A WEEK PASSED by and Julie still hadn't replied to any of her voicemails or texts. But she wasn't in jail or the cops hadn't come to her doorstep yet so there was still hope that whatever Julie was planning, it wasn't illegal.

Her only source of serotonin was Ryker. He held her hand underneath the desk every time they were in a meeting together. He would glance at her constantly when he was in his cabin and she was at her desk. He would steal kisses every time they were together outside the office. And when they were alone in their bedrooms?

It felt like a sin.

They tried their best to not cross the professional boundaries at the office but the lines were blurring quickly and neither of them were noticing.

Laavanya sipped her tea as she walked back towards her desk. She was about to pull her chair out when she found a pink tulip lying on her desk with a note attached to it. She picked it up and pulled the note between her fingers.

I know something is going on that you're not telling me. And that's okay. You don't have to. But if you want to talk...or scream, you know where to find me;)

       --The one on your pro con list

She looked up and there he was in his cabin, watching her. Smiling at her. And she did something she probably shouldn't have. She kept the flower aside and knocked at his door. She strutted inside and closed the door behind her. She blushed and nailed her back to the door. Her eyes remained on the ground and her cheeks began to colour.

In a soft voice, she whispered, "If the cabin wasn't transparent, I wouldn't have waited until we reached your bedroom."

He gulped.

And she walked out of his cabin.

With a smile on her face, she sat back at her desk. She put the rose in her pen stand and took a picture of it. She wanted to send it to Julie but with everything that was going on, she decided not to. She got busy preparing for next project and reading the notes she took in the meeting with the author. She had to collaborate with Jennifer on this project and since she was on a leave today, Laavanya sent a simple text about the update with her progress.

She restarted illustrating one of the rom-coms she was assigned with. The author had been kind enough to hook her up with the manuscript of the final draft. Laavanya didn't read much—not obsessively like Julie—but when she was out of ideas or on a rut, she preferred to read the book and get some inspiration. People say that the aftermath of the breakups are an emotional breakthrough for creativity but all she remembered was crying, eating ice cream and exchanging emails with Ryker where he asked to redo her work constantly. She understood that. Even while she designed the covers, she knew she was losing her spark. Her speciality was finding a balance with contrasting and extravagant colours but she had been using said plain, boring colours that even she knew her best friend won't pick the book if she saw it on the shelf.

Afterall, literally—we do judge a book by its cover.

Laavanya had reached the state of flow. She was engrossed in her current work in progress—she was scribbling ideas on sticky notes, changing colour pallets, recalling the side notes Ryker had given her when she heard someone say,

"There she is." She looked up to find Diana pointing towards her. Beside her stood Julie. She didn't have the fearful anger on her face or blood smudged against the cheek. Instead, she looked like the Julie Laavanya was best friends with. The one with no murderous intentions.

Julie approached her and hugged her best friend when Laavanya stood up. "We need to talk," she said and looked around. "Is there somewhere we can go for a little bit of privacy?"

Laavanya nodded and guided her towards the conference room which, thankfully, was empty. Conference room was the most unprivate room. It had glass doors and windows and the location was in the direct view of the reception, Mr. Edison's cabin and many of the other Heads of the departments—including Ryker's. But it was a soundproof room. No one could hear them there.

"Where The Hell Have You Been?" Laavanya yelled as soon as she closed the door and turned to Julie. She shifted her weight on one leg and folded her arms over chest. "I left so many texts and voicemails. Not one reply saying that you were okay, that you didn't do something stupid! Do you even know how worried and scared of what might happen? I—"

"Hush, let me explain." Julie extended her palms in surrender. "Firstly, I am sorry I didn't return your texts but I have been busy and I swear it wasn't anything illegal. Can you sit down? I have a preposition for you."

Laavanya scoffed and took one of the chairs. "If it's a murder, I am not doing it."

Julie sat in front of her and leaned closer. "Okay so, I contacted one of my friends. She is a writer at a website called Iris. They are a hard hitting journalist website with fun pieces for all genders alike."

"I don't like where this is going."

"Sydney and I began to dig some dirt and as it turns out, you weren't the only one Fred ill-treated. There are multiple women before and one woman after you who raised through the ranks quickly than their male counterparts. The media sees Fred as a feminist for doing this but we contacted those women and—" Julie took a deep breath. She interlaced her fingers with Laavanya's hand and stroked the back of her hand. "You weren't the only one."

Suddenly, it seemed like there was no air in the room.

"What are you saying?" She choked.

"His actions have been so subtle that most of them couldn't do anything. For the same reasons as you and they either quit or they were fired for poor work performance if Fred didn't get what he wanted."

"I...I can't believe this–" Her lips parted. Her throat had dried out. All of a sudden, memories of her past started to resurface in front of her eyes. She could remember every ounce of humiliation that she had felt, how every snide comment of his felt like and how much she would scrub her body clean every time she thought of Fred's touch.

"But there's a solution and I understand if you don't want to do this..." Julie examined her face. "Sydney talked to her editor and she could write an expose if you are willing to go on record along with the other victims of Fred."

"Julie...I—" She leaned back on her chair and looked outside the window. Her eyes began to pool with water. She hadn't talked to anyone about this until recently and now she was expected to say it to the whole world? She had been doing such a great job at repressing those emotions. And now they have started exploding.

Every part of her didn't want to do the interview.

But a voice kept repeating in her head.

There were women before you and a woman after.

"We need th—" The door opened with Ryker peeping inside when he noticed the tension in the conference room. His gaze immediately met Laavanya's and by the change in his expression, she figured that he had noticed the water in her eyes. "Laav, are you alright? Do you need a moment alone? I have a meeting here but you two can go to my cabin."

Laavanya stood up and so did Julie. "No—" Laavanya cleared her throat. "I am fine. I have work to get done anyway. Speaking of which, when are you free next? I need to talk about some details from the You Are No Fun assignment."

"Diana will get back to you. Are you a hundred percent sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, we were just leaving."

Laavanya and Julie walked past Ryker to exit the room when he instinctively caught her wrist and made her turn around. "Hey." He quickly let her go when he realised they were right in the middle of their office. He tried to form words that would discreetly say that she could talk to him but Laavanya just nodded like she had read everything he wanted to say.

"I know."