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“Shit, I guess we’d better go before they kick us out.”
Mya gathers her things and follows me off the plane. We walk across the tarmac and enter the main terminal. With a wave for James, I follow Mya onto the elevator that will take us to where she parked her car.
We’re silent the whole time, having said everything we wanted to say on the plane. But this time, it’s not a comfortable silence, the air heavy with all the things I’m holding back.
“This is me.” Mya points to her small gray economy car.
“And I’m one level down.” We stand awkwardly for a few seconds before she opens her arms for a hug.
Fuck professionalism, I think before sliding my hand up under her low ponytail and pulling her closer. If this is all I can ever have, then I’ll take it all. I close my eyes soaking up the sensation of her soft curves pressing against me.
“I’ll see you on Monday, beautiful.”
With a shaky nod, she climbs into her car and I watch as she drives off. Then I walk back to the elevators.
We’ve already violated rule number one because that was definitely weird.
Over the weekend, I have time to reset my equilibrium. Once I’m away from Mya, it’s like the fog clears a little and I can see how far into the weeds we’d gone.
What was I doing? I’d finally met a woman who was open to sex with no strings and here I was pining for more. Mya was basically like a unicorn, that perfect specimen of woman that I’d always hoped I’d find. Beautiful, sexy and independent.
So what the hell is wrong with me? I should be celebrating. Instead I just have a vaguely sick sense that I’ve lost something precious.
I hate to admit that she might have been right about this affecting our work. Her behavior when we got back on Friday afternoon leads me to believe things will be awkward in the office. Mya could barely look me in the eye when we hugged goodbye so how are we going to collaborate effectively on the Lavin campaign? But it’s only going down that way if we allow it to.
I arrive in the office early on Monday with my counterattack measures ready to go.
As usual, I’m the first one in so I have the break room to myself as I brew the coffee. Before I’m done, Anya wanders in.
“Hey, congrats on the Lavin meeting. I heard it went really well.”
“Thank you. I think this is going to be one of our biggest projects to date.”
I don’t bother asking how she heard about it already when everyone who went to Vegas didn’t report back to the office after we landed. It was already so late in the day and we were all exhausted so James told us all to go straight home. Anya always seems to know everything that’s going on around here. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if she knew what happened at dinner Thursday night as it was happening.
Hell, Wallace might have even posted about it on Instagram.
“Anya, does Mya have any meetings first thing this morning?”
She shrugs. “Nothing that I’m aware of. Planning on sneaking into a supply closet with your fiancée?” It’s clear from how she’s grinning that she’s bought the story and thinks that Mya and I have been canoodling at the office this whole time.
Good. That works in my favor.
“Perhaps.”
“Well, I won’t stop you. Someone needs to have fun around this place.” She wiggles her fingers over her shoulder as she walks away.
I leave the door to my office open so I can watch the hallway which is the only reason I notice when Mya comes in. She marches down the hall with her head held high, without a spare glance toward my open office door.
So it’s like that?
I decide to give it another hour, just to be fair. Maybe she has a ton of stuff going on that requires her attention this morning. Never let it be said that I’m not a patient man. When another hour passes and Mya doesn’t call, text, email or drop by, I realize that she’s definitely violating rule one. We talked everyday even when we were pretending to hate each other. But now she can’t even acknowledge that my office door exists?
It stings a little, being ignored, even if I know why she’s doing it. But if she thinks pretending I’m not here is going to fix this, then she needs to think again. I wait until I see her walk down the hall, coffee cup in hand, before I make my move.
The hall is empty so no one sees me slip into Mya’s office. I sit in her chair and turn it so it’s facing away from the door. It has such a high back that no one will know I’m here unless I turn around.
About ten minutes later I hear the door close, so I turn around in the chair slowly.
