"Where do we stand on Jenkins?" I asked Clayton, one of my Senior Account Managers. We were on a zoom call on Monday afternoon so as to accommodate everyone's schedule.

My company, KTLO Consulting, had our main office on the north side of Tampa to cover the southeast, a virtual office in San Francisco where my best friend Harlow was that covered the west coast, and a third in Nashville that covered the Midwest and east where Clayton and Tori worked. We saved a little money during Covid by combining the east coast and Midwest offices, and it turned out that Clayton and Tori hit it off so well that they were engaged to be married next year. I'd love to take credit for that, but honestly, they'd been flirting over video calls before I ever made the decision to combine the offices, so odds are they would have been together anyway. Fuck it, I'll take the credit for moving them into the same office anyway.

Clayton managed the Midwest, and we had a touchy client out there in Jenkins Manufacturing, but it was hopefully worked out. "We're good now. They really wanted to cut costs by laying people off, but we were able to stop that. They would have paid out more in severance packages than they'd save, and by keeping the workforce and improving their processes, they can actually handle more business instead. Everyone wins."

I nodded happily, letting out a sigh. Jenkins had been determined to slash their budget as soon as they hired us, which I told them up front we would recommend against. Cutting the workforce was an unfortunate reality in many businesses, but we tried to make the companies more efficient so that the existing workforce would handle even more work and allow them to handle more clients themselves. It didn't hurt that we showed them the cost benefit analysis that showed how much it would cost them to train new employees while dealing with rookie mistakes, and how much their already trained people were saving them in the long run.

Our offices weren't big, since a lot of our workforce travelled a lot, and the majority of us could work from home on most projects. That was why Harlow's office in San Francisco was virtual, she didn't even need one and it saved a ton of overhead for us by having no commercial lease with California prices. It was company policy that everyone works from home on Fridays, and we were liberal in how often everyone else needed to be there. We didn't have huge offices in fancy skyscrapers, but smaller rented offices that saved us money on overhead, which was extremely important when some of our workers were between clients. A lot of consultants get laid off if the salesforce doesn't keep enough clients in the pipeline, but my job was to make sure that didn't happen. I never wanted to get rid of an employee unless they really messed up. In all the years that I'd been running it, I'd only had to let two people go, and both of those were because of the way they interacted with either a coworker or a client.

I hoped not to have that issue again.

"Harlow, are you doing good out there?" I wondered as she stifled a yawn.

She nodded wearily. "Yep. Khloe called from Singapore in the middle of the night and I'm regretting my life choices. Never agree to marry anyone working for an airline. I'll be okay as soon as I get a little more coffee." Harlow was my best friend, even if I'd only met her about twelve years ago through work. But we'd done several projects together and shared many bottles of wine. I'd never met her fiancé, a woman named Khloe who seemed to be travelling nonstop as a flight attendant, but she seemed stressed whenever she talked about her.

"Okay, well let me give you a little news before we wrap up." I'd saved a little bit of news from Friday that I wanted to tell them in person rather than over email. "We were asked to submit a bid at Telenor, a big telecommunications company with their Headquarters located in Norway, though they have operations in Asia too. If we get selected, we'll probably start there after the new year, but in the meantime, I'm going to be talking to their operations people to make sure we understand what they're looking for in the bid. I think we have a good chance at this one."

"Are you serious?" Tori almost screamed. "They could be our first European client?"

"Yep," I replied quickly. "It's been a long time coming, and this could be huge for us. If we get the job, and if the job goes well it could lead to a lot of networking opportunities, and hopefully even more clients. Honestly, just getting into the bidding stage could get us into some new doors."

Everyone was jubilant for the rest of the call, and I let them go get back to work after that. Not shockingly, I got a call from Harlow as soon as it wrapped up. "Hey, Har. How goes it?"

"It's okay." She was sounding down, and I perked right up at her tone. I probed gently to see if I could do anything.

"Just, okay? Is this a Khloe thing, or something else?"

She snorted, nodding slowly. "Of course it's her. I barely see her, and it's getting old. I'm tempted to assign myself as a project manager with an out of town client just to travel a little more so I'm not hanging around miserable at the condo alone."

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. I felt bad for Harlow, because she was always someone who would fall hard for her partner, and it wasn't always reciprocated. But this time it was worse, as she'd actually gotten engaged. I could feel the hurt in her voice, and I didn't know what to say that could make things better. I wasn't one to really give advice based on my own relationship, it was a mess after all, and Harlow certainly knew that. "If you think it will help, then do it. Just don't do anything you're going to regret, okay?"

"I know," she groaned. "Why isn't this easier?"

I snorted, letting thoughts of Zee flit through my mind. "I know. But maybe things will start to look up for you. Sometimes you just need a lucky break."

She was silent for a moment, and I could almost hear the gears churning in her tired brain. "You sound surprisingly optimistic this morning. Did something happen over the weekend?"

I chuckled lightly, knowing she'd pick up on that. "Yeah, it was a really good weekend. I think I had my eyes opened to what I was missing."

"And were your eyes opened by getting your legs opened?"

"Hey, a lady never kisses and tells."

She scoffed, her voice dropping lower. "But does she lick and tell? Was it a girl or guy? It was a girl, wasn't it? Come on, give me something to go on! I haven't even seen my fiancé in two weeks or had sex in over a month! I need to live vicariously through you."

I barked out a chortle, then covered my mouth in embarrassment. There weren't many people in the office at the moment, just my assistant, a couple account managers and salespeople, but I still didn't need them to hear me laughing like a seal in heat. "Okay, okay." I lowered my voice before I continued. "I may have had an amazing night with a girl that was 15 years younger than I am, and she made me remember how good things could be."

"Damn, my girl Demi is stepping out? You go get that!"

"No, not really. Not yet anyway. This was a one-time thing, a completely random hookup in the middle of nowhere. But it was the best sex of my life, and gave me the kick in my butt that I needed. I'm going to talk to Elizabeth, make sure she understands that what I have with Elliot is going to end. Then I'm getting a lawyer and filing for divorce."

"Yes!" She screamed so loudly that I might have heard it even without the phone. "Oh damn, this is a great Monday, even with my shitty relationship."

"Hopefully, it will be even better soon. When I get all the paperwork signed, maybe you can come down and we'll have a girls' weekend. I know Quinn would love that." Quinn was my other friend, and the only one I was close to here in Tampa. I'd met her back in college, and while I was closer to Harlow, Quinn was still a great friend.

"Does she know yet?"

"No, I haven't told her. Only Gracie and Jashanna know, and that was because they're too observant."

"Holy shit! How did they take it?" Harlow was getting excited, and while it was all a little embarrassing, I was glad to hear her mood had improved from how she was earlier. "And how did they find out?"

"About the same as you. They were both thrilled, even if Gracie is Elliot's daughter. She's never had a real relationship with him, and she just wants me to be happy. When I got home, I was in the hot tub, and I guess there were some marks on my back, and they knew exactly what they were."

Harlow started giggling, no doubt imagining my embarrassment at that confrontation. "I won't even ask how they knew what those marks meant!"

"Well, they're together now, which I'd suspected. But I have a feeling that one or both of them have made similar marks on the other. I need to have another talk with them, though I did tell them I approved of the relationship."

"We've been shipping them for a few years, so I'm glad you got to see it set sail." She sounded wistful, and I felt the same. That young love was a wonderful feeling, and while mine never panned out, I hoped theirs did. They did have a much stronger footing than I ever did, so I had a feeling that had a really good chance of making it.

"And now I need to find my ship and board it."

"I thought you did? Isn't that what happened this weekend?"

"Nope. I told you, it was a one time thing. I never even got her number." I closed my eyes, waiting for her to blow up at me.

She didn't disappoint me. "You what? Are you fucking serious? Demi, my god! You said it was the best sex of your life! How did you not at least get her number?"

"I know, I know! I was feeling a little guilty for cheating, and she was just a few years older than Hollie. I felt self-conscious enough just being naked with her, because her body was a statue from a Greek master, and mine looks like a four year old made it with clay. I guess I thought she'd turn me down if asked for more, and I wasn't sure bootie calls were something I should be trying for. I need a real relationship."

"I agree that you need a real relationship, but why do you think it couldn't have been with her?"

I sighed once more, trying not to second guess my decisions, even though I had since the day I left Zee. "She seemed to be too much like Elliot. She acted like she was a player, telling me to call her daddy before we'd even finished dinner and acting like I'd give into her like any high school or college girl. She'd done that before, probably a lot. I don't need to be with someone who has wandering eyes."

"But you don't know?" she wondered.

And fuck, she was right. I'd made assumptions based on the way she'd acted, but she could have done the same with me. Hell, she might have been waiting on me to ask for a number because I'd taken charge that night, and I'd completely fucked it up. What if she was more than I'd thought, and I had just left and missed a great chance at something? Yeah, she was probably still in college, and much younger, but I wasn't naïve enough to think that relationships like that couldn't work if both people were at the same place in their lives.

"No, I don't know," I finally whispered in reply. "I might have fucked it all up."

Harlow had the grace to be quiet for a moment before speaking. I was trying not to let the tears gathering in my eyes spill down over my cheeks. Fuck! Demi, come on! It was a one night stand! Yeah, maybe there could have been more, but you told yourself that it wouldn't be. Don't overthink this! You still have a lot of people in your potential dating population! Ugh, I hated that term. I just want to meet one person, that shouldn't be too hard. And if they could make me feel like Zee did, that would be a nice bonus, but mind blowing sex wasn't everything.

Got it. I could do this.

"You'll find your person, Demi, I know it." Harlow's voice was low and comforting, just what I needed. "You told me it was meant to be a one time thing, and I'm sorry if I made you question it. Maybe it was just that, the push you needed to officially end things with that shitbag you married and then go find someone new."

"I hope so. I really need to get my head back on straight. I got a little messed up there for a bit."

"No, that was my fault," Harlow argued. "I shouldn't have said all that stuff. I would kill for some good sex right now, so you getting some had me thinking about it too much. You did the right thing."

She was right, I did. But I'd probably still have that doubt until I got over it. I was sure it wouldn't be that bad.