Adeline's eyes shot open revealing her beautiful but slightly hazy green orbs. She squeezed them shut, then slowly opened them again. The stress of last night has made her eyelids feel too heavy to stay open.

Keeping them closed is looking like her only option for now. It'll come around, soon, just needs a little time to adjust. Yep, she had shut them again.

‘Argg… It's morning, a little too soon’ she groaned, eyes still shut.

‘Wake up Adeline, now’ she screamed internally, and with that her eyes flew open, wide awake now.

The memories of last night came pouring like a tide. She'd been awake till 3am last night working on strategies to counter the challenges set forth in the ongoing project with Devlin logistics. Thankfully she'd been able to settle on one that's sure to work effectively.

God… when will she ever get a proper sleep? This project is far more demanding than the previous ones.

She swung one arm across her eyes and searched around the bed with the other. Her fingers glided on the soft white mattress, until it touched her phone and grabbed it. Her green eyes peeked through the crack of her arm to check the time on her phone screen.

‘Shit, just past 5am’ Adeline tossed the phone back on the bed and buried her head in the pillow.

Damn body clock.

Some hair strands tickled her nose and she brushed them off with her slender fingers.

Her long brown hair, usually a neat, professional bun with a few strands falling on her face sometimes, adding a very deceptive delicate beauty to it; is now looking like a bird nest. Angry bird's nest actually.

But there's nothing delicate about her. Yeah, she believes that and it doesn't matter who else thinks otherwise. She's a business woman through and through.

By now most of the sleepiness has left her as she rolled her body to the side of the bed. Her left leg went first, testing the waters. Okay, she's not fully composed yet.

Eventually she pushed her back up from the bed, swung her other leg over the side of the bed, and sat properly on the edge, with her feet flat on the cool hardwood.

Sitting there alone, the full picture of her is compelling enough to draw a second glance at her. Tall straight back, narrow waist, long legs, overall slender build, the kind of figure that's just naturally striking without trying.

Adeline's arms went first, both of them, in a long slow stretch that pulled all the way through her shoulders until something popped satisfyingly along her upper back. That felt good.

The Devlin Logistics partnership deal had sat front and center in her head immediately she woke up, as was normal when she had unfinished tasks.

Well, at least for now there's a strategy she can work with to gain the upper hand. She just needs to wait until Monday to execute it.

She focused on her neck next, rolling it sharply to one side, then repeating for the other side. Her legs pushed forward along the floor, heels digging in, and calves stretching out; releasing the fatigue.

After a short night, her body can be a real baby, needing a little convincing before it can agree to cooperate with the day. And Adeline has its lollipop. Sweet.

As for that project, Devlin was a major freight name in the city of Amarlinton, USA, and the plan was a joint arrangement to handle cargo movement for a client both companies shared, a client whose freight volume alone made the deal worth pursuing hard.

Her back slumped in a little, as she pouted her lips in thought.

The client is also testing to see if the process of shipping such a volume of goods is feasible. If this works out, the profits will be rolling in steady, as they'll likely continue the business.

But Devlin kept coming back to the same set of terms she had already declined twice, terms that would shift more operational control their way than she was willing to give at this stage of things

Adeline had spent her entire life in this large city's streets. She started her logistics business on a small scale by using a small electric scooter during her college days.

Then after college she moved Hartwell Logistics to a mid-level courier setup, and now into a serious multi-state operation that handled huge freight contracts all over Amarlinton. No, she had not done that by handing leverage over to the other side of the table.

Her slumped back straightened at the thought of someone trying to take what's hers. She let out a small hard breath and ran her hand across her messy hair.

Then the board of directors… Another headache

She dragged herself off the bed and into the bathroom, turned the shower on, and stepped in before the temperature had fully sorted itself out, hissing once at the cold before it warmed up and leveled off.

It's Sunday, so her hair is going to have a treat. Shampoo first, fingers working in from the roots and moving down through the full length of her hair until the lather built up properly, then rinsed out clean with warm flowing water.

Thinking about the board of directors in her company can be exhausting sometimes. They had somehow, collectively, decided that her marital status was a company conversation worth having.

“Ummm” she gasped slightly after wiping off the water that almost blocked her breathing.

Her conditioner went in after, she combed through with her fingers, left it to sit while she moved on. What's the word they used again?

Stability. That's it. How she's come to dislike that word.

Words like; Image… Investor confidence…

Like a ring on her finger was somehow going to move a single number on the quarterly report.

Do they really think she can't see through their little schemes? Thinking they can use the troublesome Devlin situation to force her into marriage.

It's her company, right? As the chairwoman and CEO, she's capable enough to solve the company's matters. And yet they still found ways to bring up her getting a marriage partner like it was a significant agenda item.

“Oh well…” thinking too much in the bathroom is not healthy. Yet she keeps doing it.

Body wash next, the loofah going in slow wide circles starting at her neck and working all the way down, shoulders, arms, stomach, the length of her legs, every part of her getting the same easy unhurried treatment.

She rinsed everything off slowly, tilting her head back under the full spray to get all the conditioner out of her hair.

Adeline turned off the shower and stood still for the water to flow off her body a bit.

She knew herself, and very well at that. She's capable of silencing those old geezers at every board meeting, that's a piece of cake.

But then, why the persistence though? What do they stand to gain if she gets married? She had yet to find out…

The body wash was vanilla, warm and a little sweet in the rising steam, the kind of scent that just sat on skin softly and did not try too hard.

The board could line up every scheme they can think of…

She had grown up in an orphanage with nothing behind her name, and that had not deterred her ability to achieve great heights.

A change in marital status was not about to change that.

She'll get to the bottom of this. Somehow. Okay, definitely.

Toweled off and back in the bedroom, she pulled open the walk-in closet on the far wall and started looking for something easy to wear.

The bedroom itself was blush pink and warm cream, a low platform bed with a tufted headboard, pale oak furniture kept clean and simple, sheer curtains that turned the morning light soft; just right for her preference.

It was a girly room and she did not pretend otherwise, but everything in it had a place and everything was in that place.

The closet matched. Clothes sorted by type and then by color inside each section. Bags along one wall on hooks. Shoes on the lower racks, every pair facing the same direction. Neat and flexible and comfortable all at once, the kind of setup that made getting dressed actually easy for her.

She pulled on an oversized cream hoodie and some fitted grey shorts and grabbed her phone from the bed. Then her stomach grumbled. Adeline had accepted, not for the first time, that cooking was never going to be her thing.

And honestly it was fine, because the things she was genuinely good at filled up a lot of space.

Closing deals that other people left on the table because the terms looked too messy, she handled those well. Board games, card games, anything where reading the other side mattered, she was quietly very good at all of it. Dancing had been in her body since she was small and it had never gone anywhere. Swimming, tennis, track, most physical things came naturally.

Cooking just had never made the list, and it was not worth losing any sleep over.

She padded out of the bedroom barefoot and into the hallway. Wide and warm, the hallway ran in a clean straight line from the bedroom end of the house toward the main living areas, painted in a light off-white with a long sage green runner rug stretching most of its length.

Two framed pictures of herself and Rowan in their high school graduation gowns hung evenly on the left wall, a simple bronze pendant light overhead.

The whole stretch of the hallway was easy and quiet on a Sunday morning, and she moved through it towards the kitchen, almost enjoying the quiet.

The kitchen at the far end of the house was a completely different world on its own. Big was an understatement.

Commercial appliances ran along two full walls, a six-burner gas range, a prep island the size of a small conference table, overhead pot racks loaded up, and a whole lot of counter space that makes you wonder if it's really a home kitchen or a business kitchen.

All of it was Rowan's doing.

Who had sat down with the house renovator and laid out exactly what she needed in that kitchen, square foot by square foot, appliance by appliance, and the result was a proper working kitchen sitting inside a house.

Rowan's ghost kitchen business had grown steadily from small delivery orders into something with a real name behind it. Peacebites.

Peacebites has been pulling in more clients and bigger jobs, building a reputation around Amarlinton that had been earned one order at a time.

The kitchen had been built to match the ambition, and it had done its job. A good one.

The image of that poor renovator's face dropped into Adeline’s head as she stood at the kitchen entrance and she laughed at the thought.

The man had come in with a notepad and a professional smile and had sat there getting visibly less comfortable as Rowan walked him through her requirements in full detail, section by section, for a very long time, until he looked like a man quietly reconsidering his career path.

Adeline walked towards the Isle and kept her phone on it, drumming her fingers on the cold slab, contemplating what she could cook without destroying Rowan’s baby.

Rowan had been her person since the orphanage days, the kind of best friend that did not need walking on eggshells around as both of them had gone through many tough experiences together.

The house had felt off since she left three days ago for a catering festival out in Greenwood Pack.

She'd not felt it too badly before as it was the weekdays and work was keeping her occupied, but on a lazy lady Sunday like this…

‘Rowan, you shorthaired tomboy…’ Adeline chuckled a bit. She can't believe she's actually missing that troublesome girl.

Amarlinton is a city that has creatures other than humans living in it, and Greenwood Pack sits just down beyond its woods in the southern borders, where werewolf territories dominate.

Their first food festival will be held for eight straight days, and will likely be very lively. But the competition for attention to your stall will also be high, as many caterers will be attending.

Not at all discouraging, as Rowan is a she-wolf that lives for the challenge. And the opportunity to showcase her culinary talent while being able to socialize and maybe snag one or two deals…

Who says no to such an offer? Rowan? Obvious much…

Adeline's stomach grumbled again, louder than the last time. Now back to that food issue.