Chapter 3: My World’s On Fire (and no one can save me but you)
Her fingers rub absently at her eyes of their own accord, leaving her vision blurry halfway through a sentence. Betty blinks and squints into the screen’s glare, reaching blindly for her coffee.
“I’m cutting you off,” a voice says softly, a hint of what she thinks might just be mirth filtering in around the edges. She sets the mug back down and turns in her chair to see her boss standing behind her.
His hand then reaches over her shoulder to turn off the computer screen and her eyes re-adjust to the less-harsh overhead and natural lighting combo gratefully. “I didn’t get to finish it,” Betty protests, although she can hear the weakness in her argument and cringes at her lack of sincerity.
Jughead shrugs. “There’s a growing trend regarding the purchase of second homes in Krakow. That’s pretty much it.”
“You paint quite the picture,” she replies, a touch of amusement tingeing her response - and growing when the corner of his mouth lifts into the smallest of smiles. It reaches his eyes too - only just - and Betty notices how acutely dark blue they are: sapphire-like, or the cold ocean on a winter’s day, except there’s a warmth in them that she hasn’t noticed before.
“That’s why I’m the editor,” he replies, now leaning against her desk. She can smell pine and soap and a faint lingering of what she thinks might be cigarette smoke.
His mouth drops back into its usual position and Betty finds something out of place - something about wanting to make it better (whatever it is) - flitting across her thoughts. She’s saddened to watch a smile that wasn’t even big to begin with fade right in front of her eyes.
It reminds her instantly of Polly and she sucks in a deep breath.