AN UNEXPECTED SEAT AT THE TABLE
The elevator doors opened onto the ground floor, and Damian stepped out beside Chisimdi.
The lobby was almost empty now.
The reception lights had been dimmed, and only the security personnel remained near the entrance.
Chisimdi adjusted the strap of her handbag and glanced toward the glass doors.
“My ride should be here soon.”
Damian nodded, his gaze following hers toward the driveway.
Then he remembered the conversation from earlier.
He had told her not to skip lunch.
She had promised she wouldn’t.
Yet they had both been working ever since.
He looked at her.
“You haven’t eaten.”
Chisimdi gave him a tired smile.
“Yes, was too busy to step away.”
“You should have stepped out” Damian replied simply.
She looked toward the driveway again, her posture dropping slightly.
“I’ll eat when I get home.”
Damian glanced at the time before looking back at her.
“You’re not cooking after working this late.”
Her brows lifted slightly in surprise.
“And how do you know that?”
“Because you’re tired,” he stated flatly.
She smiled at his bluntness.
“Fair point.”
For a moment, Damian said nothing.
He could have left it there.
Instead, he nodded toward the entrance.
“Let’s grab something.”
She looked up at him, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“Something?”
“Dinner.” He slipped his hands into his pockets, trying to appear casual.
“Dinner’s on me.
I made you stay late.”
A small smile appeared on her face as she looked at him.
“You didn’t exactly force me to stay.”
“I still kept you here,” he countered.
“You did,” she admitted softly.
“And you’re hungry.”
She laughed softly at his insistence.
“That sounds like an executive order.”
“It isn’t,” he said quietly.
“Good.” Her phone vibrated against her palm.
She glanced at the screen before slipping it back into her handbag.
“My ride is still a few minutes away.”
Damian nodded toward the driveway.
“Then we have time.”
She studied him for a moment, and something warm passed between them in the quiet lobby.
“Alright.”
The smile that appeared on Damian’s face was small, but he couldn’t quite hide it.
“Good.”
They walked out of the building together.
Neither of them said it aloud, but somewhere between the elevator and the entrance, the evening had changed.
They were no longer simply two people leaving work after a long day.
For tonight, at least, they had somewhere else to be.
Together.
The restaurant was only a short drive from the office.
Damian chose a quiet table toward the back, away from the busiest part of the room.
Chisimdi slipped into the seat opposite him and looked around the space.
“I’ve never been here before.”
“likewise,” Damian admitted.
She looked at him with clear surprise.
“You brought me somewhere you’ve never been?”
He opened the menu to mask his expression.
“I’ve passed it several times.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” she teased, watching him.
He glanced up, the faintest smile appearing on his face.
“I thought you might like it.
It’s a nice place”
Something about the simple answer made her pause.
She lowered her eyes to the menu, a slight softness in her expression.
“I think I will.”
They ordered, and for a while, neither mentioned work.
It was strangely easy.
Without the office around them, Chisimdi seemed less guarded.
She laughed more freely, and Damian found himself relaxing in a way he hadn’t expected.
She told him about Chinny’s habit of calling at inconvenient hours and somehow turning every simple conversation into an interrogation.
Damian laughed out loud when she described one particularly embarrassing phone call.
“So she doesn’t trust you.”
“She trusts me.
She just doesn’t trust my decisions,” Chisimdi clarified with an amused shrug.
“Should I be concerned?” Damian asked, his expression softening as he watched her across the table.
Chisimdi shifted slightly in her seat, giving him an amused look.
“About what?”
“Your decisions,” he murmured, his gaze holding hers completely.
She laughed again, the tension fully melting from her shoulders.
“Exactly.” Damian watched her for a moment before taking a sip of water.
He liked this.
More than he should.
At the office, every conversation had a purpose.
Here, they could simply sit across from each other and talk about nothing important.
He found himself wanting the evening to last.
Their food arrived, and Chisimdi immediately reached for her fork.
Damian noticed the eager movement.
“See how hungry some is.” he teased.
She looked up at him defensively.
“I told you.”
“You sure did,” he nodded with a teasing gaze.
“I could still survive till I get home, but you didn’t believe me,” she accused playfully.
“I believed you.”
“Then why are you looking so satisfied?” she asked, tilting her head.
He leaned back comfortably in his chair.
“Because I was right.”
She shook her head, smiling deeply as she started eating.
“You’re impossible.”
“That’s what I’ve been told,” he replied dryly.
“By many people?” she questioned, her eyes glinting.
“Enough.”
She laughed softly at his short answer.
Damian lowered his eyes to his plate, hiding his own growing smile.
For the first time that night, he stopped thinking about why he had brought her there.
He simply enjoyed having her across the table.
The conversation gradually became more personal.
Chisimdi told him about growing up with her mother and how much she valued the quiet moments they still shared at home.
Damian listened more than he spoke.
When she asked about his own childhood, he gave her the safer stories—the school he attended, the first business lesson his father had taught him, the pressure of growing up in a family where success was never considered optional.
She watched him carefully, analyzing his posture.
“You always sound like you were born serious.”
He smiled at the observation.
“I wasn’t.”
“I find that hard to believe,” she countered, her eyes scanning his face.
“I was a troublesome child.”
Her eyes widened in genuine disbelief.
“You?”
“Yes,” he insisted.
She laughed, the sound warm and vibrant.
“I wish I had known you then.”
The words were innocent.
Yet Damian felt them somewhere deeper than they should have landed.
He looked directly at her.
“So do I.”
Her smile slowly faded into something softer under his intense gaze.
Neither spoke for a long moment.
Then she looked down at her plate, breaking the spell.
Damian did the same, adjusting his cutlery.
The moment passed.
But neither forgot it.
They were finishing their drinks when someone approached their table.
“Damian?”
He looked up, his expression changing instantly into something entirely closed off.
“Tobi.”
The young man smiled broadly as he came closer.
“Didn’t know you came here.”
“Apparently I do,” Damian replied tightly.
Tobi laughed and glanced toward Chisimdi, his eyes lingering on her features.
Damian noticed the look immediately.
“This is Chisimdi,” he said, his voice dropping into a colder register.
Tobi smiled directly at her.
“Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.” Her response was polite, but she shifted slightly in her seat, withdrawing from his intense gaze.
Tobi noticed the movement but didn’t seem particularly concerned by her discomfort.
“So, what are you two doing here?”
“Having dinner,” Damian answered shortly.
Tobi looked between them, his grin widening.
“Just the two of you?”
Damian’s jaw tightened until it throbbed.
“Yes.” Something about Tobi’s smile deeply irritated him.
“Didn’t know you were seeing someone,” Tobi remarked carelessly.
Chisimdi’s eyes flicked toward Damian in sudden surprise at the implication.
Damian held Tobi’s gaze, completely unblinking.
“You don’t know everything I do.”
Tobi laughed, raising his hands in mock surrender.
“Fair enough.” His attention returned to Chisimdi, inspecting her once more.
“You work with Damian?”
“Yes,” she answered simply.
“Then you must be important.”
“She is.” The answer came from Damian before he could stop himself or think about the weight of the words.
Chisimdi looked at him in shock.
So did Tobi.
Damian remained completely composed, refusing to back down from the statement.
“She handles executive strategy,” he added, his voice steadier now as he firmly anchored her status.
“She’s very good at what she does.”
“I can see that.” His eyes moved over Chisimdi one last time.
Damian didn’t like it.
Not at all.
Tobi eventually stepped back, picking up on the freezing atmosphere.
“Well, I won’t interrupt.”
“You’re not,” Damian replied, his voice completely devoid of warmth.
Tobi smiled, entirely unfazed.
“Enjoy your dinner.” He turned and walked away.
Damian watched him with a hard gaze until he disappeared entirely among the tables.
When he looked back, Chisimdi was already watching him, biting the inside of her cheek.
“What?”
She tried to hide her smile behind her fingers.
“Nothing.”
“You’re smiling,” he accused, narrowing his eyes.
“I am not,” she insisted.
“You are.”
She lowered her eyes to the table, but the smile remained stubbornly on her lips.
“You didn’t like him.”
Damian picked up his glass, using the action to break eye contact.
“I don’t know him.”
“That wasn’t my question,” she noted softly, raising an eyebrow at his evasion.
Damian exhaled quietly, setting the glass back down onto the tablecloth.
“I didn’t like the way he was looking at you.”
The smile vanished from her lips at the sudden, raw honesty of his words.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then she asked softly, her voice barely a whisper, “Why?”
Damian had no easy answer to give her.
He could have blamed Tobi’s intrusive manner.
He could have called it entirely inappropriate for a restaurant.
Instead, he simply looked at her, stripping away his corporate mask.
“I don’t know.”
It was the most honest answer he could give.
Chisimdi held his gaze for another long moment before looking away into the crowded room.
Neither of them mentioned it again.
But something had shifted irreversibly between them.
Outside, the night air was warm and still.
They walked toward Chisimdi’s car together, their footsteps echoing slightly on the pavement.
“Thank you,” she said, stopping beside the waiting rider and turning to face him fully.
“For dinner.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied, looking down at her.
“And for insisting I eat before going home.”
“You needed a food in your system.”
She smiled up at him in the dim light.
“So did you.”
Damian looked at her, the warmth of the evening wrapping around them.
She was right.
He had needed the break and food for sure.
“I enjoyed tonight,” he admitted, his voice dropping slightly as he looked down at her.
Her expression softened under the amber glow of the streetlights.
“So did I.”
The silence that followed wasn’t awkward.
It was almost comfortable, wrapping around them in the warm night air.
Chisimdi opened her car door but didn’t get in immediately, lingering for a brief second on the threshold.
“Goodnight, Damian.”
His name sounded different outside the office.
He liked hearing it roll off her tongue.
“Goodnight, Chis.”
She smiled before finally getting into the car.
Damian stepped back as she closed the door, the glass separating them once more.
The engine started.
He watched her drive away, his gaze tracking the taillights until the car disappeared completely beyond the road.
Only then did he turn toward his own vehicle waiting by the curb.
His driver opened the door.
Damian got in and leaned back against the leather seat, the quiet interior of the vehicle enveloping him.
He thought about the evening.
The laughter they had shared.
The effortless conversation.
The way she had looked at him, wide-eyed and startled, when he said she was important.
And then Tobi.
Just the thought of the interaction brought that irrational irritation rushing back, his chest tightening all over again.
Damian closed his eyes briefly, rubbing his temples in the dark.
He didn’t want to be jealous.
He didn’t want to care who looked at her.
He certainly didn’t want to be the man who noticed every little thing about her.
Yet he had asked her to dinner because he didn’t want the night to end.
That was the part he couldn’t ignore, no matter how hard he tried.
For weeks, he had been trying to keep a careful distance between them.
Tonight, he had willingly stepped across it.
And sitting alone in the back of his car as the city passed by outside, Damian finally admitted something he had been avoiding for longer than he cared to acknowledge.
He wanted her company.
Not because she worked for him.
Not because he needed another report.
Not because she happened to be nearby.
He simply wanted her.
And for the first time, that realization didn’t frighten him enough to make him run from it.