chapter 3

It was her alarm, blaring at her.

She rubbed her bleary eyes. "7:28? Shit, oh, shit!" (Must have hit snooze a few too many times.) It was Monday morning, Matt's first day. Not the ideal day to oversleep. She jumped out of bed and into the shower, opting to skip shampooing her hair to save time. She dressed quickly in her most form-fitting suit, and grabbed a banana as she ran out the door. She'd have to find coffee on the way. She did her makeup at the stop lights. ("Shit, shitty, shit," she muttered to herself as she watched the time tick by.)

She managed to make it to the office just after 8:30. Matt was waiting in her office when she got there.

"So sorry," she said as she threw papers on her desk. "Traffic." (Pathetic excuse.) She hoped her makeup didn't look too bad. She barely had time to check herself in her rearview mirror before dashing in.

"Yeah, that traffic is a killer." Was he onto her? "So, put me to work! Where do you want me to start?"

Gosh, he was yummy. Light blue dress shirt, nice tie. Even nicer body underneath--Kate, stop it!

"Ahem, right, let's get you set up in your office." The assistant's office was next to Kate's and shared a glass wall with hers. She was trying to figure out if that was going to be a problem. Did she need to put up some kind of curtain so that she wouldn't be distracted? Was this a good idea to hire him? She set up his phone, put him to work on new proposals, came back to her office, and shut the door. She tried to position herself so that she couldn't see Matt working in the next room while she checked her email. Argh. This was going to be interesting.

After only a couple of weeks, Matt seemed to be totally up to speed. "See, you made the right choice," Kate tried to console herself. She was conflicted. On the one hand, Matt was doing brilliantly. On the other hand, she was a bit of a blathering idiot whenever she had to talk to him. It didn't help that she hadn't had sex in six months...

"Kate, great news!" Matt burst into her office early Friday morning. "It looks like we're going to get the Johnson account!"

"Aack! Matt, you scared me!"

"Sorry, Kate, I'll knock next time." He smiled at her. "I just figured you'd see me coming."

She studied him for a split second. Gosh, she wanted to lick his cute dimple. And she almost forgot about casual Fridays. That meant Matt was in a snug, pink polo, the better to see the outline of his belly button, and even more snug khakis, the better to see his generous rear. She was slowly going crazy.

"I'm sorry, you caught me off guard." She smiled back. "That's fantastic news! Hey, have you had breakfast yet? We should go out to celebrate!" She thought that maybe if they had a chance to sit down and talk about non-business stuff, she could get to know him a little better, maybe not be so weird around him. Plus, she knew this really great place with all-you-can-eat French toast...

"Well, I had a bagel earlier..."

"A bagel? Seriously? You must be starving. I know a great place. Come on, I'll drive."

"Well, if you insist..."