The sound of my chair rolling against the floor mixes with the chatter of Stuart and Luan, creating the usual lively chaos in our workspace plus an extra addition—Amy.

"Could you quiet down? I'm trying to think," I say, my tone clipped as I try to block out their noise.

"Could you stop thinking? We’re trying to gossip," Stuart shoots back.

The two other girls burst out laughing, and I roll my eyes so hard it’s a miracle they don’t fall out of my head. For the past two days, my brain has been on a nonstop spiral, trying to figure out whether it really was ice cream in that bag Zephyr was carrying. Or maybe something more mysterious? Secret documents, perhaps? He could totally be a secret agent. Honestly, it would be disappointing if he wasn’t recruited, given his skills, physique, and annoyingly perfect brain.

I try to shake off the thought, but it keeps nagging me. Deciding that the only way to ease my curiosity is to talk it out, I go for it. Obviously, I can’t spill Zephyr’s personal life, so I phrase it carefully. Hypothetically, of course.

"Hypothetically, and just hypothetically," I begin, keeping my tone as casual as possible, "if you perhaps happened to find out Mr. Lane had a hypothetical breakup and was dumped hard. And let’s say he somehow pulled himself together, but maybe that’s just how it looks on the outside. And then—still hypothetically—you saw him at an ice-cream shop with a big bag, what would you think was in the bag? Hypothetically, of course."

The room goes silent for a brief moment as my coworkers exchange a look. Then, all three of them erupt into hysterical laughter, like I just told the funniest joke they’ve ever heard.

Between wheezing laughs, Luan manages to gasp out, "Mr. Lane? Have a girlfriend?"

"Hypothetical girlfriend," I correct her, crossing my arms.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Stuart says, brushing me off. "The devil having a lover? You crack me up."

"Hypothetically," I remind him, my voice strained. They’re still laughing, and the sound is starting to grate on my nerves. A few months ago, I probably would’ve been laughing along with them. Heck, I might’ve even started the joke. But now? It’s different. Knowing what I know, I just can’t see the humor in it anymore.

"Guys, take this seriously," I say with a pout, but my plea only seems to amuse them further.

Stuart is the first to sober up, though there’s still a twinkle of mischief in his eye. "Well, if Mr. Lane were a normal guy, I’d say he went to buy a tub of ice cream," he says, his tone surprisingly serious.

The rest of us give him identical looks of disbelief. Stuart shrugs, unbothered by our skepticism. "What? It’s not only girls who are allowed to mope around with ice cream."

Luan, Amy, and I exchange glances, then slowly nod in agreement. Fair point.

"But," Luan says leaning foward, "this is  Zephyr Lane we are talking about. I doubt he'd ever get sad."

"Does the Devil even get sad?" Stuart asks.

"Maybe it was blueprints for a plot of the demise of whoever wronged him." Amy says with a grin.

I try to hold back a laugh, but it slips out. "Guys, come on. He’s still a human being, you know."

Stuart raises an eyebrow. "Is he, though? Because sometimes I think he’s actually a robot."

"A super sexy advanced model," Amy agrees. "Like, the kind of robot that could probably take over the world if it wanted to."

Feeling offended on his behalf, "Enough!" I say, throwing my hands in the air. "Can we just... stop assuming he's some sort of soulless machine?"

Stuart tilts his head, studying me. "Why are you so defensive all of a sudden? Do you know something we don't?" His tone is teasing, but I can feel the weight of his question.

"I'm not defensive!" I say, a little too quickly. "I'm just... saying we should be open-minded. That's all." They wouldn't understand. When we were at the bar that night... after being confronted by Mr. Lane we were a able to become a bit freer around each other and actually realized we had a lot in common. I learned that there was so much more to that cold exterior he presented, that now I'd be hurt if he said we weren't on the level of friends.

Amy squints at me suspiciously, but thankfully, she lets it go. "Well, open-minded or not, I can’t imagine him in a relationship. Like, what would his girlfriend even be like? If he wasn’t impressed by someone like me then I can't even imagine his standards."

Luan, Stuart and I share a look and have another round of laughter, Amy's even more delusional than me when I'm drunk.

We are laughing, when we hear a knock on the door, four males walk in. Group 5, they're probably here to work on the joint project we are assigned and Mr. Lane walks in after them.

Amy as always stutters a greeting, "G-good day Sir." As if she wasn't talking about getting rejected by him a few seconds ago, her eyes have this lovestruck look.

Mr. Lane just gives her a nod of acknowledgement. We make eye contact and I see a ghost of a smirk playing at the corners of his lips.

"How may we help you sir?" Amy asks, this time no stutter and her voice suddenly an octave higher than before. She smooths her hair down and straightens her back, looking like she's about to present a PowerPoint on 'Why I Should Be Your Girlfriend.'

Luan giggles at Amy's attempt of looking more attractive but fails miserably when she tries to cover it up with a cough.

All the guys who didn't even notice the difference in what Amy did just give Luan a confused look, making her shuffle on her spot.

"So what brings you here Corey?" I direct all attention to me by asking the group leader of group 5 why he had brought his boy band here, excluding Mr. Lane.

Corey gives me a friendly smile, he looks as if he was probably a jock in high-school, he's actually a couple years older than me but is very carefree and laid back. With his blonde hair, charismatic personality and charming smile, I'm sure he'd rank top 5 if we were to rank hottest guys at work. I'd seen a couple of our other female co-workers try to flirt with him countless times.

"Mr. Lane asked for a quick app review with both group leaders. I just thought I’d drop off my boys first so they wouldn’t wreak havoc." He refers to Kyle and Tyson as if they were his misbehaving pets.

I wave at them and they wave back at me.

"Sure." I say uncertainly walking towards Corey and Mr. Lane.

My heart skips a beat when our eyes meet, and that infuriating smirk tugs at his lips, almost as if he knew what I was thinking. If he could read my mind, he'd probably know what we were talking about before. Does he know what we were talking about? No, he couldn't possibly know. Could he? I force myself to look away before I start spiraling.

I say a quick bye to Stuart and Luan while Amy is too stuck in her wonderland to respond back or go back to her department.

---

I'd have edited all the chapters by the time I'm posting chapter 11 but this chapter is already edited, took a lot of effort and thinking.

I'm thinking about renaming the book. What do y'all think about 'Not-So-Devilish After All' or 'The Devil In The Details' or should I keep it as 'Even The Devil Has A Love Life'?