**CallanWhen Isa flipped her hand over and intertwined our fingers, it took everything in my not to launch myself at her. Our proximity had been driving me crazy for the last few minutes since she stopped crying. I faltered. She was literally just suffering from a panic attack, so maybe now wasn't the time to be making these kinds of moves, I told myself. But my body felt like a slow-motion magnet the way it went to her on autopilot. And the way she squeezed my hand and closed her eyes as I got closer. Her lips… were so close. DING DINGIsa jerked her hand out of mine, and eyes popped open in fear. Great timing, I groaned mentally. Just as suddenly as the elevator had stopped, it was eager to kick us out again. The elevator doors began to open.I didn't even bother trying to move away from Isa. For starters, I didn't really want to. I liked the way it felt when she was close. Secondly, she was doing plenty of scuttling away on her own
**IsaWhat a tease, I thought to myself. But to be honest, I was enjoying myself. Even though I had been avoiding Callan at work, there was no avoiding the relentless thoughts of him in my mind. I was just trying to figure things out first. Was I still hung up on that one night we had together, or was it something else? It suddenly dawned on me. How would I know if it was that night or something else if I didn't just let loose and have a little fun with him? Though I hadn't put my flirting to practice in quite some time, I was feeling up to it thanks to the little remaining alcohol in my system. I bundled my arms into the sleeves of my coat and held them against myself. "Well, if that so-called incident had happened, then what would have happened after the doors opened?"Callan hummed. "That depends. What would you want to have happened?"I laughed and shook my head. "You're avoiding the question.""Says the person who has been avoiding
**IsaMy heart pounded steadily as I made my way up to my floor in the elevator. It seemed like any one of these strangers could have called me out for being a pulsing, nervous blob. Since Callan and I made out— mostly sober— during the Thanksgiving weekend, it was all I could do not to text him to meet up. In fact, I didn't text him at all other than to tell him Happy Thanksgiving, to which he replied the same but with a smiley face.I thought our minimal contact over the weekend would have helped to ease my mind of him, but that certainly did not end up being the case. My mother got onto me several times for being zoned out when I visited her on Thanksgiving evening. I told her that I was just tired, but then she mentioned the smug smile on my face and the blush on my cheeks. Of course, I denied all of her guesses about what was going on. Besides, we weren't actually dating. We couldn't. Not while I was working under him. I told myself that I wasn't going
**Isa"Woah, David," I said, stunned. I still wanted to believe that he was just playing a joke on me, but there was a serious and hopeful gleam in his eye that told me otherwise. "I don't know…""You don't have to say anything right now," David said.He put a hand up to stop me and just smiled down at me.I wasn't expecting this at all. I mean, sometimes we got a little flirty, and we had been getting closer. I also couldn't deny that he had made my heart flutter a few times and he was unbelievably kind and patient with me. I pinched the bridge of my nose as I realized that I couldn't let our relationship go in that direction. Simply put, I wasn't interested in him. Not in that way. As much as I hated to admit it, my heart was really only affected deeply by one person lately. "Anyway," David said. He wore a goofy smile as he rubbed the back of his neck shyly. "You can think about it for a little while if you want to. Like I said, you don't have to
**CallanIt was like my body felt her presence before I even saw her. An uncomfortable weight settled on my shoulders, and my desire to breathe or work or do anything just totally dissipated. When I heard my office door open, I didn't even look up. I knew her by the clack of her high heels on the marble tile, by the smell of her too-sweet perfume. "What are you doing here?" I muttered without looking up from my computer. Catherine chuckled lightly and didn't hesitate to invade my personal space by coming around my desk and spinning my chair to face her. She leaned down near my face. "C'mon, babe," she crooned. "That's no way to greet your future wife."In the corner of my eye I saw a familiarly-shaped shadow rush away. "Hah… I seriously don't know how to get it through your dense head…" I pressed my chair away from her and stood up. My intention was to leave my office and go after Isa, who I feared had just witnessed a very misleading circumstanc
**IsaThe break room was hot and steamy, but not because the coffee machine was busted.With the stairwell out of the question, Callan and I were back to our break room trysts.Callan's hands slid under my shirt. He thumbed the bare skin of my lower ribs. It was dizzying the way he overwhelmed my senses. One hand was sneaking slowly up my side, the other lightly massaging the nape of my neck, and his lips pressed firm but measured against my lips. "You can touch me," he murmured against me. "I wouldn't mind."I chuckled softly with embarrassment. Even though I was in a four-year relationship before, and in general I was a confident woman, it had been a while since I had experienced this type of intimacy. And even though it was late enough that pretty much everyone else was gone, I was nervous to get too into this moment.It wasn't that I didn't want to…With a heap of hesitation and excitement that made my hands shake, I placed my hands g
**IsaWhile I was in my whirlwind with Callan, I still made it a point to keep up with my friends.Erin met me in the cafe downstairs for lunch. "Uh, excuse me, but why do you look so fine today?" I asked her when she walked in.She was wearing a pair of high-waisted trousers and a satin top. She blushed a bit as she shrugged off her coat and draped it over the chair. "Oh, you know. I have another date later today," she said. "Another one as in… with the same guy or another one, as in, a new guy?" I asked. She had started dating again at the beginning of the year as one of her resolutions. As a pretty introverted woman who survived well on her own, she didn't necessarily have the desire to date, but she wanted to get married someday, so she knew that she would have to put herself out there. After almost an entire year, she had yet to meet a man that was worth more than two or three dates. "It's a new guy," she said. "I'm feeling hopefu
**Isa The clock read 8:00 AM. Just as the sun was really starting to come up. I blinked my eyes and turned onto my side to curl into a ball under my fluffy comforter. Soaking up the warmth, I laid there and tried to keep reality at bay for a little bit longer. Despite my mind swirling around like crazy the night before with thoughts about Callan, the mysterious email, and Catherine, I had slept well. It was a deep, long, dreamless sleep. Just what I'd needed. I wanted to go back there, to that dreamless rest. I didn't realize how exhausted I was from worrying and obsessing over everything that had happened in the past week. Callan had finally taken the lead and asked me to come over to his condo for a date night, but I couldn't in good faith. When Catherine had talked down to me like that, she had managed to get under my skin. Then, on top of that, I'd received that weird email from a mystery address. I literally felt sick thinking that someone had c