naming it after his only son. It was a small business until my father got on board when he was older. He took Rikan Corp and made it into the business empire that it is today. It became his life—it became my life. We've all sacrificed a lot to get where we are today. Without his work, no one would recognize me today and I'd never show up in tabloids. I'd be living a completely different life." He hesitated before adding quietly, "So would you."

He rushed on before he would lose his nerve under her persistent glare. "My dad took on an advisor when I was maybe fifteen or so. Jannali Blackburn. At first, we thought he was having an affair with her because they spent so much extra time at the office together working."

Behind Cinder, Iko ran a finger over her throat, as if she were dying.

"That's not relevant, I guess. The point is that little by little, she began to influence my father, until he saw right through her and what she was trying to do, which was make the company her own. When he resisted her attempts and eventually fired her, she and her husband started slowly buying out other stockholders. A few years ago, they had enough to soon be in complete control of Rikan Corp if they wanted.

"Luckily, or unluckily for me, Jannali had a daughter, Levana. We'd hung out a lot at business functions when Jannali was still working at Rikan Corp, and it was obvious even then that she was obsessed with me." He shook his head, remembering when he'd first noticed it. "For the life of me, I can't figure out why, because I wasn't even nice to her back then. Even now, I barely tolerate her."

"You're hot, rich, and famous," Iko supplied.

"Thanks, Iko."

"What?" said Iko when Cinder turned around to look at her. "You can't honestly tell me you've never had a celebrity crush, Cinder."

"We brought lawyers into it for negotiations about three years ago. My parents were desperate to do anything to keep the Blackburns from taking over—from losing everything that my father and his father had built. I attended many of those meetings, because by then my dad was already trying to groom me to take over one day, and everything was air-tight, Cinder. They actually hadn't done anything illegal."

He stood up and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "They finally proposed a deal. We wanted the company, and Levana wanted me. Why not join our two families then? An extensive pre-nup was drawn up that even stipulated how much stock I would receive so Rikan Corp would remain under my family's control. The Blackburns would be allowed on the Board of Directors, though, and be integral in future decision-making."

"That sounds medieval." Cinder was finally looking at him fully, her features less fierce.

"I was against it, of course. Thought my life was ruined. But about nine months into the negotiations, I finally accepted, adding in the fact that we would be free to date whoever we wanted until we got married. My lawyer reviewed the marriage clauses as well, and to my great relief, there was nothing in there about remaining faithful." He held up a hand. "Wait. Let me explain. My intention is not to cheat on Levana when I marry her. My intention is to marry her on paper, receive the stocks so we can get back control of Rikan Corp, and then live my life without Levana. She won't be able to complain about me not being in love with her anymore because legally, we'll both get what we wanted. I just have to keep up with her terms until she can't do anything about it anymore. You see? Just a business transaction."

Cinder's brow furrowed in thought. He could see her putting two and two together, and some relief was beginning to wash over him. She'd allowed him much more than two minutes, and she was still standing there. She was beginning to understand it all from his point of view.

"Iko, could you leave us alone please?" she said suddenly.

"But where I am supposed to go? This is my apartment," Iko protested.

"You owe me after what you just pulled," said Cinder, smiling through her teeth.

Iko stopped her stuttering and slunk out of the apartment. The second she was gone, Kai rushed over to Cinder. "I'm so sorry for hurting you Cinder, I never meant for it to—"

She jerked her arm away. "You don't get to touch me."

Kai backed up, hands in the air, heart pounding. "S-sorry. I just thought—after I explained—"

"What exactly did you think would happen? That everything would go back to normal?" The way she was saying this all calm and collected scared him more than when she was yelling.

"I thought you would understand. I don't love her. I love you. I was going to explain it when the right time came. I understand that it sounds horrible initially."

She walked away from him. He wanted to follow her, but he was too afraid.

"Maybe you've concocted some way in your mind to justify how it's only horrible initially. But Kai, be serious. You may think it'll be fine, but it won't be. You're going to be shackled to Rikan Corp and that—woman—forever."

His hands went automatically through his hair as her words hit him hard. "You think I don't know that? I'm choking, Cinder." She looked up at him again, eyes sad. "You were the first breath of air I've had in two years. I can't lose you."

"As long as you're engaged to that woman—whether on paper or not—we will never be together, Kai."

Kai bit hard on the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood, trying to force the pain somewhere else so that he wouldn't cry like the stupid, ruined, heartbroken guy he was. "I love my family too, Cinder. I made a promise to them. I can't only think about me in this situation. There's too much responsibility."

"Do you even like working there?"

"I like finance."

"That wasn't my question."

"It doesn't matter what I like," he said finally, feeling his eyes grow hot. "I like you, but I'm still completely helpless to have that change the outcome of my life."

"Kai…" She was sad, but not because of heartbreak. Did she pity him? "I'm sorry."

He'd had enough. She'd made her choice; she didn't need to watch him cry too. He left the apartment as quickly as he could, nearly running over Iko in the hallway.

Thorne was trying to cheer him up with dumb gifs via text by the time he made it back to Rikan Corp. Sometimes he hated being an adult, being forced to return to real life when he'd much rather sit at home and mope. He'd given himself a good two hours to drown in his own misery before Nainsi had called to gently remind him that he had an important meeting this afternoon and why was he not at the office yet?

He'd seen how Thorne had been a few weeks ago. If he could pull himself out of his comatose state and even deal with the fact that the girl he loved had absolutely no desire to see him ever again, then Kai figured he would eventually get there too. Maybe he'd even meet someone else who was able to understand his lifestyle better.

It would probably have to be someone with equal fame or status, like the women that Kai normally avoided in all of the evening business functions he'd need to start attending again. It was either that or accept the fact that he'd be living a celibate life fending off the advances of one Levana Blackburn.

He scrolled through his phone, trying to find an appropriate gif for the situation to send back to Thorne, but found none. Maybe he was being just a little too eager to be funny with this situation, when really there was nothing funny about it at all. He had ruined everything and he knew it.

When he arrived in his office, a stack of papers sat waiting on his desk. On the top was a green sticky note with the perfect handwriting of one of his administrative assistants. The message was less perfect: The Blackburns will be joining the meeting this afternoon. Please review files beforehand.

The pit in his stomach weighing him down, he sank back into his chair. Not today of all days—he couldn't handle it. Why had he been stupid enough to come to the office? Kai was all but wallowing when a light knock forced him to sit up straight and look forward.

Cress stood at the entrance to his office, with severe blue eyes and rather timid body language. His jumbled thoughts of Cinder and Levana suddenly mixed with an image of Cress dangling over Thorne's shoulder as he marched angrily off the dance floor. He cleared his throat and waved her forward. "Cress! Come in."

She approached him and placed a piece of paper with typed writing in front of where he sat. "This is my letter of resignation."

He stared at her blankly. "I'm sorry?"

"I'm quitting."

"You have to go to HR to do that," he said gently, sliding the letter across the table. "But I don't understand why you'd want to quit." Thorne had told Kai how much she loved her job at Rikan Corp. "You seemed so eager for this job when I interviewed you. Are you unhappy here?"

"That's why I'm giving it to you specifically. I-wanted to apologize to you, Sir."

"Cress, we're…friends. I already told you to call me Kai."

"It was really kind of you to hire me even though my records probably should have told you to go in a different direction. I think that after last weekend, though…it's safe to say you're probably regretting that decision now. It's best if I leave before I embarrass the company more."

Kai rubbed his fingers across his eyebrows, tired. "Look. What happened between you and Thorne is none of my business." Her cheeks reddened, and he wished he could have been better prepared for this awkward situation. "And whatever I saw last weekend"—great, now his face was turning red as well—"doesn't change the fact that you're the best Internet Security Specialist we've had in years. I'd hate to lose you."

She looked down at her feet.

"I'll be sure to tell HR that as well when they call over here inquiring about that letter."

She looked back up at him, somewhat hopeful.

"Why don't you think about it a few more days? Let things blow over."

Cress bit her lip. "Okay. Thanks, Kai."

He tried to smile encouragingly. "Anytime."

When she headed out the door, he wished that he could say so much more to her—to talk to her about Thorne, to tell her to give the guy another chance. But he knew it wasn't his place, neither as a boss or a friend. Cress had to make up her own mind about Thorne, no matter how badly that might hurt him. He couldn't force her to love him.

Just like Kai couldn't force Cinder to love him.