“I’m trying not to.”
“Why?”
“Because I have good judgment.”
She smiled.
“Do you?”
“Usually.”
“I came here in a dress you have looked at four times.”
“Five.”
She laughed.
He shook his head.
“That was not permission to count.”
“No.”
“But it was honest.”
The Single Dad stepped back.
One full pace.
Distance.
Needed.
The Female CEO did not follow.
Good.
That helped.
He rubbed his jaw.
“I don’t want gratitude confused with attraction.”
She stared.
“Gratitude?”
“You cleared my name.”
“I didn’t clear your name.”
“The evidence did.”
“You found it.”
“Other people found it.”
“You pushed the audit.”
“Yes.”
“Then gratitude.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“No?”
“No.”
Her expression sharpened.
“If you think I drove through snow wearing a dress that took two people to zip because I wanted you to thank me, you understand me less than I thought.”
The Single Dad stared.
The Female CEO continued:
“I did not come here because I cleared you.”
“I came because when everyone in that building wanted you to beg for your job, you refused.”
“When I offered you a private conversation before the review was finished, you told me you would not ask for special treatment.”
“When your team was afraid, you told them to tell investigators exactly what happened even if it hurt you.”
“When your daughter called during that meeting, your entire face changed.”
The Single Dad looked down.
The Female CEO’s voice softened.
“And because for the last three weeks, every time something happened at work, I thought about what you would say about it.”
He looked back.
“That’s not romantic.”
“Sometimes it was.”
The room went still.
The Single Dad felt the line arrive.
Not a physical line.
Something more dangerous.
A line between what could still be explained as exhaustion, emotion, Christmas, and what would become a decision neither could pretend had happened accidentally.
The Female CEO saw it too.
She did not cross.
Instead, she stepped backward.
One pace.
Matching his earlier retreat.
That mattered more than anything she could have said.
“I’m not asking you to do anything tonight.”
The Single Dad breathed out.
She continued:
“I’m not asking you to kiss me.”
“I’m not asking you to come back to the company.”
“I’m not asking you to forgive what happened.”
“And I’m definitely not asking you to pretend the power imbalance disappears because I showed up without a boardroom.”
He nodded slowly.
“Good.”
“But I am asking you not to lie to me.”
His brows drew together.
“About what?”
“Whether this is only happening on my side.”
The Single Dad stared.
Snow tapped against the window.
The radiator hissed.
Somewhere down the hall, his daughter shifted in bed.
The small sounds of ordinary life surrounded them.
He looked toward the Female CEO.
No ballroom.
No assistants.
No board.
No company seal.
Just a woman standing in his living room looking more uncertain than he had ever seen her.
He could have lied.
Would have been easier.
Safer.
“No.”
Her breath caught slightly.
“No what?”
“It isn’t only you.”
The Female CEO did not smile.
Not immediately.
She closed her eyes once.
Relief.
That was almost worse.