The passage of time became evident of Sharmaine's recklessness as she returned to Denzel's mansion immediately, slamming her bedroom door and leaning on it. The shame had already engulfed her whole, and the when the supposed realization came to mind, she could not help but cover her face.
As she saw nothing but darkness, a brief memory came. It was a visual memory in which her body shivered from all the different senses she absorbed. Warm embraces, deep reaches, and the lingering pain it brought.
"I have to get to work." she thought. Firstly, she trudged next to her drawer to grab her cellphone, which oddly enough, had a lot of miss calls from Denzel. She frowned upon seeing the notifications and the time, so she decided to get dressed quickly. However, standing up quickly made her back throb.
Walking was another story. It pained her to just walk a couple of meters, so she decided to endure it until she rode a taxi to work. Her heart beats faster as she got closer to the magical glass door, not to even mention that she bumped a few people on the way. By the time she stood at the office door, her face was already covered in sweat.
She swallowed before knocking once, then twice. 'Come in', she heard, entering the office with no hesitation.
"Good afternoon, Denzel. Pardon my tardiness."
The fluid motion and momentum of Denzel had suddenly stopped as he met eyes with her. It's Shawn, he thought. Suddenly, he jerked up from his seat.
"S-Shawn? You're here?"
Sharmaine nodded with a surprised expression, and from the point onwards, Denzel felt light-headed. He was extremely relieved that Shawn came back safe, but he questioned himself if he was capable to protect his assistant.
After all, he chose his image and dignity over someone who probably works a lot more than him. It was even pathetic of him to ask, where did she go or why did she leave. All he ever did was call him over and over again for the past week or so.
"How was work? Did you miss me?" Sharmaine asked, but Denzel did not reply. For some reason, his eyes were locked to hers without blinking.
"Denzel?"
"Oh, yeah, nothing much happened."
Sharmaine was fairly relieved by his response as it seemed like she did not cause any troubles for him. After a minute of staring at each other, she paced the room to her desk and started feeling all the materials. How good it was to finally be back in her lovely corner.
Denzel still stared at Sharmaine from a distance. His worry had dissipated for now, and he wanted to talk to her as if nothing just happened.
"How did your confrontation go?" he asked, though it felt selfish of him.
Sharmaine paused for a brief moment, and with a deep breath, she grabbed the info sheet on the paper stack.
"It went well, but I'm afraid that it did not go according to plan."