Not His Problem (Anymore)

Two competent enemies. One public crisis. A medium-burn Montreal workplace romance where the hardest problem is learning to care without taking over.

Sophie Tremblay can make a room listen. Pierre-André Sainte-Rose can tell which words will survive the morning. They meet properly at a Montreal work event, where Sophie tells a funny story about Barcelona and P.A. is the only person in the room who knows what €694 has to do with it. Neither expects to be on the same crisis team by the next morning.

When a skincare client's product crisis goes public, Sophie and P.A. have to build the response together. She knows what people need to hear. He knows what the company can stand behind. Their arguments sharpen the work—and keep giving them reasons to stay after the meeting ends.

A joke becomes a habit. A touch lasts too long. The attraction stops being theoretical.

But a crisis is easier to manage than the person across the table. Sophie will not be handled. P.A. is used to solving the problem in front of him before anyone else has to ask. The more they start to matter to each other, the harder it becomes to know when he is helping—and when he has taken the choice out of her hands.

The crisis needs a statement. What Sophie and P.A. need from each other is harder: an answer neither of them can write for the other.