Thursday’s first class was one Damian usually enjoyed.
Not because he particularly liked the professor.
Professor Miller had a habit of giving assignments with vague instructions and then acting surprised when half the class interpreted them differently.
But the course itself was useful.
Business Communication.
Today, they were covering negotiation.
Damian sat near the middle of the room with Ethan beside him.
Ethan dropped into his chair and immediately sighed.
"I hate Thursdays."
"It’s eight-thirty."
"Exactly. Thursday shouldn’t start this early."
"You said the same thing Monday."
"Monday deserves criticism too."
Damian opened his notebook.
Ethan glanced at him.
"You brought the new laptop."
"Yeah."
"You really like that thing."
"It works pretty well."
"You sound like you’re talking about a car."
Damian smiled.
"It doesn’t freeze every ten minutes. That’s enough."
The professor walked in before Ethan could answer.
"Morning, everyone."
The room settled.
Professor Miller placed a case study on the projector.
"Today we’re doing something slightly different. I don’t want definitions. I want you to think."
Ethan quietly leaned toward Damian.
"We’re finished."
Damian ignored him.
The professor explained the scenario.
A small software company was negotiating a contract with a much larger client. The client wanted a major discount and additional features included for free. The company needed the contract badly because it would provide enough revenue to fund its next stage of development.
The question was simple:
How should the company negotiate without losing the deal?
Students began discussing it in pairs.
Damian read through the scenario again.
The obvious answer was to refuse the discount.
But that wasn’t necessarily good negotiation.
The company needed the client.
At the same time, giving away too much would hurt them later.
Damian wrote a few notes.
Ethan glanced over.
"What are you writing?"
"Nothing."
"You always say that before saying something complicated."
Damian turned the notebook toward him.
"I’m saying they shouldn’t negotiate on price first."
Ethan frowned.
"Why?"
"Because they haven’t established what the client actually values."
Ethan stared at the case.
"That’s actually a good point."
"I know."
"Don’t get arrogant."
Damian laughed.
Professor Miller called the room back together.
"Let’s hear some answers."
A student near the front suggested offering a fifteen-percent discount.
Another suggested refusing to negotiate because the company’s product was valuable.
Professor Miller listened to both.
"Reasonable. Other ideas?"
A hand went up.
Adrian.
Damian looked over.
Adrian sat comfortably in his chair, looking completely at ease.
"I’d offer a smaller discount, but only if the client agrees to a longer contract."
Professor Miller nodded.
"Why?"
"It protects the company’s revenue while giving the client something immediately valuable."
A few students nodded.
It was a good answer.
Damian agreed with it.
Then Professor Miller looked around.
"Anyone want to challenge that?"
Damian didn’t raise his hand.
Professor Miller noticed him anyway.
"Damian?"
A few heads turned.
Damian looked up.
"You’ve been writing for the last five minutes."
Ethan whispered, "Here we go."
Damian ignored him.
"I think it’s a good starting point."
Adrian looked toward him.
"But?"
Damian glanced at the projected case.
"But the company shouldn’t offer a discount before finding out what the client actually wants."
Adrian leaned back slightly.
"Why not?"
There it was.
The question wasn’t hostile.
But it wasn’t casual either.
Damian looked at him.
"If the client cares more about faster implementation than price, giving them a discount accomplishes nothing."
Adrian nodded slowly.
"And if they care about price?"
"Then negotiate price."
"So you’d ask them what they want before making an offer?"
"Exactly."
Adrian smiled slightly.
"That could waste time."
"It could save money."
A few students laughed.
Professor Miller stepped in.
"That’s the point of negotiation. You don’t make concessions before understanding what you’re getting in return."
Adrian nodded.
"Fair."
Damian turned back toward his notebook.
He didn’t feel like he’d won anything.
It was just a classroom discussion.
But Adrian didn’t look at it that way.
He’d asked the question expecting Damian to defend his position.
Instead, Damian had calmly redirected the argument.
He’s more grounded than I thought.
Adrian didn’t particularly like that conclusion.
Not because he disliked Damian.
He barely knew the guy.
But Adrian was used to being one of the sharper people in rooms like this.
He didn’t enjoy discovering someone else could challenge him without trying to prove anything.
After class, students poured into the hallway.
Ethan caught up with Damian.
"You know what I learned today?"
"What?"
"You’re becoming annoying."
"I’ve always been annoying."
"True."
They walked toward the student center.
Ethan shook his head.
"I still don’t understand how you went from barely caring about school to answering questions like that."
"I cared."
"You once submitted an assignment three minutes before the deadline."
"It was on time."
"You submitted it while the professor was collecting them."
"Still on time."
Ethan laughed.
His phone buzzed.
He checked it.
"I’ve got to go. Project group."
"Again?"
"Unfortunately."
Ethan pointed at Damian.
"Don’t do anything interesting without me."
"I’ll try."
"Good."
He disappeared into the crowd.
Damian continued walking.
He hadn’t gone far when he saw Emily sitting on a bench outside the library.
She noticed him.
"Hey."
"Hey."
Damian stopped.
"You said you needed help with something."
Emily nodded.
"Yeah."
She pulled a notebook from her bag.
"I don’t understand this."
Damian sat beside her.
It wasn’t anything complicated. She had been working through a section of a course assignment and had gotten stuck on one part.
Damian read through it.
"You’re making it harder than it is."
Emily frowned.
"That sounds insulting."
"I’m not insulting you."
"You’re definitely insulting me."
"Look."
He pointed to the page.
"You already have most of the answer. You’re just trying to solve the entire thing at once."
Emily looked at the page.
Then back at him.
"Oh."
"Exactly."
She stared at the question again.
"That’s annoying."
"Why?"
"Because you made it look easy."
"It wasn’t."
"It was for you."
Damian shrugged.
"You were overthinking it."
Emily smiled.
"Maybe."
They spent the next twenty minutes working through the assignment.
Eventually, Emily closed her notebook.
"Thank you."
"No problem."
She looked at him.
"So what are you doing now?"
"Nothing specific."
"Good."
Damian raised an eyebrow.
Emily stood.
"Come on."
"Where?"
"You’ll see."
"That’s suspicious."
"You’ll be fine."
Damian followed her.
They ended up at a small café a few minutes from campus.
It wasn’t expensive or particularly fancy.
Emily ordered a drink and found a table near the window.
Damian sat across from her.
"You do this often?"
"Come here?"
"Yeah."
"Sometimes."
She looked outside.
"It’s quieter than campus."
Damian understood that.
He liked quiet too.
For a while, they talked about completely unrelated things.
A professor who spoke too quickly.
A ridiculous video Ethan had sent Damian.
A football match they’d both watched.
Emily’s dislike of early morning classes.
Damian’s inability to cook anything beyond basic meals.
"You can’t cook?"
"I can cook."
"What can you make?"
"Eggs."
Emily stared at him.
"That’s not cooking."
"It involves heat."
"That isn’t the standard."
Damian laughed.
"I can make pasta too."
"Okay, that’s slightly better."
"Thank you."
She smiled.
The conversation continued.
No business.
No Westbridge.
No money.
Just them.
Damian noticed something while Emily was talking.
He liked this.
Not the café.
Not the food.
Just sitting there with her.
There wasn’t any pressure to impress her or fill every silence.
He could just listen.
When did this become something I looked forward to?
He didn’t have an answer.
Emily suddenly stopped talking.
"What?"
Damian blinked.
"What?"
"You were staring."
"I wasn’t."
"You were."
"I was thinking."
"About?"
"Nothing."
Emily narrowed her eyes.
"You’re terrible at lying."
Damian smiled.
"Good thing I wasn’t lying."
She shook her head.
"Whatever."
But she was smiling too.
Emily took another sip of her drink.
She had started noticing these moments lately.
Damian was different from when they’d first met.
Not dramatically.
He still had the same dry sense of humor.
Still preferred keeping to himself.
Still avoided unnecessary attention.
But there was more confidence now.
He didn’t second-guess every decision.
He seemed comfortable being himself.
Emily liked that.
She wasn’t sure why she’d started noticing it.
Maybe because they’d been spending more time together.
Maybe because Damian was becoming easier to understand.
Or maybe she was simply paying more attention than before.
She pushed the thought aside.
We’re friends.
That was simple.
At least for now.
Across campus, Adrian was leaving the business building when he spotted them through the café window.
He stopped for half a second.
Emily was laughing.
Damian was smiling.
They looked comfortable together.
Adrian watched them for another moment before continuing down the street.
His expression hadn’t changed.
But his thoughts had.
So that’s the relationship.
He’d assumed Damian was simply another friend.
Apparently, it was more complicated than that.
His phone buzzed.
A message from one of his friends.
You coming tonight?
Adrian looked at it.
Then typed back.
Maybe.
He put his phone away.
He wasn’t going to make a scene.
There was no reason to.
But he also wasn’t going to pretend he hadn’t noticed Damian.
The guy wasn’t just some random student anymore.
And Adrian had a feeling they were going to cross paths again.
Probably sooner than either of them expected.