EPISODE 11

For three weeks everything was almost perfect, which in Amara’s experience meant something was about to arrive and end the almost.

She and Dami had found a rhythm. Careful in public. Themselves in private. She had met Zara once, briefly, when she was at his apartment and he got an unexpected custody evening. Zara was small and serious with her father’s eyes and she had looked at Amara with the unfiltered assessment that only six-year-olds could get away with and then asked if she wanted to see her drawings. Amara had sat on the floor for forty-five minutes looking at drawings of horses and something that might have been a dragon.

Dami had watched from the kitchen doorway with an expression she was choosing not to put too many words to yet.

The thing that arrived came on a Tuesday. Tola messaged her at lunch: Come to the bathroom on the third floor. Now. Do not make a face when you leave your desk.

Amara walked to the bathroom at a pace that suggested she simply needed the bathroom.

Tola was inside, arms crossed, looking like someone delivering a medical diagnosis.

“Shade came to the office this morning,” she said.

Amara went still.

“She and Dami were in his office for forty minutes. Door closed. I only know because I had to go up for a document signature and Bola told me to come back later with a face that said more than that.”

“That does not mean anything.”

“After she left, Dami cancelled all his afternoon meetings.” Tola looked at her steadily. “I am not saying anything is happening. I am saying you should know.”

Amara stood in that bathroom for a moment after Tola left, looking at her own reflection. Twenty-seven. New job. A man who made her feel like she finally understood what all the fuss was about. And an ex-wife with a child and history and forty minutes behind a closed door.

She went back to her desk and worked through the afternoon and said nothing.

At six he messaged her: Can we talk tonight.

Not a question.

She typed back: Yes.

She knew from the way he had written it that whatever came next was going to require her to be very, very brave.

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THE CEO’S INTERN. A Lagos Adult Romance Series 10