Meiying hadn't been in her office. Her morning had been filled with meetings and errands. So many nobles to please, so little time. With a stack of paper propped between her forearm and her chest, her eyes were downcast as she walked down the hall with a young woman following just behind. Her eyes bounced from scanning the papers to her path forward, occasionally her assistant was forced to veer behind Meiying in order to avoiding bumping into others walking the halls, but Meiying herself did no such thing. Others moved for her.

As she approached her office, she sighed somewhat. "Please set up a follow-up meeting with Lord Milton, for as soon as possible. I feel he was avoiding my questions. Should we give him too much time, he'll come up with better lies." She flipped through the papers, pulling another to the front. "And tea with Lady Abington sometime in the next two weeks. Invite her daughter as well. She'll be a promising new assistant for Lady Caern."

She paused not far from her office door, too distracted by work to see him at first, she instead turned her head to look at her assistant directly. "Send a thank you letter to Lord and Lady Bentley for their time today, and a letter of condolence to Lord --"

"Lord Lincoln, yes," her assistant interrupted. "I apologize for my rudeness, my lady, but I think you have a visitor." Tilda pointed behind Mei, causing her to turn back toward her office door. A polite, restrained smile touched her lips.

"Lieutenant Abbott, it's good to see you," she said, a more positive tone to her voice as she addressed him. "Please take care of those things today, Lady Norton. I'll call you when I'm prepared to continue."

"Yes, my lady," her assistant said. "Please excuse me, my lord," she said respectfully to Aldrich as the young noble left the two alone. Meiying stepped up to her door and pushed it open, stepping inside and leaving it open for him to follow.

"It's good to see you," she said, walking around her desk and sitting down the stack of papers she held. "I hope you've had a pleasant morning?"

He stood in front of the door for about a minute, starting to wonder if he had picked a bad time to stop by Meiying's office, when he heard a voice address him from behind his back. The man turned around and saw the counselor coming his way. He smiled politely and bowed respectfully. "Lady Meng." She ordered her assistant to take care of some more things, which made it obvious that lady Meng was indeed very busy at the moment. He nodded goodbye to the young noblewoman before following Mei into her office.

"Would you like the door open or closed?" he asked. After she responded and he did with the door what she preferred, he would walk over to her desk. "It's good to see you too, my lady. My morning has been pleasant so far, thank you for asking. I hope I don't catch you at a bad time?" he asked, his brow furrowing a bit while he nodded at the stack of papers she had put down.

"You may leave it cracked open, thank you," she answered, though she thought he would have known her answer given their discussion about it the first time he'd slipped by her door. It wouldn't have been entirely appropriate to spend a prolonged period of time in the room with him with the door fully closed. Especially now that they were courting.

"I'm glad that you've had a pleasant morning," she said, holding a hand out toward the chair he'd sat in before. "Not a bad time at all. I've just come from a series of meetings and I'm happy to speak of something more pleasant than work for a short while. Please, sit."

When she finally sat down in her chair, she let out a little huff of relief and tossed her short hair, running her fingers through it. "So what brings you here, Aldrich?" She asked, tone pleasantly positive though it was still strange to refer to one another by first names. "Would you like to arrange our next outing?"

He could have guessed that she wanted to keep the door open, but it never hurt to make sure. He did what she asked and sat once she gestured at the chair in front of her desk. "I can imagine", he said with a smile. All work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy.

She sat and it seemed like it did her good to sit for a bit with no obligations. He couldn't even begin to imagine how exhausting a job like hers must be. Physical work, such as being a soldier, was easier on the mind than being someone who had to use their brain all day. Untill soldiers started dying on the battlefield, of course. Then it impacts one's mental health.

"I wanted to make sure you enjoyed our outing the other day", he responded kindly. He had suspected her to bring up a second outing, and he paused for a moment to find the right words. "Personally, I had a great time. But-," everything always went downhill after a 'but', and he hoped she hadn't already stopped listening to him by now, "I am afraid a next outing would only be wasting your time, Meiying. Like I said in my letter, I think you are a beautiful and strong woman, and I'm just not enough for someone as smart and ambitious as you. You deserve someone who can truly understand you and what you do. Please understand that this has nothing to do with your personality or anything of the sorts. I am very grateful that your father allowed us to dine together, and I don't want to disrespect you or him by leading you on."

Conversations such as these sucked. No matter what you said, it always sounded lame and insincere. It really didn't have anything to do with her. Well, in a way it did, but nothing that was under her control. The spark simply hadn't been there. Aldrich really wasn't a dating type either. Normally he just slept around.

Her expression brightened when he asked about their outing, her smile growing. The date had gone well. Although their conversation had leaned more toward the military, it was after all their biggest commonality and one she'd had no issue speaking about at length. Huan had left them to their dinner, but even he had commented that Aldrich had seemed to be on his a-game. In the end, it was a pleasant time that she could personally find no fault with. "I did enjoy our evening, it's very kind of you to follow up."

The but caught her, and carefully, her expression fell. The smile remained, polite yet lacking the warmth it had just seconds ago. She straightened her back and rested her hands neatly in her lap, quickly and easily picking back up the business-approach as a more personal and relaxed setting was obviously now no longer fitting. So much for her break from work.

She allowed him to finish, nodding as he fought to let her down easily. All the while, her mind had already begun to work through who was left in the Kingdom for her to frighten away by being too good for them before her father relented on this journey. "I understand, Lieutenant Abbott," she said, her tone calm and proper, as if she were merely speaking to any other noble about any other matter of work. "I appreciate the courtesy of your quick and direct notice, and I will inform my father that we will no longer be courting."

With that, she considered the business concluded and gave him a nod, then pulled the stack of papers she'd walked in with closer in front of her on the desk. She picked up her pen, dipped it into the ink, and moved her attention to the first parchment in the stack. "Could you leave the door open on your way out? Thank you."