A week has passed since I’d met Jensen, and I still can’t get him out of my mind. But now I try to push thoughts of him away so that I can concentrate on writing the legal brief for the biggest case of my career.

My firm is representing Jed Marks and Marks Capital in a case between former business partners involving insider trading. Jack Holt is my supervising attorney and he’s been letting me run with the case. The trial is coming up and if I can win it— and I think we have a good chance— then my partnership is pretty much in the bag.

I work past five-thirty in the evening and then realize that Charles hasn’t popped his head in to say goodbye to me. He usually does this most days on his way out, as he’s headed to the bar in the hotel downstairs or to the golf course with clients and partners. That makes sense, I think, as I remind myself that Charles’s main job seems to be to schmooze with the bigwigs while mere associates like myself, who aren’t related to any founding partners, put in the grunt work.

Of course, it’s usually three or four o’clock when Charles leaves and I figure he must have forgotten to say goodbye today. He occasionally stays a little later but it’s rare.

I head down to his office and I’m surprised to see—through the glass windows that all the offices here have— that he's sitting at his computer. His screen is facing the entrance to his office so I can see that he's looking at a legal pleading.

Wow, he's actually staying late to work, I think. This must be an important case.

Then I notice that he has a chat window open too, on Google Hangouts. I feel bad for spying on him although it wasn't my intention— he is just so lost in thought that he hasn't noticed me walk up.

“Hey honey,” I say quietly, and then knock lightly on his open door, trying not to startle him.

Too late. He jumps, and then minimizes his screen but not before I catch the word “Marks” on the document before it disappears. He also clicks X on his Hangouts chat application.

“You scared me.”

“I’m sorry. I’m happy to see you’re still here. I thought you forgot to say goodbye.”

I give him my best fake-pout face, and lower my head as I do, hoping it’ll draw his attention to my subtle cleavage. Charles and I have never had sex but he says the tease is half the fun.

Or at least he used to say that.

“Nope. Still here.”

He turns his head back to his computer, to start shutting it down. He hadn’t even glimpsed at my cleavage.

I guess the tease just isn't fun for him anymore. He used to beg and plead for me to have sex with him but I don’t know what’s happened. Maybe he's given up on the chase and gotten tired of my refusals.

I feel silly being a virgin at my age but I just had never found the right person to be with for the first time. I was thinking it would be Charles but I wanted to be sure. At first that drove him crazy but now I'm beginning to wonder if he isn't even interested in me like that anymore.

Sure, I’ve put on a few pounds but it’s not like I was a skinny waif when he met me. If he’d wanted a smaller lady, he could have gone after Trina or a few of the other female associates who look like models and who whisper jokes about my how much weight I've put on when they think I can’t hear them.

But those associates aren’t going places in the firm, I remind myself. Is he really just with me because Daddy wants him to be? Why is it always my job to be the good little girl, the straight and narrow one, while Charles gets to do what he wants? Which apparently doesn’t include making love to his girlfriend?

An image involuntarily pops into my mind of Jensen’s tattooed arms lifting me up to fuck me as he stands against a wall. Woah. That was an awfully explicit daytime fantasy to be having right in front of my boyfriend. I shake my head to clear it, and try to focus on something else.

“Were you checking out the Marks case?” I ask him, curious.

He’s never one to put in more billable hours than he has to— and his requirements are low, thanks to Daddy Dearest— and I’m not sure what work there would be for him to do on the Marks case. I get scared for a minute, wondering if Mr. Holt has decided to give some or all of my work on the case to Charles.

But then I reassure myself that that doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’ve been doing all the work and according to Mr. Holt, I’ve been doing it well.

“I was just interested in what my dad was saying about it,” Charles stammers.

I wait, but nothing follows.

“Such as?” I prod.

“Oh, nothing in particular.” He shrugs. “It just seems like an interesting case.”

I look at him as if he has two heads. Marks Capital is a run of the mill case except for the sizeable amount of money involved, and Charles has never been known to think those kinds of cases are interesting.

“I’d be happy to talk to you about the case,” I volunteer. “As you know, I’ve been living and breathing this stuff.”

“Thanks,” he says, as he picks up his briefcase and gym bag. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He gives me a quick peck on the lips.

“But what about dinner?”

I feel stupid asking, but my family is coming over to my place tonight for dinner as they do once a month. Charles and I had previously discussed it— he knows how hard of a time my family can give me and how I appreciate his support when they’re around— and it had appeared that he would be there, as usual. I feel more than a little jilted, yet again.

“Sorry babe. I have a meeting.”

“A meeting?”

“Networking,” he says, vaguely, as he slips out the door.

“Well, have a good time,” I call after him, like an idiot.

Then I slink back to my office to try to finish a bit more work before I have to head home and prepare for my family’s visit. I don’t know why Charles’s been so distant, but it’s beginning to really bother me. I just want things to go back to how they used to be.

Or do I? I wonder, as another vision of Jensen flashes through my mind.

I want to slap myself for being so caught up on someone I just met and won't see again. I figure it's my mind's defense mechanism, to protect me from the awful thought that my boyfriend is being so distant and acting strange.

But I can't say the distracting thoughts aren't a welcome diversion. I just wish I was feeling the same things about my boyfriend that I am for the handsome stranger I just met.