A personal fiction project. This archive includes characters, plot details, and notes on how I write it.

A ninety-day mandate

Phapfa, a corporate lawyer and partner, and Pen Nueng, a strategy consultant and lead, work together on a ninety-day M&A mandate. The transaction gives them real problems to solve and reasons to disagree, depend on one another, and revise their first impressions.

The professional plot has to keep moving even if the romance is removed. Their jobs create the pressure under which the relationship develops.

  1. Day 01

    The beginning of a ninety-day M&A assignment.

  2. During the mandate

    Due diligence, document review, negotiation, and increasing personal involvement.

  3. Day 90

    The mandate horizon. No transaction outcome is stated here.

This is a frame for the story, not a dated scene schedule. Individual scenes are not assigned to days in this archive.

The people

Phapfa

34. Corporate lawyer and partner. Controlled, exacting, and precise with language.

Read character dossier

Pen Nueng

29. Strategy consultant and lead. Sharp, witty, and willing to challenge authority.

Read character dossier

May is an observant junior or assistant presence. She offers an outside view of the dynamic between the leads.

Respect before romance

The attraction depends on professional respect. Phapfa cannot become careless or incompetent simply because the scene needs a joke. Pen Nueng has to be good enough at her work for her challenges to carry weight.

  1. Respect

    They recognise one another’s ability.

  2. Attention

    Details become difficult not to notice.

  3. Care

    Behaviour changes before either woman names it.

  4. Desire

    Restraint gives what remains unsaid more weight.

The progression is a relationship logic, not a fixed timetable. Their conflicts come from work, values, timing, control, and vulnerability.

The professional world

The transaction includes due diligence, change of control, employment liabilities, data privacy, operational misrepresentation, NDA language, clean-team protocols, supplier data, transaction documents, and negotiation.

These details give the women believable pressure and a shared professional language. They are not there as a glossary of impressive terms. The story asks what happens when a business behaves differently from what it reports, and what that means for trust.

A recurring distinction is between an objection to substance and an objection to form. Are they disagreeing with what was said, with how it was said, or with something neither woman is prepared to discuss directly?

Scenes I keep returning to

From here, I stop protecting the plot.

The punctuality clash

An early disagreement establishes hierarchy, professional standards, personality, and mutual resistance.

Why it matters. Their resistance begins in how they work, before either can comfortably call it attraction.

“Sit.”

A small command carries more tension than its length suggests.

Why it matters. Authority can be expressed through very little language. The scene depends on restraint, not volume.

Coffee

Remembering an order makes care visible before romance is acknowledged.

Why it matters. Attention becomes an action the other person can recognise.

The warehouse injury

An injury temporarily shifts the dynamic from professional control to physical care. The scene includes a bridal carry and a joking line that translates as “I’m the husband.”

Why it matters. The joke exposes a dynamic neither woman would comfortably state seriously. The English line here is a translation, not an English manuscript excerpt.

Data-room lockdown

Around two hours of forced proximity remain tied to work pressure.

Why it matters. The professional circumstances continue to matter while the personal tension increases.

War-room negotiation

The negotiation produces limited concessions around sample verification, aggregated supplier data, and NDA review.

Why it matters. The deal allows preliminary rather than unconditional trust. Its language mirrors the relationship without resolving either one completely.

Details that repeat

Straight lines
A preference for structure, control, and things that behave predictably.
Controlled spaces
Offices, meeting rooms, and war rooms gradually acquire personal meaning.
Precise language
Both women are trained to care about what words commit them to.
Coffee
A small, repeatable way of paying attention.
Beauty and truth
Making something too beautiful can make it resemble a lie. The concern also appears in how a business represents itself.

Rules I write by

Respect before romance
The attraction has to survive a serious look at how each woman works.
Work drives love
Their work gives them reasons to become close.
Care is action
Behaviour changes before declarations do.
Comedy reveals pain
Humour should reveal character rather than interrupt it.
Control and acceptance
The need to control an outcome shapes both professional and personal conflict.
Desire through restraint
Leaving something unsaid can create tension without withholding necessary information.
No cheap drama
Conflict must follow from character and circumstances, not convenient misunderstandings.

Under the comedy

I keep returning to whether control can create safety without becoming a prison, and how much vulnerability someone can tolerate while remaining competent.

The romance depends on two people respecting each other’s minds before they admit wanting each other. I want the reader to notice care before the characters find language for it.