By the time she finished her work and snapped out of it, Celeste suddenly realized that Caleb had already left his seat without her noticing.
Afterward, Celeste worked day and night for several more days before everything was finally resolved.
She slept for a full 24 hours before she started to feel significantly better. However, compared to before she entered the base, she still looked noticeably paler.
That day, she had mostly just slept and hadn’t eaten much at all.
By evening, she started feeling hungry, and as she headed to the cafeteria to get some food, she ran into Caleb coming from the other dormitory wing.
Caleb was slightly surprised to see her. “I thought you had already left the base.”
This mission had been a major one, so he could roughly guess when she had arrived. Now that the situation was successfully wrapped up, he assumed she’d left yesterday, having completed her task.
Celeste shook her head. “There’s still something I need to handle, so I have to stay a few more days.”
She was indeed supposed to leave yesterday, but Zachary still had some matters that required her help to handle personally, so…
Caleb gave her a warm smile and nodded, indicating he understood.
Seeing how drowsy she still looked, he figured she’d probably just woken up after a day–long sleep.
He smiled slightly but didn’t ask much. Instead, he asked, “On your way to eat?”
“…Mm.”
“Want to go together?”
Given the situation, Celeste couldn’t really refuse, so she nodded, “Okay…”
After getting their food, they sat down across from each other.
Caleb watched her.
During his last break, though there hadn’t been any progress between him and Celeste, he had managed to get Matthias’s contact through someone and learned from him that Celeste still hadn’t officially divorced.
However, according to Matthias, it seemed the man had urgent matters and had gone abroad on business, with no clear return date.
Which meant there was a good chance Celeste still wasn’t divorced.
Since she wasn’t divorced yet, and since she had no romantic feelings for him at this point, Caleb didn’t want to press too hard.
So during the meal, he didn’t ask–as he had before–whether she was officially divorced, nor did he pry into personal matters like whether her child was a boy or girl, how old they were, or what kind of personality they had.
Instead, he chatted with her about the things that had happened during this mission at the base.
When it came to work, Celeste always had plenty to talk about with Caleb.
But things changed quickly at the base. Before they could talk for long, Celeste received an urgent message from
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Chapter 456
Zachary, 2
+25 BONUS
Seeing the notification, she quickly wiped the corner of her mouth and stood up, saying to Caleb, “I’ve got something urgent to handle. You go ahead and finish your meal-
Caleb looked at her and said softly, “Alright.”
“1
Celeste was about to leave, but just as she was turning away her gaze briefly met his, which made her pause.
She saw the reluctance in his eyes. 2
She hesitated and lowered her gaze before looking away. After a moment’s pause, Celeste softly said “Goodbye” before quickly walking off.
Caleb truly was reluctant to see her go.
Because in the next few days, he would be leaving the base for another assignment elsewhere and wouldn’t be back for a while.
By then, Celeste would likely have already left. 2
Their next meeting probably wouldn’t be for another month… 11
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