Logan deduced that the rumors of Callum's hostile and standoffish personality couldn't have been further from the truth. Sure, awkward, and at first glance, Callum wasn't someone he'd see anybody approaching for small talk, but from what he gathered so far in the thirty-two minutes he spent in his second elevator ride with him, his boss was nicer than he had expected.

Not that he'd ever fully be comfortable with being in small cramped spaces with the CEO, but he could attribute the nerves more to his claustrophobia than Callum himself.

Callum stretched his neck, pulling his jacket off and loosening his tie. His hands fidgeted as if resisting the urge to pick up his phone from the center of the floor. "How much longer must we wait?"

"Twenty more minutes?" Logan muttered, tapping the screen on his phone. "Give or take."

"I sure hope so. I'm sweating in this suit, and I think I need to use the bathroom."

Logan grimaced. "Gross."

"Don't worry, I can hold it." Callum pointed to the opposite corner, where his papers had been. "Worst case, I've decided I'd use that corner."

"Please don't." Logan made a face that Callum laughed at. He couldn't imagine his CEO deciding to relieve himself in this situation, even with the only light being from his cell phone.

"I'm joking. I am starting to regret that extra coffee, though." Callum clenched and unclenched his hands. "Probably should've eaten more than just half of a salad."

"Can't handle caffeine?"

Callum shrugged. "Among other things. My body's decided to break down already."

Logan wasn't sure if that was a joke, so he nodded and pulled out his phone. There was no service, but Logan still went through the typical routine, checking his messages and emails, which hadn't loaded. The texts from Chris were still there left unresponded, and he was sure once those doors opened, he'd get a bunch of texts and calls from him again. He'd remind himself to block him once he got home.

Logan's nose flared at the messages from earlier before flipping to another app, which wasn't up to date either without the service.

"So," Callum drawled, pointing at his phone. "Boyfriend?"

"Huh?"

Callum blinked before raising his hand to press against his forehead. "I didn't mean to read the message. I just saw—"

"Oh," Logan exclaimed, glancing down at his phone, flipping it over instinctually. "No."

"No?"

Logan almost laughed at the confusion on Callum's face. "Uh, ex-boyfriend."

There was a blank expression on Callum's face. "Oh."

Logan nodded slowly in confusion, to which Callum attempted to hide his face again.

"Forget I asked. Sorry."

Logan was more amused than anything, shaking his head. When Callum finally looked at him, Logan bit back his grin. "Is that a problem, having an ex-boyfriend? Or a boyfriend in general?"

"What? No." Callum frowned. "Why would that be my problem—I mean, having a boyfriend isn't a concern. Or the company's or mine. We're accepting of everyone around here; after all, if we weren't, that would be pretty hypocritical, granted the scandals I've been through. Regardless, I shouldn't have read it. I just saw it earlier too, when I bumped into you."

With the tilt of his head, Logan recalled dropping his phone earlier. "Oh, right. I wasn't looking where I was going either, so it's not entirely your fault either. And it's fine. Just some ex."

It wasn't convincing, and Logan was sure Callum could sense more to it, but he didn't pry. For added measure, Logan said, "I'm sure you've been in the same boat?"

Callum scoffed. "Ex drama? I've got lots of it. It depends which one you're referring to."

The ex-wife drama was something Logan was most curious about, but it felt wrong to bring it up. If he remembered correctly, it had only been about a year since then. Was it a sore spot for him? Or had the divorce been mutual? His coworkers had talked about her being pregnant; others had said she faked it, but was it all just a bunch of rumors? Maybe they were still on speaking terms?

"You," Logan said, stopping short, but curiosity took over. "You had a wife, from what I heard."

Logan wasn't sure what to expect from Callum's reaction, but it surely wasn't the look that Callum had given him. His brows rose before glancing away, fixating on the phone in the center of the elevator. Callum bit the corner of his lip firmly that Logan was surprised it hadn't bled. He regretted bringing it up and had an ounce of fear that Callum would fire him right then and there if he even moved an inch.

"Sorry—"

"Tess," Callum sputtered out the name like a curse. "One of the worst. Charlotte and I joked that her name being a letter away from mess should have been red flag number one."

With a nervous laugh, Logan asked, "that bad?"

Callum shook his head. "Still cleaning up after her mess. She fooled us all, though. Or maybe I was just a big fool for not seeing the signs. Didn't help that her being a daughter of some other company made her picture-perfect in my father's eyes."

"Yikes."

"Yeah. It took a big chunk of my savings when we split. Court took her side." Callum drummed his fingers against his thigh.

"How long were you two...."

"We were married not even a year. I'm surprised you don't already know the whole story. It went viral."

Logan pursed his lips. He had heard about it, but he couldn't imagine that the Callum the tabloids depicted was the same Callum in front of him. "Not the whole thing. It already sounds different from what I heard."

Callum hummed. "Yeah, I'm sure the tabloids didn't mention her keying my car or the other silly stunts she pulled: bleached a few of my more expensive suits, threw some empty beer bottles at me once, and not to mention the threatening texts."

"Threatening?" Logan's stomach lurched at the thought. That wasn't expected, but it sounded like Tess and Chris were more similar than he had thought. "You didn't report it?"

He cursed himself internally, knowing the same could've been asked of him with his ex. But the more he thought about it, Callum could've afforded to report that, could even take her to court over it. There must've been surveillance cameras wherever Callum's rich apartment would be, not to mention the publicity it would have gotten in the first place.

"No, I didn't," Callum said. "Wouldn't have done much anyway."

Logan didn't argue; the same thought process had occurred to him when he first dealt with Chris's possessive streak. Nothing had physically escalated between them, and it would've just made Chris more upset and clingy. Although, from the sound of Callum's case, things seemed far worse than Logan had imagined. Damaging property and throwing bottles? He'd take Chris's phone calls and text messages over that any day.

"And she just upped and left?"

Callum nodded. "Haven't seen her in months. A couple of articles online have speculated that she's with someone, but we've completely cut each other off. I don't really care where she is or what she's doing."

Logan still had questions, especially about the potential pregnancy. Still, he already felt like he was walking a precarious line with Callum just by asking about her in the first place.

"And to think I thought we were actually in love at first," he mumbled offhandedly. A pensive look fell on his face before he cleared his throat and pointed at Logan's phone. "You think it's about time yet? It feels like it's been two hours."

Logan glanced down at his phone, noticing Callum's hands were clenched into fists. "I think it's been about forty minutes. They should be here any minute."

"Surely traffic can't be that bad, right?" Callum let out a groan. "You're probably tired of listening to my banter, right?"

Logan shook his head. "I think it's helping. Not focusing on being in such a tiny space. I don't feel as nervous or on edge as before."

"That's surprising. Charlotte hates it when we ride in the same elevator. She usually leaves first or waits till after I leave."

"I'm assuming she left first if she hasn't called for someone to let us out sooner," Logan said, his eyes trailing up at the buttons.

Callum sighed. "I wouldn't know. She was in the office when I went to your floor. She could still be up there for all I know."

Logan pursed his lips. "That reminds me, why were you on the marketing floor to begin with?"

"Making copies," was his reply, almost too quickly.

"I figured you'd have a copy machine up there."

Callum nodded. "We do. Charlotte was using it, though. And she left her pen down here."

"A pen?" Logan wasn't convinced but shrugged it off. "Whatever—"

Callum was about to ask what was wrong until he heard it too. The sound of heavy footsteps.

"About time," he nearly cried. Logan gulped before rising unsteadily on his feet. Callum got up from the floor with a groan, grabbing his phone from the floor as the sound of voices circulated from outside.

Somebody must've known they were in here if they had known the floor the elevator had stopped at, or they had gone to the maintenance room and had figured it out that way. Logan didn't care how they had figured it out, more thrilled that that meant they were finally getting out of here.

"Fire department!" one of the voices called out. "Everyone alright? We'll get you out of there shortly!"

"We're alright!" Callum replied.

Under other circumstances, Logan would've flinched at the loud sounds of the firefighters' presumed gear and equipment outside. To him, it sounded like music to his ears, not that he found being in an elevator with his boss was unbearable. Callum was just as eager to get out of here as he was, or it really was from the caffeine from the last coffee.

Amusingly the light from his phone still danced around the space as they waited for the doors to open.

———

A/N: As part of the ONC hype, I will be shouting out some of my fellow ONC peeps from the discord server I'm in! These individuals may or may not be entering into the official ONC, but will be participating in a version of ONC (or NONC) where they will still be following along with the prompts and deadlines.

For this chapter's promo, we have the amazingly talented CeeMTaylor's novella, Deathmark

Blurb: By day, Cyprian Cavish is a powerful water mage. By night, he's a famed Ilian monster hunter, keeping the city safe from evil spirits. Cyprian has one rule: no one dies on his watch. But Cyprian's teammate, the infuriating Jael Soti, harbors a curse—one that kills him repeatedly, but won't let him stay dead.

To make matters worse, Cyprian is in love with him. When the curse warps and threatens to kill Jael once and for all, Cyprian must find a way to trace and defeat the caster, or his time with Jael will run out.