Chapter 20 - Halfway Isn’t Halfhearted

Chapter 20: Halfway Isn’t Halfhearted

Crystal got the offer.

Mid-sized tech firm. Fast-growing. Solid team. Good salary.
And a manager who, in the final interview, said:

“We need people like you. Assertive. Vision-driven. No hand-holding.”

She took it.

Not because it was convenient.
But because it felt like a platform, not a box.

He congratulated her with a grin and a hug.

“I knew you’d get it,” he said.

But something in his voice — soft, sincere — also felt… distant. Not cold. Just quieter than usual.

She noticed. She always did.

For the first few weeks, they barely saw each other.

She was deep in onboarding. Learning systems. Mapping sales funnels. Getting coffee with directors twice her age and refusing to be underestimated.

He, meanwhile, had started a short contract stint. Nothing heavy. Just something to fill the time while he waited for the Taiwan opportunity to confirm.

“I don’t want to drift,” he said over dinner one night. “But I feel like you’re accelerating, and I’m… idling.”

Crystal looked at him, chopsticks frozen in midair.

“I’m not trying to outpace you,” she said. “I’m just finally running at my own speed.”

“I know,” he said quickly. “It’s amazing. You’re amazing. I’m just—”

“—Worried you won’t keep up?”

He hesitated. “A little.”

Crystal exhaled. “I don’t need you to be ahead of me. I just need you to not ask me to slow down.”

That silence between them? That was the moment she feared most — the space where ambition begins to feel like isolation.

She vented to Isabelle over Telegram voice notes the next day.

Is it bad that I want both? Career and love? I’m not trying to be selfish. I just… I don’t want to dim anything anymore.

Isabelle replied with the gentlest voice:

It’s not selfish. It’s self-respecting. Wanting both is not asking for too much. It’s asking for the *right person to meet you at your level.*

He came to one of her client presentations.

Unannounced.

She spotted him near the back — leaning on a pillar, mask on, just listening. Watching.

Afterwards, they walked back to the MRT together.

“I didn’t want to interrupt,” he said. “Just wanted to see you in your element.”

She smiled. “And?”

He looked at her — really looked.

“You were magnetic. You walked into that room like you belonged.”

She stopped walking.

“So… do you still feel like I’m leaving you behind?”

He paused. Then:

“No. I think I just needed to see it to believe it.”

She tilted her head. “And now that you’ve seen it?”

He smiled. “Now I want to walk beside you. Not just support you — run with you, if you’ll have me.”

That night, in bed, Crystal lay under her ceiling fan, feeling the rush of the day finally settle.

She typed into her notes app:

I won’t shrink to make someone stay.
But today, he reminded me that sometimes, the right ones expand with you.
And that makes all the difference.