Merlina rubbed her temples as she scanned the last of the quarterly reports on her desk.
Three months in, and the thrill of landing a dream job at 'Safe Haven' had been replaced with a grinding exhaustion that clung to her like her blazer.
Mr. Elias Park, her boss, early forties, smartly dressed, with a smile that could soothe a room or lull you into accepting an impossible deadline.
He just had a way of killing you with kindness. Always patient, always calm, always assigning tasks with that serene look that made you question your own sanity.
Emails pinged relentlessly. Meetings multiplied. Deadlines morphed into emergencies. The work never stopped and neither could she.
Her new apartment offered a quiet sanctuary from the chaos. Warm and cozy enough to be called home.
She'd enrolled Cameron in school, figured out which corner café made coffee strong enough to survive Monday mornings, and even made a few work friends, little alliances of sanity in a sea of deadlines.
