Chapter 412: Thirty Minutes...

She could see it too clearly, the shape of him walking through a doorway toward her, the specific familiar cadence of his voice saying her name. Her heart thumped harder.

She covered her face with one hand.

"...Why am I this nervous."

She knew the answer. She simply did not want to say it out loud.

Because she liked him. More than she should. More than she had originally intended, back when she had been a hostile board-level executive with a low opinion of men.

Every subsequent hour spent in his company had, quietly, made the feeling harder to ignore, the trust he had extended her, the calm confidence with which he handled things that would have broken lesser men, the small persistent fact that in spite of his rise in status and reach and net worth he had never, at any point, treated her as though she were beneath him.

She smiled again, at her reflection in the tall window, and the woman in the glass smiled back.

’I’m really going to see him.’

Her eyes widened.

"...Wait."

She looked at her phone.

"I haven’t given him the address."

She opened the messaging app with the small controlled urgency of a woman refusing to acknowledge that she had almost failed a step this basic. She typed the restaurant. She hit send. She stared at the screen.

A few seconds passed.

Her phone vibrated.

[Stan: The sun will be setting soon. I’ll be there in about thirty minutes to an hour.]

Amelia froze as she read it once.

Then again, her heart, which had spent the last five minutes at an elevated rate, briefly forgot how a normal cardiac rhythm worked.

’Thirty minutes.’ She looked at the time. She looked at herself in the mirror across the room. She looked around the suite. She looked back at herself in the mirror.

"...Thirty minutes?!" Suddenly she became extremely conscious of everything. Her clothes, travel-creased. Her hair, flight-flattened on one side.

Her face, bare of the small deliberate makeup she preferred when she wanted to look as though she had not tried.

Whether she should change. Whether she should shower first. Whether she should redo her hair. Whether she should attempt to look slightly more attractive without in any visible way looking as though she had specifically prepared for him.

Her cheeks were already warm. ’He’s coming.’

Her heart thumped again. She pressed her hands against her face, "...Calm down, Amelia calm down..."

But it didn’t work, taking a deep breath, she looked at her reflection.

Looking at the beautiful reflection of herself on the mirror, she smiled, despite the nerves and everything coursing through her...

’I finally get to see him again.’

Sighing, She checked her phone, but there was no new message. Taking a deep breath, she put it down.

Ten seconds later, she picked it up again...

’Still nothing.’ Realising her current condition, she laughed quietly at herself. "...I’m hopeless."

Then she got to work.

[Back at Aurelia Heights.]

Stan pocketed his phone. Camilla watched him with the same quiet, unhurried attention she had maintained for most of the past hour.

For a moment, neither said anything.

Then, all of a sudden, Camilla spoke, "The game."

Stan glanced at her. "What about it?"

He was slightly confused. They had already finished playing Uno some time ago. He hadn’t expected her to bring it up again now, especially when he was preparing to leave.

Camilla seemed to notice his confusion, "It was good."

Stan blinked, "Uno?"

She nodded. "Yes, I found it... interesting."

A faint smile touched Stan’s lips. "You actually enjoyed it."

"I didn’t say that."

"You didn’t have to."

Camilla ignored him and went on, "It made me curious about the other games new age humans play."

Stan’s eyebrows lifted. "Other games?"

"Yes." She paused, apparently considering how to phrase it. "If you can obtain more of them, I’d like you to bring some back."

Stan looked at her for a second. "You want me to buy you games?"

"Is that difficult?"

"Not remotely."

"Then there is no problem."

He chuckled. "What kind?"

"I don’t know." Camilla glanced toward the table where the Uno cards still lay.

"Something that requires thought would be preferable."

"Strategy games?"

"Perhaps."

"Something competitive?"

"Obviously."

Stan smiled. "Of course."

"And not everything needs to involve fighting."

That caught him slightly off guard. "That’s a surprisingly important qualification."

"I have spent enough time fighting."

Stan nodded. "Fair."

Camilla looked at him again, "Find some good ones."

"How many?"

She considered it. "A reasonable number."

"That’s not a number."

"It is sufficient."

Stan laughed. "You really don’t want to make this easy for me."

"I assumed you were capable of choosing."

"I am."

He glanced at the clock. "Fine. I’ll find you some."

Camilla gave a small nod. "Good."

Stan reached toward the counter and picked up his keys. As he slipped them into his hand, Camilla added calmly,

"And perhaps bring another game like the one we played."

Stan looked back at her. "I thought you wanted something different."

"I said perhaps."

A faint smile appeared on her lips. "I never said I disliked that one."

’You never said you disliked it but you don’t want to admit that you like it...’ Stan shook his head with a smile, amused. "Got it."

He pocketed his keys. "I’ll see what I can find."

With that, he checked his phone once more, the location was already saved. Camilla watched him move through the small ordinary choreography of a man preparing to leave his own home in the early evening.

"Will you be gone long?"

"Probably not."

"You intend to return tonight?"

"Of course."

A brief pause.

"You’re staying here?" Stan asked her...

"For now."

"Alright." Sighing, he started toward the door. But then stopped and turned around, not forgetting to tease her...

"Don’t destroy anything while I’m gone."

Camilla gave him an entirely offended look. "I have never destroyed anything unnecessarily."

"That’s a very specific defense."

"I am simply stating a fact." She replied calmly...

Stan laughed and pulled the door shut behind him.