Walking into the office without the crutches for the first time in weeks was both freeing and infuriating. Was it nice to be free of the crutches and the cast? Of course! Was it nice that she now had a weird brace-thing that she had to wear because if she didn't her leg trembled and a cane that barely let her support her weight?

Not so much.

"You're doing much better, dear," Shirley said patiently, patting her hand, "you just need PT for a little while, then you'll be right as rain."

Amelia sighed, nodding despite her frustration.

She really was happy she was making progress. Amelia was simply not a person that took down-time or even really slowed down at all. It made her anxious, and right now anxiety was not something she had time for.

She couldn't help the way her mind wandered to the last time she was overwhelmed by anxiety and stress - her trip abroad a couple of years ago. Her new boyfriend at the time, Ryan, did not appreciate the long-distance relationship she forced on him so early in their dating. Ryan's mother, however, loved the idea and had even helped Amelia leave quietly.

Amelia knew his mother did it hoping they'd fail, but she didn't care. She was wrapped up in too many other things at the time to worry about her drama, and her help getting Amelia abroad had been literally life-saving at the time.

Wasn't it interesting that Ryan's mother was eventually won over just in time for Ryan to ruin everything being an idiot?

"Where did you drift off to?" Eric asked softly, putting a much needed coffee on the desk beside me.

"Just remembering the year sabbatical I took a couple years ago," Amelia breathed.

"Sabbatical? Isn't that a teacher thing?" Eric asked, sitting on her desk and looking at her curiously.

"Yeah," Amelia admitted quietly, looking off to the side but seeing nothing, "I used to teach... long time ago. Gave it up after my sabbatical, though. Went into project management instead."

"Damn good thing too," Eric scoffed, "We'd be lost without you!"

"Aw, ya flatterer," Amelia chuckled, bumping him gently with her shoulder, "I'm glad to be here too. It's better for me."

"What did you teach?" he asked after a moment, realizing she didn't talk about her past much.

"Art," she whispered, her mind far away, "painting."

Eric had a ton of questions explode in his mind, but he swallowed them all at the look of sadness in her eyes. Whatever had happened, it had clearly shattered her and she wasn't really over it.

Instead, after a long moment, he pivoted the conversation.

"You ready for the presentation this afternoon?"

"Yeah," she said, shaking her head a bit and straightening her spine before looking at him with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "You know I'm always ready."

Just like that the past drifted away and Eric was looking at the same presence that demanded respect in every room Amelia walked in. He admired her, but couldn't help wondering what it was that kept her so far away from everyone around her.

He patted her shoulder with a chuckle and left her to finish preparing, knowing she'd do what she always did - knock it out of the park.

An hour later the team followed her into the conference room a few minutes before the meeting began and set everything up. They were just finishing setting out refreshments and snacks when the directors and VPs walked in, greeting the team with nods and murmurs of hello like they always did for these quarterly updates.

The upside of being the lead project manager for a company this large was the paycheck and the scale of the projects. The downside was the formalities, red tape, and constant time spent in meetings to provide updates and progress reports.

Amelia didn't hate them, per se, she just often felt that these meetings could be emails.

Despite that, she stood at the front with her cane held at her side and her back straight - smiling politely as everyone entered the room.

"The CEO will be joining us today, by the way," one of the directors noted as she sat down, "with the project launch so close and him being available, he wanted to hear the update directly."

The others on Amelia's team internally cringed at the idea, but Amelia simply nodded in understanding. She couldn't blame the CEO for wanting to ensure things were going according to plan.

"It's a good thing I always print an extra couple of packets, then," Amelia said, and handed the extra to her team to place in front of the empty seat beside the director.

She was still trying to walk as little as possible, but thankfully no one said anything.

She did, however, falter slightly when a man she recognized walked into the room and sat beside the director liked he owned the place.

Because he did.

She blinked several times before taking a breath, forcing a smile on her face, and diving into the quarterly updates. Her presentation was flawless of course, her voice strong, and her answers to questions delivered clearly and concisely.

The project was generally on track, the product marketing designs were stunning, and the quality testing may delay the timeline up to a week but they anticipated being able to adjust so that would ultimately be unnecessary.

Ezra watched her stand in front of some of the most important people in his company and deliver her presentation like she was the CEO, not just some project manager over a product launch. She predicted questions and answered them before they could be asked, she didn't falter or bow under pressure, and the entire time she held a presence that made it clear she was confident and in control.

She also didn't greet him, call attention to their acquaintance, or otherwise cling to him in ways he was used to people doing when he walked into a room. In fact, other than the clear recognition and surprise at his presence, she ignored him entirely.

How intriguing, he found himself musing with a small smirk.

As he and the other directors listened and engaged, he sent a message to his assistant.

'Look into Amelia Foster. She's in the Digital Technology division. I want her entire story. In an hour, bring me what you have to my office. Tomorrow, I want everything else. Schedule a meeting with her for the day after tomorrow. Early in the morning.'

'You got it boss.'

After the presentation, Ezra lingered for only a moment to see what she would do. Then, pleased when she engaged professionally but didn't seek him out, he left without another word.

Amelia let her eyes follow him for only a moment before returning her focus to the work.

Was she surprised? Yes. Did she want to make things weird? No.

So she did what she always did... she went back to work.

Ezra, on the other hand, was looking at her employee file and some other basic documents that his assistant had managed to pull together in the short hour he had. It was almost entirely professional and educational - that was the most he could do in such a short time - but the results were intriguing anyway.

MBA with a dual minor in fine arts and art history. The certification as an appraiser of antiques was particularly interesting, along with the fact that she had only been a project manager for a couple of years. Prior to that, she had taught at a prestigious university. The year sabbatical she took to go overseas to sharpen her appraisal skills was clearly indicated on her resume, along with the volunteer work she had done that year while abroad. Volunteer work she has continued since returning to the country at two local hospitals.

"She volunteers to help patients heal through art," he muttered to himself, flipping through the documents.

He raised an eyebrow. That was not what he expected.

The following day was even stranger.

"Are you certain?" Ezra asked his assistant after a moment, looking up at the man with a shocked expression.

"I checked twice," the man confirmed, having been equally surprised by the discovery, "it was buried. She hid it well."

"Well, would you look at that," he chuckled, sitting back, "She may just be perfect, then."

--

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