Chapter 86 Unwanted Invitations
CHAPTER EIGHTY SIX
Valenticia’s POV~
The weeks following that meeting with Stefan were a blur of deadlines and pages, but he kept appearing on my calendar like he had predesigned the details. First was the quarterly supply chain conference downtown, where industry professionals gathered to discuss trends and new deals over coffee and name tags. For Clawford, I was networking, shaking hands with suppliers and swapping business cards while scribbling notes on potential partnerships. Stefan was there too, naturally, on a panel about future tech in logistics, and I sat at the back of the room jotting down his ideas about faster routes and better tracking.
And first thing after the session ended and everyone started moving around for coffee, he saw me across the room, with two cups in his hands. "Valenticia, black no sugar, right?" He offered me one, and his grin was casual, but there was a serious glint in his eyes, an intensity I'd seen before.
I accepted the cup because refusing the offered coffee when it arrived felt too petty with everyone watching, and I drank from it while carefully controlling the volume of my voice. "Thanks. Great talk up there…you were right on the button with the logistics and making it doable.”
He moved toward me a bit, lowering his voice so it remained between us. "Appreciate that. Listen, there is one more dinner after this one, for leaders of the industry only. Join me? We could have a conversation, off the record, no notes or agendas.”
My stomach clenched slightly because a piece of me still remembered the good times, him listening during those late-night strategy sessions when everything seemed easier and safer. But trust had broken down between us long ago, and I wasn’t going to let that old pull draw me back into something messy. I placed the cup on a table beside me and looked him in the eye. "No, Stefan. I’m working here, not having dinner. Let’s leave the follow-up there. We’ll stick with emails for those we will need to do.”
He didn't blink or argue, just nodding as if he'd somehow known to expect that answer all along. "Understood. But "I won't go down without a fight, you know me."
It wasn’t just his answer to my question, which was smart and clear-eyed, but the way he delivered it that had me thinking all through the afternoon panels. How was he so composed? And why did part of me wonder, if only for a split second, where that dinner would have ended up if I had said yes?
A few days later, it occurred once more during a casual business lunch with some potential partners from different companies while our teams filled up a big table in the back of one of those quiet restaurants near the office. Stefan was across from me, and Mark told him how truck drivers were turning up lost in traffic at the company’s doorstep and making jokes about not wanting country-by-country advice on shipping containers; instead, he wanted system-level expertise on shipping routes and dodging port delays. When Stefan chimed in with a quick joke about trucks that always got lost, I laughed so hard my drink came out of my nose. As plates were cleared and waiters paraded in with coffee, the mood around the table lightened, and that’s when he leaned in my direction, in a casual kind of a lean.
"Walk with me after this? My car's parked this way. We can get a decent coffee, not that conference slush, you know.”
I returned his stare, like it didn’t affect me in any way when in fact it did, those goddamn feelings I had always kept down rising as usual. “Pass, Stefan. I’ve got calls waiting back at the office. Save the charm offensive on someone who’s buying that right now.”
He laughed, and he released a soft, genuine sound, raising his cup of coffee in a mock toast. "Ouch. Sharp as ever, Val. One of these days, however, you will see.”
Mark gave me a raised eyebrow later in the elevator ride back to our office, a low but questioning tone of voice. "What's with you two? Sparks will fly or just fireworks ready to explode?”
I shook it off with a small smile, for an easy side. "Old history from way back. That’s all it is.” But inside, the rejection roughed me up in ways that I couldn’t easily rinse off or shake away, and I told myself that I was simply being held by a habit, a connection from secrets and close calls during the hard times. It persisted through my afternoon meetings, and I felt like it was causing my attention to slip just enough that I noticed.
My friends got with the program too in pretty short order, and that weekend Lena and Carla met me for brunch at a café where the tables were outside, covered with fresh flowers. We ordered egg dishes and fruit bowls, discussing weekend plans and work complaints as the sun warmed our backs. Lena sipped her coffee and smiled at me from over the rim of her cup. "So, spill it already. Stefan's been circling you like a satellite these days. I saw him at the conference, all persistence, bringing you coffee and whatnot.”
“Well, congratulations,” Carla said and popped a fat strawberry into her mouth with a crunch. ”Yeah, office chat can’t get enough of it. ‘Are they rekindling something?' Bet they’re secret dating by the end of next month.” It’s all they talk about in the break room now.”
I rolled my eyes, but I could feel heat rising in my cheeks as the teasing touched a little too close to what I was attempting to derail. “Gossip’s fun until it’s about you. We're just business contacts. He invites, and I decline every time. End of the story, really."
Lena collapsed in, her eyes bright with that teasing sparkle. “Oh, come on, Valenticia, if it was nothing, then why the blush? Remember that gala last month? He reserved a seat next to him for you and threw out something that made you blush.”
“It was a detail of a deal, that’s what,” I said quickly, but felt my mind dart to his soft voice when he had whispered, “Miss this, us talking like old times” over the hum of the crowd. "Nothing there worth gossiping over. I’m concentrating on the company at the moment. No time for distractions like that.”
Carla giggled and picked up the next strawberry. "Sure, sure. But if I were you, I’d give him a hearing at some point. The guy’s got charm, and life is way too short for never-ending no saying.”