A Daydream

I can't believe that my online boyfriend is actually my boss, Yoel Gilmore, who refutes me at all times during my work hours!

So, I purposefully complain on the chat app, saying that my "boss" wants me to burn the midnight oil just to get a proposal done immediately. Almost immediately, I see my company's group chat updating with a new message that says, "A one-day extension has been given."

Afterward, I claim that I "want to quit my job because the food at the cafeteria sucks". On the very same day, the company makes a decision to increase the cafeteria meals' portions without hiking up the price. I'm also given an increase in bonus.

In the end, I say I want to break up with him because I can't hug him in real life. But I end up getting taken to the CEO's office, where I hear him telling me in a choked-up tone, "I'll let you hug and kiss me. Can we please not break up?"

The air in the department pitch meeting was sharp, snapping like a soda fizzing open. I had just reached the third slide when my hand slipped. With a sharp smack, the screen went black. It wasn't me. The computer had disconnected on its own.

At the head of the table, Yoel Gilmore looked up, frowning as if the world owed him millions. Three taps of his fingers on the table, and each one felt like a hammer pounding my skull.

"Three minutes left," he said coldly, like a knife pulled straight from the freezer. "If we don't start now, the meeting is over."

I didn't dare look up. When I first set up the projector, I had accidentally connected to the wrong Wi-Fi, and now the giant screen displayed his desktop wallpaper—my cat.

It had once been an ugly little mess that could scare neighborhood kids, but I had edited it into a fluffy, bright-eyed little prince, perched on the windowsill and posing cutely for the camera.

I had spent three hours editing it to perfection and stored it in a private album that even my mom hadn't seen. Yet now, it sat on Yoel's screen, gazing innocently at the whole company.

My legs went weak.

That night, he had been teasing me on voice chat. "Darling, show me your cat. I haven't seen it yet."

I replied, "Okay, close your eyes. I'll send you a surprise."

He got so excited that his voice shifted. "Really? Wait, I'll record my heartbeat to use as background music!"

Now that I thought about it, that heartbeat had sounded a lot like him tapping his fingers on the table during meetings.

I ground my teeth and told myself to stay grounded.

A man like Yoel wouldn't be texting "Darling, are you asleep?" at midnight. He wasn't the type to say things like, "Did you skip sugar today?"

He was the type to frown even when a colleague took an extra sip of milk tea, saying,