There is no substitute for hard work.

Which businessman was it who said that? Edison?

No matter. Just because Annie didn’t know its origins didn’t mean she couldn’t apply it to her own life. One painstaking day at a time.

It was true, too. Nothing could clear her mind and calm her soul like a good dose of 24/7 hustle.

We can only do this once, do you understand? I don’t do relationships, do you understand?

Grayson’s own words. He’d probably forgotten her and was already courting her replacement. There was no point in obsessing over him; it wasn’t like he was doing the same for her.

And yet, day after day, oh how she obsessed.

As she fed the bed-bound patients, changed the dressings of others, she thought of him. As she administered medication, documented care in the record books, she thought of him.

She thought of him while trying to fall asleep, and he was the first thing on her mind when she woke up. She thought of him while she and Kyla chatted on the phone before her honeymoon. She had to end the call so that Kyla would stop asking leading questions to sneak some information on how Grayson was doing (which Kyla probably wouldn’t know, anyway).

And then, after a few days, during a rare instance of her relaxing at home, curled on the couch, staring dully at the blank TV, she got a text.

Annie had to reread it three times for her amped-up brain to process the words on the screen –

In town for work. Free for a drink at The Bar, Shangri-La Hotel?

And, just like that, the man Annie had sworn to forget, the one she’d assume she’d been forgotten by herself, was back. And he was inviting her to some fancy-sounding hotel, to boot?

At first, she flung the phone onto the opposite side of the couch. Then, after pacing for a bit, going to the bathroom and doing an excited little victory dance, she answered it – Ok.

The Bar, as it turned out, was the nicest bar Annie had ever been to. There was white, lime and evergreen glass bubbles spanning the ceiling, bartenders with white tuxes, and a clientele that looked like the poorest of them earned $100K. Annie gulped, glancing down at her five-dollar Valu Village light blue bodycon steal dress.

If Grayson thought she was out of place, he didn’t show it. He was waiting at a table by the intricately carved partition with a drink for her and a shy smile. He looked good, with his tanned skin, his purple button-up, black pinstripe pants, and a smile that was as irreverent as always.

When his arms closed around her in a hug, everywhere he touched tingled. Just a casual drink, she reminded herself.

She smiled at the cup in her place. “Sex on the beach; you remembered.”

“Course I remembered. I never forget sex on the beach,” Grayson’s gaze fluttered over her as intimately as a stroke.

Annie gulped. Just a casual drink.

“You didn’t have to,” she said, taking a sip.

“No shit.”

She lowered the cup, glaring at him. “You don’t have to be a dick.”

Guilt flickered amidst his narrowed eyes. “Sorry. Think it was just how you left.”

“I’m sorry, too, I just thought...” Annie trailed off.

But Grayson spoke for her, “Better hurt me first, before I hurt you?”

Whoa. This was going a hundred speeds too fast.

“Let’s not do this,” she said, quietly, so he’d get the hint.

“Do what?” he asked, his scowl replaced by a smile, as easily as a snap of the fingers.

“Although,” he said, his hand sliding on top of hers. “Make no mistake. I did miss you.”

She had to smirk at that. Ignoring the spurt of excitement in her chest, she said, “You mean you missed certain parts of me.”

He smirked, “You’re catching on.”

Annie craned her neck to take in the bar some more. The way the square embedded walls and marble tile floors spanned out made them look like they went on forever. Already, this meeting was showing all signs of not being ‘just a drink’. But she could still stop things now, like move her stool away so their legs wouldn’t get all entwined, for starters.

“Now, why do you have to be like that?” Grayson asked.

She eyed him evenly, “You said this was just a drink.”

He cocked his head at her, “Did you really believe that?”

She clamped her fingers around her glass as she glowered into it. Had she? The way her body was thrumming excitedly now, just a heightened sense of what had already began back in her apartment, she wasn’t sure.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” she asked, eager to change the subject.

“I have a contract project with the building.” He spread his arms onto the bar ahead of him. “In this case, it’s just their lighting system. Lights, lights, and more lights.”

“Do you have any lights you don’t like doing?”

“Oh, hell yeah,” he raked some fingers through his hair. “Chandeliers, those motherfuckers.”

Annie laughed, “Chandeliers?” But, he only shook his head with a dark expression, “You don’t want to know.”

“Anyway, what about you? How’s work going?” he asked her.

“It’s good, I... to be honest, I think the break did me a lot of good,” Annie said. “That’s why I took time off. I was getting burned out with all the overtime and extra shifts.”

Grayson eyed her carefully, “The bastards make you work overtime and take extra shifts?”

“Not at all,” Annie drained the last of her drink. “I just liked picking up a bunch.”

Grayson’s hawk-eyed stare expressed he wasn’t satisfied, “Is there a reason why?”

Annie smiled sadly. She could make up some technically true lie, but right now she didn’t feel like it. Still, she said it quietly, as if that would somehow make what she was saying less true. “Easier to spend every waking minute you can at work, than deal with a life you can hardly stand.”

There was an awkward pause in which Grayson’s eyes changed. Annie’s gaze escaped his and her cheeks burned. Why did she have to go and say that?

But then, Grayson said “Hear, hear” and clinked his cup against hers. Thank God.

After he’d taken a swig of his beer, his gaze still hadn’t left her face. “So, you weren’t happy, basically?”

“I guess not,” Annie wasn’t going to take the bait and look at him. She just wasn’t.

“Why?”

Annie frowned, turning away, “You really don’t stop, do you?”

“Not really.”

She couldn’t see his irreverent smirk, but she could hear it, annoyingly enough.

“What about you, then?” she whirled around, her eyes now a magnifying glass thrust into his face. “Your life is just the picture of perfection?”

Quick as an eraser across a chalkboard, his smile was wiped clean off his face, “Not exactly.”

“Not exactly?” She felt a lawless sort of satisfaction right then. “C’mon, Grayson, can’t swallow your own tell-all medicine?”

He was scowling now. “You really want to know?” As his glare cut into her, she didn’t flinch, and he continued in his own furious whisper. “That the same thing? That missing something you can’t put a finger on, that plagues almost everyone, is plaguing me too? Then fine. There is something missing, and I’m not as happy as I should be. Happy now?”

He raised his glass in a cheers that Annie didn’t meet.

After that speech of his, after how deep into this conversation they already were, she was definitely not happy. No, she was on the top of a rollercoaster of emotion after so many revelations, and she was sailing down, out of control. The more the words fell out of her mouth, the less she could stop them.

“I was lonely,” she said softly. “Didn’t realize it at the time and didn’t even let myself think it. But I was. I missed my family, missed my friends. Was tired of going home to the same old empty apartment with the same sad rooms.”

She shook her head. “Seemed like I just got caught up in being busy for the sake of being busy. Sure, I love volunteering with Abigail and helping people as a nurse but...”

Grayson’s hand had found hers and he squeezed it. She looked up at him, admitting it to him at the same time as she was fully admitting it to herself. “It wasn’t enough.”

“It isn’t, is it?” Grayson said softly, not looking at her.

“It’s odd” his mouth twisted in a funny sort of way. “The way relationships seem to end up now, it seems that you’d be better off without them. That you’d be better off just focusing on your job and friends and one-night friends with benefits.” He nodded. “It seems like that.”

Annie gazed at him. It was as though he were voicing her own thoughts. How many nights alone had she chastised herself for not being happy with her good job and nice apartment? How many times had she tried rationalizing away everything she had hoped for?

Grayson opened his mouth and then shook his head.

He gestured to the bartender, and another drink appeared in front of Annie. She eyed it steadily as his fingers kneaded hers.

“You trying to get me drunk?” she asked, lightly.

She could feel his smile, “Definitely.”

Different reactions rose within her. First, was disappointment over the fact that they’d been on the cusp of something, of revealing more than ever before and, at the last minute, backed away. Then, there were the Old Annie responses of indignation, rage and fear. And the others belonged to someone she didn’t know yet, most probably excitement and audaciousness.

The woman she was now, one she didn’t know yet, lifted her newly filled glass, “Here’s to that, then.”

She was halfway through her second drink when his arm slid around her shoulders. He murmured, “What do you say we drown our sorrows another way?”

Before Annie could think to refuse, he was guiding her towards the washrooms, heading down some stairs. There, waiting for them, was a darkened room. Grayson closed the door behind him, his fingers loping in her dress straps. As he pulled her towards him, he growled, “And now, I’m going to fuck you.”

Although, as it turned out, while he groped her ass, she twisted around and dipped her head under his shirt. She started off at the top right rectangle of his six-pack. Then, she worked her way down. Once she reached the spot where fabric met skin, she paused.

Was she actually going to do this? Giving a blowjob was a big deal, and she had all of zero experience. But right now, maybe it was the booze, or maybe it was the heedless share session back in the bar, but going down on him felt right.

So, Annie lapped all along the long edge of his pant line, dipping a finger under and snapping the waistband of his boxers. She grinned. That was fun.

Tentatively, she felt his bulk over his pants. Hell yeah, was he stiffening.

Suddenly, all these layers between them were too much. So, she slipped her fingers under his pants and over his boxers. Grayson was definitely hard and getting harder, by the feel of it.

She undid one button and then the other. She unzipped the zipper. The pants fell to the floor of their own accord; the loud clatter momentarily stirring her. They were in a bar in some room that anyone could walk into at any moment. Although Grayson’s back was to the door, that wouldn’t mean much if someone was determined to get in.

Grayson’s hand threaded through her hair. “Want to know what I think?” he said.

Annie nodded. Inside, fear and excitement were warring, and she had no idea who would win. Grayson gave her the answer. Guiding her head to his dick, he said, “I think you should suck me.”

That was all she needed to release his dick from its prison.

At her questioning look, Grayson only smiled.

“Lick it,” he said.

Making her tongue flat, Annie traced up and down his boner’s length and all around it. From base to head, all around the shaft, she lapped until the whole thing was coated with spit.

Then, she stared at it, her gaze flicking his way questioningly once more. All of his face was slack with arousal and drowsy with a smile. “Now, wrap your sexy lips around it.”

He urged her head on a little, and she got the picture. She moved herself up and down, and, as she started up again, a groan tumbled out of him. His hold on her hair tightened.

“That’s it.”

Wow. She was doing it. She was actually doing it.

And damn, was he hard.

As she slurped her way up and down, she began to get a feel for it, alternating breathing and sucking, cupping his balls too. So that, as his hands urged her faster, she was able to suck him harder and faster almost seamlessly.

“Your hands too,” he said.

When she closed a hand around the base, he nodded. She continued her stroking suck-fest. In and out. Up and down. Breathe and suck and breathe and suck.

When his dick started twitching in her mouth, she knew he was close. Though, by now, her mouth and hands were aching, she threw herself into blowing him with everything she had.

C’mon, Annie.

Fast and hard and faster and harder she sucked and pumped him, until he was exploding in her mouth and groaning, and she was groaning, doing it, swallowing it – she was actually doing it!

And then, it was over, and his hand was still in her hair, stroking it ever so gently.

“That was...” he said, as she got up to smile at him. “Amazing.”

He kissed her forehead and she grinned, “So, I didn’t mess up.”

Grayson gestured to his satisfied, flopped-down dick, “What does it look like?”

Annie smiled. It looks like this wasn’t just a casual drink after all.