The change in his expression was so immediate that Claire understood he was just as shocked.
A second later, he collected himself and gave her the smallest nod, as though they were strangers meeting for the first time. That calm, distant gesture hurt Claire more than she expected.
“Claire, welcome back!” called her colleague Rachel. “Come over here. I’d like you to meet Daniel Brooks, our new deputy chief executive. He’ll be overseeing several departments, including yours.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Claire automatically held out her hand.
“It’s a pleasure.”
Daniel touched her fingers with careful restraint.
“The pleasure is mine.”
Two polite words. Nothing more. No secret glance, no hesitation, no sign that only days earlier they had watched the sunrise beside the ocean, wandered along the boardwalk, and talked until dawn.
No one around them could have guessed.
Claire hurried to her desk, but the documents in front of her made no sense. Her thoughts kept pulling her back to the coast.
After the watermelon had broken, Daniel had bought her another one. Then he had insisted on carrying it back to her hotel. Conversation had begun easily along the way. They joked, laughed, and traded ridiculous stories from their lives, speaking with the comfort of people who had known each other for years instead of minutes.
The next day, he invited her for coffee.
After that, they took a boat ride together.
The following evening, they walked beside the water while the sky turned gold and violet.
Each meeting looked accidental, although both of them knew perfectly well that they were inventing excuses to be together.
Claire tried to resist what was happening. She told Daniel immediately that she had recently divorced and was in no condition to begin another relationship.
He did not pressure her.
He simply stayed near.
Sometimes he sat with her in silence. Sometimes he told stories until she laughed despite herself. Sometimes he bought her ice cream and gently insisted that she stop thinking about her problems for at least ten minutes.
Little by little, the heart she had kept locked away began to wake.
On the final night before they were due to leave, they sat on an almost empty beach. The sea whispered at their feet, and the salt wind moved through Claire’s hair. Neither wanted to mention the morning that was coming.
They both knew they would soon be traveling in different directions.
Then Daniel spoke.
“Some beautiful moments are better left exactly as they happened.”
Claire turned toward him, confused.
“Why?”
“Because real life is usually much more complicated than a few evenings by the sea.”
She gave him a sad smile.
“Maybe you’re right.”
Daniel suggested that they not exchange phone numbers.
The idea struck her as strange and, if she was honest, rather cruel. But he told her that some encounters were meant to remain accidental.
Claire felt something inside her sink.
She decided that, for him, their time together had been nothing more than a charming holiday episode.
So they said goodbye the next morning without promises. Each climbed into a separate taxi, and Claire convinced herself that she would never see him again.
Until that morning in the office.
A meeting began in the director’s conference room. Daniel spoke confidently about new assignments and company plans. Claire kept her eyes on her notes, yet she could feel him looking at her.
When the meeting ended, the employees gradually left. Claire deliberately gathered her papers slowly, hoping to be the last person out and avoid speaking with him.
But Daniel was waiting by the door.
“Could I talk to you for a minute?”
Claire flinched.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“It will only take a moment.”
She let out a tired breath.
“All right.”
They stepped into the empty corridor. For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Daniel broke the silence.
“Believe me, I had no idea you worked here.”
“I’m having trouble believing this myself.”
“When I was offered the position, I accepted almost immediately. If I had known—”
He stopped.
“What would you have done differently?” Claire asked evenly.
Daniel met her eyes.
“Almost everything.”
She looked away. She did not want to feel again the pain that had risen in her that morning when she saw him standing in the office.
“That part of our lives is over.”
“For you?”
Claire said nothing.
At that moment, several coworkers passed through the corridor. They had no choice but to pretend that their conversation concerned an ordinary work matter.
Claire left as soon as she could.
The tension stayed with her all day. By the time she returned home, she felt drained, discouraged, and hollowed out.
Her mother noticed immediately.
“What happened?”
“We have a new executive at work.”
“And that alone has left you looking like this?”
Claire was silent for a long time. Then, all at once, she told her mother everything—the broken watermelon, the walks by the sea, the final night on the beach, and Daniel’s decision not to exchange numbers.