"Clink" "Clink" "Clink" went the paperclips off of the glass cup at the far corner of William's office—one by one, he flicked them in frustration. After a year of Christine's relentless torment, it was his only way to stay sane.

When William first arrived, it was a spectacle. The boss himself paraded him through the office, making sure everyone knew he was "the best." With his impeccable credentials and a list of demands that included a vintage lunchbox stuffed with cash, William was nothing short of a corporate legend. No one had ever bent the boss to their will like that—but William had, effortlessly.

Christine had worked as the boss's right hand for the past ten years, handling everything from high-level reports to keeping his coffee just the right temperature. When she heard William was coming, she was thrilled. Maybe now, she'd get a break. But the grand entrance, the ridiculous demands—it all felt like a slap in the face. From the very start, Christine resented him.

And she made sure he felt it.

Every morning, William walked into an inbox overflowing with nonsensical lists—lists that Christine stayed up all night crafting just to bury him in busy work. She ensured every task was as tedious and infuriating as possible. In return, William chucked paperclips into that tiny glass across his office, imagining each one was Christine's smug expression. The two of them carried on like this for a year, each complaining to their coworkers about how much they despised the other. Christine swore she was the only one doing any real work, while William privately believed she'd made it her mission to drive him out.

But then, one day, everything changed.

It wasn’t some grand gesture—just a solution. A complex client issue that had been hanging over Christine’s head for months. William solved it in a single afternoon. "Okay," she thought to herself, "he fixed one thing." But it cracked something open in her. Maybe he wasn’t just an arrogant jerk after all.

Around this time, a woman affectionately known as "Cookies" started visiting the office. Christine thought she and William would be perfect together—after all, he loved cookies, and she was single. But that didn’t work out. Next, Christine tried setting him up with a young, vibrant woman in the office. That fizzled too.

The more Christine tried to push William toward other people, the more time they ended up spending together. It started with work—late-night phone calls and constant texts about projects. But soon, their conversations drifted to favorite movies, weekend plans, and inside jokes. Morning coffees turned into shared laughter, and after-hours emails became long talks that stretched past midnight.

At a company function, a co-worker snapped a candid photo of them. Christine laughed when she saw it, but something stirred inside her. She realized she might actually be falling for the guy she'd spent a year torturing.

Everything truly shifted at a corporate gala. Amid the glittering lights and formal speeches, the meal arrived—complete with tiny trees of steamed broccoli perched delicately on the plate. Christine, unable to resist, nudged William with a smirk. "You should eat those," she teased.

To her surprise, he did. And right at that moment, the entire auditorium burst into applause—unrelated, of course, but William, glancing at Christine, thought she’d orchestrated the whole thing. For the first time, he realized she might always be there to make sure he ate his vegetables—and maybe, just maybe, that meant she was a keeper.

And so began the story of Love and Mortgages.