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“I kissed one of my employees!” I wailed.

There was a long pause. “Wait, did you just say you kissed your employee?"

“Yeah.” I could feel the panic setting in. “I don’t even know how it happened. Oh my God, what did I do?”

“Take a breath and start at the beginning,” he instructed.

“I felt kind of, I don’t know, drawn to him when I first met him,” I started, before talking about the way Jim watched me at work, the forklift accident, the casual flirting at the bar, and finally, the kiss in my parking lot.

“He initiated the kiss then?” Matthew confirmed.

“Yeah, but I didn’t exactly stop it.” I paused, then added. “It was really good.”

Matthew laughed. “I love this for you. This is exactly why I encouraged you to move away and take the new job, so you could break out of your rut and have new experiences.”

“He’s my employee,” I reminded him. “You know very well that something like this would be a career killer for me. It’s always the woman who loses in these situations.”

“If something happens, can he move to another team?”

“Well, technically he’s only on my team for a couple of months,” I admitted. “He’s covering for someone on paternity leave.”

“In that case, just play it cool and when he’s off your team if you still feel the same way, you can go for it.”

“There’s another problem. He’s young, really young.”

“How young is he?” Matthew asked.

“Only thirty-five,” I said dramatically.

My ex-husband started laughing. “You said that like he was twenty or something. I think you’re just looking for excuses, Jordy. Give the poor guy a chance, why don’t you?”

I struggled to fall asleep that night, my mind racing as I replayed the kiss. I finally pulled out my trusty battery-operated boyfriend to take the edge off so I could sleep, but I still woke up cranky.

Jim knocked on my door at seven twenty-five. I grabbed my bag and lunch and opened the door. He was so broad he mostly filled up the doorway. He was wearing a baseball hat today, along with his usual faded jeans and tee shirt.

“Good morning, are you ready to go?” he asked cheerfully, looking over my shoulder like he wanted to check out my apartment.

I moved forward so he was forced to step back, then closed and locked the door behind me. “Yeah. Thanks for picking me up, I appreciate it.”

In my effort to keep my voice neutral I sounded colder than I intended. I could see Jim looking at me like he was trying to read my mood.

“No problem. I texted Mac Jensen this morning and asked him to send one of his guys over to tow your vehicle to the garage and check it out. They’ll call you once they have an estimate.”

I started to argue, but then I realized I didn’t know these people so Jim helping me would only ensure that my car got fast service.

“Thank you for taking care of that, I appreciate it.”

“No problem, that’s how we roll down here.”

Unfortunately when the garage called later that day it wasn’t good news.

“We’re going to have to order a new starter for you. We don’t have any on hand for a car this old. It’s gonna be at least a week.”

“A week?”

I was pretty sure this would never happen in Detroit. Then again, I wasn’t living in Detroit.

“Yeah, sorry. It’s been harder to get parts the last few years. The supply chain still hasn’t recovered after the pandemic. But we’ll get you fixed up as soon as we can.”