There's something to be said for the forbidden.

Not that it was forbidden to talk to Cole per se. But let's just say that Jane's pride prevented her from speaking to him casually. Which meant that she definitely did not take him up on his offer of texting him.

It also meant that whenever she got a text, be it from Amy, Ryan, her parents or anyone else, she always feared Cole had finally defied the status quo and sent her a message. And when she went to check her notifications, she inevitably ended up being wrong. She would sigh in relief and scold herself for thinking he'd ever bother talking to her outside of work.

That hadn't stopped him from doing just that the other day though. But really, in such a situation, who wouldn't have? What, did she need to give him points for not acting like a robot now? No, but some people wouldn't have cared what happened to her afterwards and somehow, as much as it baffled Jane, he had cared enough to make sure she was all right.

And at the end of the day, it didn't really matter either. Maybe she had a little more respect for him ever since that incident in the subway, but it didn't mean they'd turned into besties overnight either.

That was why, when Ryan texted her about a meeting they had early in the afternoon, Jane jumped a little in her seat. She sent a quick reply that told him she would be present, then glanced up from her phone. Her eyes locked with Cole's, coffee in hand, talking with another employee as if nothing was wrong. And sure enough, nothing was. Except for the way he smirked her way when he noticed Jane watching him.

She felt her face go up in flames and quickly turned her back to him, resuming her previous task. He wouldn't get the best of her. She wouldn't let him. Ever.

Soon enough, it was time to get to the meeting Ryan had mentioned to her earlier. Jane groaned inwardly. Not that she had anything against meetings, except for when they ran too long (though that rarely ever happened with Ryan, thank God, but Dave had the annoying tendency to ask too many irrelevant questions, thus making the meeting longer than necessary). But she'd rather avoid as much as possible any occasion where she had to deal with Cole.

For a moment, she wondered if he'd dared mention what had happened between them to Ryan, since they seemed such good friends. She hoped not, but then she thought it over. Even if Cole had told him about her claustrophobia, Ryan wasn't the kind of boss who believed that stuff made anyone less competent at their job. So, she felt less worried about that and more preoccupied with whether or not he'd dared breach her confidence.

Somehow, Jane didn't think so, no matter how irritating she found Cole. After all, if it was true that someone close to him had a generalized anxiety disorder, then she doubted he'd take mental health lightly.

Jane took a seat at the long, gleaming table, her tablet in hand, prepared to type down anything noteworthy. Cole sat down right in front of her, still smiling innocently at her. He knew. He knew that she hadn't liked having to confide in him and if she had to guess, it made him feel as if he'd gained the upper hand in this stupid rivalry of theirs.

It made Jane want to rip that smirk off his face.

Thankfully, a few seconds later, Ryan came in. Since everyone that was required to attend had arrived, he settled in his own chair (not at the end of the table, because, as he would say, he hated feeling like he was somehow better than the rest of his team when that wasn't true at all) and started speaking.

"Seems like everyone's here, so let's get this meeting started," Ryan said. He powered up his laptop and clicked on the remote. His screen was now on display behind him for all to see. As he gave them updates on their current projects and how some problems had been solved, Jane took some notes, but really, this was more of a summary of the past month's progress and nothing in it captured her attention completely. A good twenty minutes passed until at last, Ryan took a small pause to take a sip from his water bottle and answered a few questions from their other colleagues. At this point, Jane expected they'd reached the end of the meeting and that they could finally go back to work.

"Wait, there's something else I wanted to discuss with all of you before you go," Ryan added, a smile playing on his lips. Jane didn't know how to feel about that particular hint of mischief on her boss's face. Whenever Ryan had shown such an expression in the past, he had always been about to announce a new project, one that sounded thrilling on paper, but pure hell for the team.

Please don't do this to us, Ryan, I beg you, Jane thought. Not that she didn't like challenges, she craved them, but sometimes, some deadlines and expectations were downright absurd in the world of video game design.

And Ryan didn't even have an ounce of malicious intent in him. He just felt a tad too enthusiastic about a new project and sometimes forgot about being realistic.

"There's this new project that I've been thinking about..."

Here we go, Jane thought to herself. I was freaking right again, I know him too well, dammit.

He went on to explain : what kind of game it would be, which consoles they'd produce it for, how many players it could support, etc. The usual spiel. Still, despite her fear that it might be too big a project to take on, Jane found herself excited with its potential. If anything, Ryan had a gift for motivating people. She did enjoy a good challenge and so far, the basic concept of the game sounded great, so maybe there was hope that she was wrong and that it would be feasible.

She glanced at Cole. It didn't surprise her in the least to see him taking notes just as diligently as she did, showing sincere interest in the project. She grimaced. As much as she disliked him, Jane couldn't fault him for being as passionate as she was when it came to making video games.

"So," Ryan went on," I thought we might do things a little differently this time around." He looked at all of them, taking in their reactions. "Just so you know, if you don't agree, please discuss it with me after the meeting. Good?"

Jane nodded and heard a few words of agreement in the room. She had absolutely no idea where this was going. Not that Ryan didn't have a bad habit of being unpredictable at times, but Jane was used to it by now. It didn't mean she had to like that aspect of her boss though.

"See, now you've had some time to get to know Cole. You know where he comes from." For some reason, those words made Cole avert his eyes, as if he would've gone to hide under the table if he'd been able to get away with it. Jane couldn't see why. How could he not want people to know who he was, that he'd worked for an electronics empire behind which stood his family? Unless his ego wasn't as big as she'd first thought?

Nah, I highly doubt that, Jane thought sardonically.

"For the past month," Ryan continued, "I've asked him to learn how each team worked and to give them a hand whenever he could, so that he could get a general idea of what we did here. So far, it went really well. Cole even suggested some ideas, what we could do better in the future. Ideas he has from his experience at his previous job." Jane refrained from rolling her eyes. And now, he was getting praised. This meeting had to end and soon.

"So I thought, here I have someone who has a fresh point of view, someone that could bring something new to our games. And..." He turned towards Jane, which made her sit up, though she felt a little confused. She didn't see how this whole speech about Cole's perfection concerned her. "I also have Jane here who's been working for us for years now. She knows this studio like the back of her hand. It goes without saying that I'd trust her with my eyes closed to design a great game."

Jane felt her heart thud faster and she almost forgot to breathe. Was this it? A promotion? The one she'd longed for so badly? No, it couldn't be. Ryan would've told her first and then announced it at the meeting.

"And the same goes for Cole. I've known him for a long time now and I'd feel more than fine entrusting any project to him given his experience and skills."

Ryan might as well have sucker punched Jane. Not only this wasn't about a long awaited promotion, maybe Cole would be the one getting promoted instead after all. Still, she'd take the praise for what it was. It might feel like a consolation prize, but to know that Ryan held her in high esteem meant the world to Jane.

"With all of this in mind, I thought, hey, I have this perfect solution right in front of my eyes and I just noticed now. Am I blind or what?" This earned a few chuckles, Jane's own sounding a little nervous to her ears. Maybe he was blind, but so was she because she couldn't see where he was going with this at all. "Imagine what those two could do together if they were in charge of this project."

It took a moment for Jane to let this sink in. Oh no. Oh hell no. Ryan hadn't just said what she thought he had.

"So, this is how this is going to go," he said, palms flat on the edge of the table as he leaned forward. "For this project, I've decided to give Cole and Jane a chance to shine and design this game, to show me what they can do together, what they can produce. Obviously, it's still a game from our studio, so I'll still check on them regularly to see if everything's going well and offer them my help and expertise if they need it and I'll review the product in order to make sure it's up to our usual standards, but otherwise? You've got carte blanche."

Jane sat there, stunned. He was for real. He did mean for her to work on a long term assignment with Cole. On a regular basis. She took a quick glance in his direction. His lips had pressed into a thin line and she could easily imagine that, behind that somewhat blank facade, he gritted his teeth and refrained from making a scene. Which she understood completely. What the hell was Ryan thinking? Had he gone mad?

She cleared her throat. "Ryan, I—"

Ryan flashed a brilliant smile her way and she wondered if he was aware of what he'd just done or if he played innocent as he often did.

"Let's talk just the three of us in my office to go over this in more detail, all right? If anyone has any questions, you can ask them now. If it's about the new project though, feel free to discuss any concerns you have with me later today."

While the meeting came to an end, Jane still reeled from Ryan's proposal. He'd used the very thing she wanted most as bait, only to snatch it away from her reach at the last moment while saying "ah-ha! Got you!"

                                                        ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

First of all, thanks so, so much for anyone who's sticking with this story after my hiatus of two months, whoever you are, it means the world to me. I'm so sorry for the wait, but hopefully, the 21 or so chapters I wrote and will be sharing for the next few weeks will be worth the wait.😊

The story's not yet completed, but it's on the right track for sure. Even if I run out of chapters to publish, I'll still be working on the story and sharing any new chapter I have whenever I can. I'm working full time now, so a regular schedule might not be best for me, but I'll try anyway.

Also, I'm in the very, very early planning stages of a few other stories (me and endless plot bunnies have been friends for a long time). Those include a sequel to Love in Disguise with secondary characters (I'll let you guess who they are!), an m/m cinderella romance and another very fluffy and light contemporary m/m romance with a summer feel to it. If I can just finish Love in Disguise, I'll get to those ones too.

If you've enjoyed this chapter, please vote and/or leave a comment!

Also, poor Jane, her literal worst nightmare came true. 😂