Katelyn‘s POV’

Two weeks passed without Ethan. I hadn’t seen him once. I made sure of it. If a meeting might put us in the same room, I sent someone else. If our schedules crossed, I shifted my tasks to another day. I was protecting my own focus. Work had enough fires to put out without adding him to the list.

The live interview was one of those fires. The studio felt tense before we even went live. The male host sat under the bright lights, posture sharp, voice smooth as we counted ...