Flame on the Ashes

I arrived at the local workspace café a little earlier than the rest of the team. I specifically chose to reserve the semi-outdoor VIP room so the vibe would feel much more casual and chill than a stiff corporate office. After putting my credit card down at the front counter to open a tab for everyone, I waited in the room.

Not long afterward, the data team arrived as a group. All six of them walked in, their expressions visibly tense and guarded as they took their seats around the table.

"Marcus, are you still a regular at that underground jazz bar in the South Loop?" I asked casually, leaning back comfortably in my chair.

He stopped pulling his chair out and squinted at me. "How the hell did you know about that, man?"

"Well, I used to live right around that area. I actually saw you in the crowd a few times wearing that slick brown fedora," I laughed.

"Wow, that’s my signature attire, man! But I don't think I ever saw you there."

I chuckled, taking a sip of my black coffee. "Man, I usually sat up on the second floor. Well, not as often as you, obviously. But I always made sure to come down whenever Robson performed."

"No shit! That dude is an absolute elite on the sax! I love it when he performs!" Marcus beamed. His defensive posture completely vanished, replaced by genuine excitement.

"What about you, Linda? Don’t try to lie, I know you often play old-school jazz music in the background whenever we share screens on the app," I said, offering her a warm smile.

She blinked. "Well... I haven't ever been to an actual jazz club yet, but I do really like the music."

Marcus immediately leaned over the table. "Girl! You need to come by my spot sometime! Trust me, watching that band play live is a divine experience!"

"Err, I’m not sure." Linda nervously averted her gaze down to her latte. "You know I don’t really have the right attire for that kind of cool occasion."

"You don’t have to wear fancy clothes to enjoy the music, Linda. Besides, I think Rose here can easily help you out with an outfit. She’s definitely the most stylish one in the group," I noted, gesturing toward Rose.

Rose flushed a bright, violent pink immediately. "Well... I can help you look if you want. But… I’m not sure if I’m actually that stylish."

Mona burst out laughing. "Don’t be too modest, Rose! I know you like spending hours posing in front of your mirror! Especially when you buy those new Korean-style outfits."

Rose gasped, burying her face in her hands. "I-I just wanted to try the trend out! Kenzi kept pushing me to try the aesthetic!"

Kenzi giggled from the other end of the table. "I pushed you because you look amazing when you wear that kind of style, Rose!"

"You should try dressing Stefan up next, Kenzi. He actually has really nice, sharp features for that Korean streetwear style," I suggested, throwing Stefan under the bus to keep the banter rolling.

Stefan's eyes went wide in sheer panic. "No, no, no! I would look incredibly weird!" he argued, quickly raising his hands in surrender.

Kenzi and Rose immediately turned in their chairs to scrutinize Stefan's face. "You are absolutely right, Daeron. He actually has a very pretty, soft face," Kenzi analyzed, tapping her chin.

Marcus laughed loudly, slapping the table. "Yeah, definitely girly!"

Stefan scoffed, sinking lower into his chair. "Oh, fuck all of you!"

The heavy, suffocating tension that had followed them into the room completely evaporated. As the conversation naturally became more chill and they began to ruthlessly tease each other, I sat back in my chair, nursing my coffee and quietly observing their dynamics.

I immediately noticed why Claudia had promoted Marcus and Mona to be her primary assistants; they naturally anchored the conversation, effortlessly acting like protective older siblings to the younger members of the group.

After an hour of lighthearted banter, the caffeine kicked in and the mood naturally shifted. Mona looked across the table directly at me.

"So, Daeron. I believe we’re here to actually talk about the business, right?"

I nodded, setting my coffee cup down and resting my forearms on the table. "Yeah. But before we get into the metrics and the deadlines, I want to formally apologize to all of you." I looked at Kenzi specifically, ensuring she knew I was listening. "I know you guys have been completely overwhelmed and burnt out by the rigid schedules I set. That’s simply on me. I messed up."

I leaned forward, completely dropping my ego. "I need your help, guys. All of you here are the actual experts in this technical field. You guys worked directly under Claudia for quite a while, so I need your completely honest opinions. What is the biggest bottleneck you are facing right now, and what kind of daily workflow do you actually enjoy?"

They looked at each other in genuine surprise. They had expected a corporate lecture, not a collaborative brainstorm. After a quiet moment, Mona finally spoke up, and the floodgates opened. The rest of the team slowly began to share their honest frustrations one by one.

During this talk, the fatal flaw in my management style became painfully obvious. The biggest issue wasn't the schedule; it was a total collapse in communication. Usually, they would receive a raw task, and Claudia would hover over them, answering their complex accounting questions in real-time. When I took the wheel, they lost their compass. Because I couldn't answer their high-level math questions, they didn’t understand how to proceed. They had to stop, research, and figure it out themselves, which drastically killed their momentum and caused massive anxiety.

"Okay. So, how about we create permanent, specialized roles for each stage of the workflow?" I suggested, an idea finally clicking into place.

They looked toward me. "What kind of roles?" Mona asked, intrigued.

I opened my laptop and pulled up the master framework Claudia had built. "You see here, the overall workflow is already clear enough, but we never set specific roles for each of us. If we assign an expert role for each flow here, then you guys can process the work like an assembly line without constantly second-guessing what you should do next, right?"

Marcus rested his chin on his hands, analyzing the idea. "But I understand why Claudia gave us a randomized variety of tasks from different flows. She wanted us to master the whole accounting process, not just isolate us in one single sector."

"Then we can rotate the roles," I countered smoothly. "Maybe once a month. That way, you guys can still learn the entire process effectively, since you will be practically mastering one specific flow for a whole month before switching to the next."

Mona nodded in agreement. "That’s a great idea, actually. But the interval of each flow will be way too short to split randomly between six people."

"So we won't. We will split the six of you into two distinct teams. What do you say?"

They looked at each other, the heavy stress finally leaving their shoulders. "That could definitely work, but how do we decide who takes what role?" Stefan asked.

I looked at the two natural leaders of the group. "Would you guys mind if I officially appointed Marcus and Mona as the Team Leads for each squad?" I asked the room. Without any hesitation, Kenzi, Rose, Stefan, and Linda nodded in immediate, unanimous agreement.

"What about you two? Are you ready to take the leadership challenge?"

Marcus and Mona looked at each other, a confident spark in their eyes. "Sure," they answered in unison.

"Perfect. Now let’s build these teams together," I gave them a warm, profoundly relieved smile.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sketching out the new corporate structure on napkins. After some consideration of their individual strengths, we decided that Rose and Linda would work under Marcus’s technical wing, and the rest would report to Mona. We all agreed the teams would be scrambled every month to keep the dynamic fresh. After that, I closed out the cafe tab, parted ways, and prepared to launch the new system the next morning.

For the entire week, we pressure-tested the new role system. It worked flawlessly. It vastly improved our work speed and reduced the margin of error significantly, simply because they finally had clear direction and leadership they could trust. At the end of the week, I invited the team back to the café for a weekly evaluation. Whenever we found a flaw in the system, we discussed it together to find a suitable solution instead of me just barking orders. Kenzi never brought up quitting again.

Once I proved the new engine worked, I finally brought the structural changes to Claudia. She spared some time between her grueling classes to study the roles, and she was incredibly proud of the results. Although, as usual, she immediately made a few brilliant, highly technical tweaks to the spreadsheets that worked like absolute magic. It optimized our turnaround time even further, giving the team much more relaxed deadlines to complete their heavy workload.

**

June 2013

It had been more than a month since I reorganized the team system. The new structure helped me immensely in managing the agency from a distance, and we successfully delivered all the May contracts perfectly on time.

I had kept my promise. The business was safe. And today was officially Claudia's last day of Summer Session 1.

Beep! Click! The apartment door swung open. "I’m home, amore!" Claudia shouted from the entryway, her voice completely, joyously carefree for the first time in weeks.

I chuckled from the living room couch. "Welcome back to the land of the living!" I closed the monthly revenue spreadsheet and placed my laptop down on the coffee table.

She jogged across the room toward the sofa before practically launching herself onto me. "Oof! At least take off your heavy backpack first, Clau!" I laughed, catching her waist.

She giggled, carelessly throwing her heavy bag onto the floor. She straddled my lap, placing her soft hands on my cheeks and looking deeply into my eyes. "I missed spending time with you so much, Daeron."

I gently tilted her chin up until our lips met in a slow, fiercely passionate kiss. "I missed you too, Clau. I love you."

"I love you too." She kissed me back, her arms circling tightly around my neck and pulling me flush against her.

I placed my hands firmly on her hips. Without breaking the kiss for a single second, I effortlessly lifted her body as I stood up from the sofa, carrying her toward the hallway.

"You’re strong," she whispered breathlessly against my lips, her legs wrapping around my waist.

"Let me show you exactly how strong I am."

She giggled as I carried her into the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind us to start the summer break right.

We spent the entire afternoon making up for our severe lack of physical intimacy over the last month.

I had missed her so incredibly much while we were drowning in our separate, exhausting schedules. I couldn’t pull myself away from her soft lips. Her ragged breath hitched every time I slipped the fabric off her skin, enticing me completely.

As my lips explored every inch of her skin, the sweet, earthy scent of sandalwood that I had missed so much completely drowned my senses. Her soft voice became my favorite melody. When we finally began to move in rhythm, a flushed, beautiful red color decorated her pale peach skin. The frantic pace of her heartbeat, the sound of her voice under her heavy breath as she gasped my name, and the way she looked so deeply at me—all of it was purely electric.

Every time her body shook, and the way her back arched as she clawed at the bedsheets, the blinding tension inside me grew even tighter.

As the coil became too unbearable to hold back anymore, I called her name under a heavy, ragged breath. It completely exploded inside of her as her small body started to jolt uncontrollably beneath me.

And the absolute best part was the aftermath. When she rested her bare body flush against mine, she looked deep into my eyes and whispered, "I love you so much."

I gently caressed her smooth skin. "I love you too, amore." I pulled her closer, burying my face in her brunette hair. "I love you very much."

**

When the morning sun finally broke through the windows, we got up and made breakfast together.

"So, have you planned out exactly when we should drive back to your hometown?" I asked her, taking a bite of my food.

She nodded happily, radiating a bright, carefree energy. "Of course! Let’s drive back next week. What do you think?"

I smiled back at her, feeding off her excitement. "Let’s do it!"

She giggled. "Great! I am going to call my mom and ask her to cook the absolute best Italian food you have ever tasted!"

I chuckled, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I certainly hope your mom won't be serving me any of those lethal, black-pepper pancakes."

She gasped, leaning over to aggressively nudge my arm. "Why do you keep bringing that up!!! I already proved that I can make a proper pancake now!"

I laughed out loud. "Well, it’s not bad."

"No, it IS great!" she countered, proudly taking a massive bite of her homemade pancake.

"Oh yeah, before I forget. Today I’m going to head over to the old loft to clean it up one last time."

She looked up at me. "Do you need any help?"

I shook my head, taking my plate to the sink. "I don’t think so. I’m actually going to meet my father's property assistant and officially hand over the keys afterward."

She nodded. "Alright! I’ll stay here and start packing up our clothes so we have plenty of time before next week's road trip!"

"Do you want me to grab you any food on my way back?"

She shook her head. "Nope! I ate way too much cheap fast food during my study binges this month. I really need to watch my weight."

I glanced appreciatively over her figure as she sat at the stool. "Weight? Clau, you’re already sexy enough to stop traffic."

"And I want to keep it exactly that way," she winked playfully.

I chuckled, grabbing my car keys from the counter. "Alright then. I’ll drive to the loft first and get it over with."

"Drive safe, okay?"

I leaned down, pressing a warm, lingering kiss to her forehead. "I will, amore. I love you."

"I love you too, amore!"

*

After navigating the mild morning traffic, I pulled into the gloomy, echoing basement parking lot of my old building.

I killed the engine and walked briskly toward the elevator bank.

Hmm. I need to inform Wilson that I'm here. I completely forgot to set an actual time with him yesterday.

I pulled my phone from my pocket to text him as I stepped into the empty elevator car.

Ding.

The metal doors slid open onto my floor. I stepped out, walking blindly down the long, carpeted hallway while my thumbs rapidly typed up a text to Wilson.

"Daeron."

Thump. My boots halted dead in their tracks. That familiar, melodic voice instantly turned the blood in my veins to pure ice. My breath caught jaggedly in my throat.

As I slowly raised my head from my phone screen, I saw a painfully familiar figure standing right in front of the heavy metal door of my loft. She was the person who had lingered like a ghost in the darkest corners of my heart for the last year.

Her striking green eyes, framed flawlessly by that fiery red hair, were locked deeply onto mine.

She took a slow, hesitant step closer. Her green eyes slowly became glassy and teary as she looked up at me.

"I missed you, Tiger."