Page 53 of What Comes Around

Knox had been short with me all day. He interrupted me twice before lunch. Once to ask for an analysis he had originally said he wanted next week, and again to question a projection model I had already sent him the night before.

“Redo it,” he said.

“I already ran three scenarios.”

“Run five. I want tighter margins.”

I stared at my screen after he walked away. I had no idea what I had done.

By late afternoon he asked for another report, one he had never mentioned before. Urgent. End of day. When I brought it to his office, he barely looked up.

“Leave it,” he said, already turning back to his laptop.

No thank you. No acknowledgment. Just tension.

By the end of the workday I felt like I was walking through a minefield, every interaction carrying an edge.

That evening Amy and I had our self-defense lesson with Liam. We met at the gym he rented once a week, a small private studio with padded floors and mirrors along one wall. Liam was already there when we arrived, hauling thick training mats out of the storage room.

“You look tired,” Amy said.

“Is that a nice way of saying I look like shit?” I countered.

She snorted. “It is.”

“Warm up,” Liam said. “I’ll be right back.”

The moment he disappeared into the hallway, Amy glanced at me. “What’s going on with you?”

I rolled my shoulders and started slow stretches. “I think Knox is mad at me.”

“Like regular mad or emotionally constipated billionaire mad?”

“The second one. He’s snapping, piling work on me, acting like I did something wrong.”

Amy frowned. “Did you?”

“No.”

She studied my face. “Did you maybe not do something?”

“I have no idea,” I admitted.

“Maybe he doesn’t know what to do with his feelings.”

Before I could reply, Liam came back. “Talking about me?”

“Always,” Amy said.

“Alright,” Liam said. “Tonight we’re working on ground escapes.”

Amy shot me a look as she moved into position. “We’ll dissect your emotionally repressed boss later. Right now, focus on not getting stabbed.”

For the next hour Liam made sure we were too busy falling onto mats to think about anything else.

It didn’t help.

Knox’s mood was no better the next day.