literature

Death's Love-Child: Chapter 8

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Their reaping mission together had been a pleasant respite for William’s conscience. While he was reaping with the object of his distractions, he wasn’t neglecting his paperwork. But he could only reap for so long before his desk-duties began to stack to the ceiling. After a week of collecting souls, there was a staggering amount of paperwork for him to complete. And still he had trouble focusing while at his office.

Will was a sorry sight as he slouched at his desk. His face was grim and his eyes were shadowed with lack of sleep. Every stroke of his pen seemed to weigh a thousand pounds and was tortuously slow. 

He was no longer alone in his distracted state of mind, however. Giana now sat across from him, quite uncomfortable. Even her work felt far more laborious than usual, but that was because her manager’s obviously distressed state was tugging at her every thought. She was genuinely worried for him.

A week ago, she had thought that his lapse of concentration was tied to his over-diligence and that, to collect his scattered thoughts, he needed to do something different. She had hoped that their past week of reaping would have cured him of his restlessness, but it would appear that he had only gotten worse.

She stole a glance up at his strained face. There was something that was bothering him and he didn’t know how to resolve it. Someone needed to give him an encouraging push.

With an unapologetic rasp of her chair, she stood up abruptly, drawing the man’s green gaze. The first thing she did was approach the windows and pull the blinds open, allowing waning sunlight to illuminate the small workspace. Then she opened one of the windows partially and breathed in the fresh air.

Then she turned, locked eyes with her superior, and walked towards him. He almost looked numb upon her approach. The red-haired assistant pushed his unfinished tower of papers away from him and gingerly plucked the pen from his hands. Then, she placed her chair beside his and sat down.

There was a good long pause as the two of them sat in silence, Giana gazing intently at him and Will looking vaguely like a scolded child as his eyes were cast down.

“Well?” She asked expectantly. “What’s wrong, William?” His eyes drifted up to meet hers. “Just say it.”

“Nothing is wrong, Miss Sutcliff,” he lied, picking up his pen once again.

“No,” she disagreed and admonished at once. Snatching the pen from his hand once again, she placed it out of his reach and leaned forward, her eyes now showing her concern. “William Spears,” her tone was almost motherly, “you can’t concentrate. You’ve only verified twelve reports in the last three hours. Something is obviously on your mind.” She gave a small smile hoping to lighten his mood. “Even my father would see that something’s troubling you and he barely notices anything.” There was a lengthy awkward silence as she waited for him to confide in her, but his lips were sealed for the moment. She gave a sigh, “William, problems never go away until you face them. I can’t force you to do anything, but please, it if will make a difference, tell me.”

His gaze reconnected with hers and seemed to speak something very plainly, if not reluctantly. She understood its meaning at once.

“It has to do with me, doesn’t it?” She inquired.

He nodded slowly and began to reassume his confident demeanor.

“Miss Sutcliff...” He began and then winced before correcting himself, “Giana, lately, I’ve been very distracted by your... presence in this office.”

“Distracted?”

“Yes,” he answered. For a moment, he briefly considered telling her the true reason behind his distracted mind, but he banished that thought almost instantly. “I do not mean to offend you, Giana, but the presence of someone else occupying space at my desk is simply...” Here his imagination ran out.

“Would you rather I move to a vacant desk in the office?” The assistant inquired kindly after a moment.

An adamant “no” leaped into his mouth, but he restrained himself. 

“It is possible... That it might... Help,” he responded very reluctantly.

He didn’t wish for her to leave, but the thought of revealing his true emotions to her by insisting that she stay by his side terrified him. 

“Very well,” she nodded stiffly, a bit let down by the change in her situation. Then the smile returned to her face and she extended the pen she had deprived him of. “If it will help you, then I’ll do it immediately.”

He accepted the pen and savored the millisecond that their fingers touched.

“Thank you, Giana. That’s very professional of you.”

“Well, I did learn from the best... Senpai,” she gave a little light smile. He almost blushed. “Just let me move my assignments into my cubicle and you’ll have your office to yourself again in no time!”

As she gathered up her papers and made her first trip out the door, William put his head in his hands. 

He hadn’t gotten any work done while she had been with him, but how was he supposed to cope without her?

Reminding himself that she was simply in another office space and not dead, he gathered himself and set himself back again to his grueling workload.

Agh! Will! You were making such progress too! Way to go you big bungling baka!
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