My breakfast meeting with Jesse seemed to be on a never ending replay reel in my head throughout the workday. As the day went on, I had yet to see my boss in the office – I was told he was attending meetings elsewhere – and that was actually a slight relief. The more time that I got to spend away from him, I was hoping he would end up forgetting about us having previously met.

Who was I kidding, though? I knew Jesse planned on bringing the uncomfortable subject up again at some point, and I was dreading whenever that may be. I made a mental note to vent to Haley about the issue at home later. I knew what she would say – she was all in favor of Jesse and me discussing our New Year's Eve lip lock – and I wasn't thrilled about her bias, but I thought maybe she could give me the pep talk I needed to have the courage to talk about it the next time he brought it up.

Maybe.

I typed away at my keyboard – that fancy new keyboard that went to my fancy new iMac, which I was still doing cartwheels about – finishing up a bullet pointed list that Erica had requested earlier that morning. I'd completed my study of Integrity's proposal – all two-hundred-seven pages worth – and I was pretty proud of myself.

Glancing over my notes one more time before sending the email, I nodded to myself in approval. I was sure that Erica would be impressed with my quick work and detailed ideas. Despite a little bit of frustration, I'd gotten the impression that Jesse had been mostly pleased with my assessment, too. I hoped he still would be once he saw my email, even though I was trying to avoid him.

Within a few minutes of sending my email, I received another one that was addressed to the entire company. It was from Jesse. My heart skipped a beat or two as I clicked to open it, and I smiled at the way he addressed his employees.

Friends,

I will be out of the office for the rest of the day, as I am tied up in meetings with our legal team. Our attorneys are working extra hard to help Advantage Republic acquire the best business agreements possible to further our success. I am doing everything within my power to make certain that no matter which company we merge with, we will remain as independent as possible, and all of you will be able to continue working at A.R.

Rest assured, I will not agree to any plan that does not guarantee the job security of each and every one of you.

Please email me any ideas or concerns you have regarding our potential partnership with Integrity Investments. I want to be 110% prepared when we walk into the meeting next Monday, so let me know before then if you would like to have any input.

Regards,

Jesse Reese

President | Chief Executive Officer

Advantage Republic

I smiled at the words on my screen, rereading the line where he said he was committed to his employees' job security. Having already been the victim of layoffs due to corporate acquisitions, it helped put my nerves at ease to read his message. Truth be told, I was concerned about losing my job over this partnership, but I also believed that Jesse would fight very hard for everyone who worked for him, including me.

"You look burnt out," Aly commented from my doorway.

I jumped at the sound of her voice. I hadn't heard her come in.

"I'm on my sixth cup of coffee, if that tells you anything," I yawned, blinking several times at my computer screen and holding up the file Erica had given me. "This shit gets monotonous after page three."

Her eyes widened at the thickness of the proposal. "Wow. You read all of that already?"

I nodded and yawned again. "Unfortunately. I've always been a fast reader, luckily, but this was a massive chore. Have you looked at any of this?"

Aly shook her head and made her way over to my desk, sitting down in one of the two chairs on the other side. She smoothed out her sleek hair, running her fingers through it like a comb. She looked like she'd had a long day, too.

"I occasionally help Erica with paperwork like that, but it's not really my thing. I'm not great at analyzing those sorts of things," she explained. "Besides, too much paperwork makes my head hurt."

I groaned and nodded. "You've got that right."

Aly glanced around my office for a second and then asked me when I planned to customize it to my liking. I followed her gaze throughout the room, and up until that moment, I hadn't realized just how bare my office looked.

I fished my list out from a desk drawer – the one where I'd written down what all I wanted to add or change about my office – and I handed it to Aly.

"That's what I've thought of so far. I haven't decided when I'm going to start, though."

Her eyes skimmed the notepad and she smiled. "Why not this evening? We could go shopping after work and come back to the office and get started."

I thought it over for a minute. I was tired from staring at screens and contracts all day, my eyes feeling like they were about to cross, but it wasn't a bad idea. Haley was working a late shift and neither of us needed to cook because we had plenty of leftovers still in the fridge. There was no reason for me to rush home after work.

I wouldn't be in the office on Friday anyway, and it would be nice to come back from Los Angeles to my customized office space with all my favorite coffee creamers and décor.

"Okay. You talked me into it," I agreed with a grin.

The workday only went on for another hour, and Aly and I spent the time shopping around online for items to add to the room, and looking up where we could find certain things to go buy that evening.

We were having some fun girl time and I was really glad we'd hit it off so well. I'd gotten so used to bratty coworkers back in Saint Paul, and it was refreshing to have a friend at work who wasn't trying to compete with me and who didn't act like a fake little Barbie doll all the time. I adored how genuine Aly appeared to be.

"I keep hearing giggling next door," Erica said as she let herself into my office with a friendly smile. "I love the sound of coworkers having fun in the office!"

My thoughts exactly.

I started to apologize for interrupting her work with our girly banter, but she spoke again before I could say anything.

"I'm so glad you two are enjoying each other's company," she smiled, pulling her curly hair back into a messy ponytail. "There's few things I love more than seeing my work family getting along really well. What are you girls up to?"

"We're looking up décor ideas for Vanessa's office," Aly told her, pointing at my computer. "I offered to go shopping with her after work for some things to make it a little homier in here."

Erica's smile grew wider and she stepped around my desk to take a look at my screen. "Oh, I love that look! You should definitely do that!"

It was a style suggestion from Better Homes and Gardens that featured a stained glass floor lamp instead of the typical bland office ones, a couple accent pillows for the chairs, some twinkle light strings around the room where the walls meet the ceiling, and really cute bookends on some of the shelves. I wasn't sure about the light strings, wanting to keep my office looking like an office to be taken seriously while being homey at the same time, but the rest of the ideas sounded like winners.

I had twinkle lights around my bedroom at home anyway. No need to overdo it.

"I was also thinking of a bulletin board that I can pin goals, photos, and ideas to," I said, getting excited to set it all up.

Erica nodded. "Yeah! That's a great idea! I had one for the same reason in my first office. Those are fun."

I hoped to discuss Erica's business beginnings with her in more detail sometime. I was really interested to hear how she'd reached her impressive level of success – partially because I wanted to get to know her better, but mostly because I wanted to take notes in hopes of achieving the same type of success for myself in the future.

Three hours later, it was just passed eight o'clock and Erica and Aly were helping me carry the last of my shopping bags up to my office. We'd invited Erica to join us on the décor hunt, and the three of us had had a great time shopping together. We'd even stopped to grab a drink on the way back to Chrysler.

During our outing, we'd discussed the Los Angeles meeting and what I should expect. Erica had talked a little bit about Jesse's and her plans for the future of Advantage Republic and she'd told us that they planned to hold a meeting with all the employees to get each person's input on the subject before going forward with anything. I'd made it a point to tell her how much I, as an employee, appreciated that my bosses cared so much about including my coworkers and myself.

Another thing we'd talked about was Jesse, himself. Erica had told us they'd met through their fathers. Apparently, the two men were bigshot executives themselves, and they'd struck up a friendship through their work, eventually bringing their children into the corporate lifestyle as well. She said they hadn't gotten along at first, but she'd eventually warmed up to Jesse and they'd ended up being great friends. However, she also told Aly and me that she hated attending any of the Reese's family gatherings, due to how difficult his mother was to be around.

Remind me to never encounter his mom, I thought to myself.

The three of us chatted a little while longer – Erica had brought out her secret bottle of Pinot Noir that took up residence in her bottom desk drawer – and the girls helped me do a little bit of decorating and switching around some of the furniture before Erica said she needed to go home for her weekly date night with her husband. Aly soon followed, saying she was too tired to stick around much longer.

I was left alone in the empty office space. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, I turned on some soft music, enjoying the clarity of the surround sound speakers. It almost sounded like the artist was in the room singing.

Since I had the place to myself, I kicked off my heels and danced around the room, having a great time. I was singing along to every song that came on on shuffle while I arranged everything exactly how I wanted it.

By the time I was a few trinkets away from finished, I paused to surveil the room, and I was pretty proud of my decorating skills. Everything was falling into place perfectly. My office was coming together just the way I'd imagined it in my head, and it looked fantastic! I didn't have a whole lot more to do aside from adding some books to the shelves and framing my favorite photos.

My mini fridge was fully stocked with my favorite coffee creamers. I'd considered getting some water bottles, sodas, and maybe a few fruit cups, too, but Erica had reminded me that our breakroom was loaded with those things. I'd opted for a package of healthy fruit yogurt to snack on.

There was also a tiny pantry beside the mini fridge that I hadn't even known was there until Aly showed me her stash of potato chips, cereal, and various fruit bars, which I warned her I'd probably be infiltrating at some point. I'd bought some granola bars for the apartment, but ended up adding a couple boxes to my pantry. What a neat little feature to have in an office!

As I took in the appearance of my new space, I heard a door slam down the hallway. It sounded like the main door that went out to the elevators. Since it was nearing ten o'clock, and I was probably one of five people still in the building, I figured my music had bothered somebody and the security guards were coming to check out the noise.

"I'm sorry!" I called out, padding across the floor towards the doorway. "Did I disturb anybody with my music?"

I stepped into the hallway and ran right smack into Jesse. Startled, I nearly fell down, and steadied myself with a tight grasp on his biceps – muscles I hadn't expected to be so thick and hard...

"I'm so sorry!" we shouted at the same time.

I shook my head. "No. It was my fault. I-"

He interrupted. "I didn't realize anyone was still here. Why are you here so late?"

Jesse peeked into my office and spotted the shopping bags piled up in one of my desk chairs. Then his eyes landed on the bottle of wine that Erica had left sitting on my desk.

"Having a late night loner party?" He cocked an amused brow.

My face flushed with embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Jesse. Erica and Aly were helping me do some decorating and then they both went home and I thought I'd go ahead and finish up by myself. I hope I'm not breaking some kind of company rule or something. Am I not allowed to be here after hours? I-"

"It's fine. You're fine, Vanessa," he said with laughter in his eyes. "I promise, it's fine. I stay late all the time."

"You do?"

He nodded, his eyes boring into mine, and I wondered if he was ever going to blink. "Yeah. I like to work late often. Usually, I consider staring at my computer here to be time better spent than sitting on the couch, alone at home, watching ESPN."

He chuckled, a heavenly sound, like music to my ears.

It was then that I realized I still had ahold of his arms, and his hands were still gripping my waist.