“We’d love to be there. Consider us a definite yes.” With that, Max snaked an arm around my waist, pulled me tight against his body, and proceeded to crush my mouth in a long and passionate kiss. My knees went weak and I couldn’t help my body from responding. Hormones were rushing around madly in my blood stream when he lifted his head and looked deep into my eyes. I stared back helplessly. After that lingering look, which I was completely unable to break, he turned to smile at Josh and Lillian.

I dared a look at Josh, my head still reeling from Max’s sudden appearance and that kiss! I was glad for his arm around my waist, or I might have fallen to the ground. I was even quite shocked I had managed to hang on to the cake. The expression on my ex-boyfriend’s face was priceless. If I had to describe it, “speechless shock and horror” would have been what I would have gone for.

“Uh…er…hi. Josh Williams.” He held out his hand towards Max.

Max accepted it with a smile that reminded me of a shark. “Max Black.” He looked down at me indulgently. “Is this the Josh from work you told me about?”

I wanted to kick him in the crotch, but I smiled, instead. “So, you do listen when I talk about work!”

I grinned at Lillian. “I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like I’m talking to myself.”

She didn’t answer. She looked like she wasn’t sure what was happening. She wasn’t alone. I was still half-sure it was all a dream and I’d wake up sweating but relieved.

“Um, okay.” Josh looked at me, then back at Max. The wind had definitely been taken out of his sails, I noticed with satisfaction. I could hear his brain work. Was she cheating on me?

I didn’t dare let the smile slide from my face. “I’ll see you at the office?”

“Yeah. Okay,” he said but stood there like a dork.

“Well then. Thanks for the invite,” I said into the awkward silence.

“See you there or be square,” Max said for good measure. I nearly kicked him then.

Josh shook himself out of his trance and nodded. We both smiled and waved as my ex and his fiancée walked away. I managed to wait until they turned the corner before pushing Max’s arm off me, then whirling around on him.

“Are you completely insane?” I hissed.

“Whoa! Calm down. Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

The cocky, arrogant SOB! “Calm down? Don’t get my panties in a twist? Who the hell do you think you are?” I bellowed.

“You always this uptight?” His voice was mild.

“How dare you?” I gasped. I could feel my face getting red with anger.

“How dare I what?”

I looked at him with frustration. “Kiss me. Invite yourself to my boss’s engagement party. Be a jerk.”

He looked shocked, which only surprised me more. Was I supposed to be happy about that little display of his? He lifted his hands up. “Be a jerk? I was trying to help you.”

I almost lost it. “Help me? That’s my boss. I have to work with him,” I growled.

“You said he wasn’t your boss. He was just a manager.” He looked over his shoulder, to where Josh had already disappeared. “And he looks like a real asshole.”

“Well, thanks for the assessment,” I said sarcastically, “but I have to coexist with him in the office.”

“Yeah, and I just made it easier for you to do that,” he reminded. “Unless you like knowing he thinks you’re wasting away and still wishing the two of you were together.”

“You don’t know that,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“I don’t? What do you think that invitation was except for a way to rub it in your face? And don’t kid yourself into thinking that fiancée of his wants you at her party except to make you feel like shit. I made it so you could at least show up, but you don’t have to give her what she wants. I thought I was helping you save face,” he explained. “I guess I was wrong.”

I realized he was right, but all he had done was complicate matters. “I wish you would have let me know you were going to do that.”

“I didn’t know I was going to until I did. Besides,” he added with a smirk, “you were acting like you didn’t see me.”

I tried not to look shifty. “Not true.”

“True.” He smiled, looking down at me with laughter in his eyes. He was amused. I amused him.

“I’m sort of in a hurry,” I said, holding up the box with the coffee cake. “I’m meeting a friend for brunch. That’s why I was a little distracted.”

“Okay, okay. I’m not here to fight with you.” He held up his hands, backing off. “Have fun at your brunch. And be sure to let me know what time I should pick you up for the party.”

“What?”

“The engagement party.” He turned and started walking away.

“Wait a minute!” I called out. “You don’t really think we’re going to that, do you?”

“Miss a party at the St. Regis? I’ll even break out my good suit!” he called over one shoulder.

I marched after him, grabbed his hand, and pulled him around to face me. “Not so fast, Mister. I’m not going to that stupid party. First of all, I cannot imagine anything worse than spending an evening watching my ex and his new fiancé celebrate their great love for each other. He was out of order to even think of inviting me. Second, there’s bound to be a bunch of people from work there, so I wouldn’t dare of go with a loose cannon like you. God knows what you could say or do. My job happens to be important to me.”

“Not going would be a big mistake,” he said slowly.

“Well, let me be the judge of that.”

He shrugged. “Okay. It’s your life. You’re allowed to screw it up if you want to.”

See, he didn’t need to say that last part. He just did it to piss me off. I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to sound ungrateful. So, thank you for helping me the other day, but from now on please do not help me. I do not need your help.”

“100 bucks says you do!”

“Excuse me?”

He smirked and looked so damn sexy I wanted to bite him. “You heard.”

“All right. You asked for it, buddy.”

His expression lost that smug look. “What?”

“Five hundred bucks says you’ll be needing my help before I need yours,” I challenged. I knew I wouldn’t need his help, but by chance, if he locked himself out of the building, needed to borrow sugar, or needed something, I could do with the money. I was lusting after a pair of shoes with a $465.00 sticker on it that I spotted in a shop window last week.

He chuckled, a twinkle in his eyes. “You’re on.”

“I’d like mine in fifty dollar bills, please,” I said, with a glint in my eye. I’ll show him.

His eyebrows rose mockingly, and I pretended to laugh.

Then he was gone, disappearing into the heavy Saturday morning crowd. And there I was, standing on the sidewalk with my heart banging, wanting him, and hating the fact that I wanted him.