Jessica worked in the accounting section of a government building. It was a huge gray stonework building complex where the state government convened all of its departments after a history of separation. Now all of the transportation, police, and emergency services worked together.

The employees networked, spoke, relayed, and took care of the local area as a team. It saved the government money because the accounting section did the bills, payroll and ordering for all of the branches, and the maintenance department worked on vehicles for all sections.

The mechanics could work on a police officer’s car today and a snowplow tomorrow. The dispatchers in the call center took calls for roadwork, and at the same time emergency operators, less than ten feet away, took 911 calls.

Jessica’s official title was procurement officer, which meant buyer. Not a buyer in New York for a department store like she wanted, but a buyer of equipment for snowplows, state troopers, ambulances, the jail, the offices, and the IT department.

What she ended up being was accounting’s catchall. She could end up with invoices, payroll, or balancing a spreadsheet. It was uninspiring. She needed excitement, passion, a life. But when you are a timid and shy girl, those things are hard to come by.

Jess liked to think of herself as a work in progress and tried to assert herself, but usually wimped out. She sighed for the third time that morning and stared at the screen. Your boss dumped on you when you were a timid and shy girl, too. The payroll clerk called out sick again. Since Jess was cross-trained for “these emergencies,” the payroll was dumped in her lap. When Debbie spent her previous evening at happy hour—as Debbie frequently did the day before payroll was due—Jess was the back-up. Jess could’ve refused, after spontaneously sprouting a backbone, but it was easier to do it than try to fight the wicked witch.

Jess could hear the cackle in the back of her mind, and her lips twitched slightly. She held it in because the witch liked to lurk about. Jess also didn’t want anyone to think that she was insane. People didn’t sit in rooms alone and laugh unless something was off.

She added the columns, checked the formulas in the rows, reconciled the dollar amount, and pushed send. The witch would have to check Jess’s work before it was committed to the system for processing since Jess wasn’t a payroll clerk.

She needed coffee, maybe with a shot of mocha creamer, she thought, stifling a yawn. Yes, coffee, double mocha shot. That got her moving. Lolly was coming down the hall in her usual rainbow-colored maxi-dress and cloud of perfume. Jess liked Lolly and she was as near to a best friend as Jess had.

“Hey, Jessie girl! Is it mocha time already?” Lolly smiled that overly large-toothed smile at her that had just a little too much gum to it. Jess nodded. They called her Lolly because she’d had a lollipop in her mouth nearly twenty-four seven since she’d quit smoking. The nickname stuck. Right now, it was a grape Tootsie Pop. Jess was afraid that soon her name would be Toothy, because all of that sugar and sucking had to be bad for your teeth. Lolly looped her elbow through Jess’s. “Are we going for a workout in the morning? I feel the need for some endorphins.”

“Um, sure, I could use some of those, too.” Jess smiled up at her friend. She was jealous of Lolly. She was so gorgeous with her caramel-colored skin, her long braids, and her toffee-colored eyes. Lolly’s mom was a small white Jewish woman from New York who liked to send cakes and cookies to work with Lolly. She’d sent gingerbread today, not Jess’s favorite. Her dad was a Jamaican whom Lolly had never met. He must’ve been tall, because Lolly was tall, and he must’ve had that smile, because her mother didn’t. Nellie raised Lolly in New York’s Upper East Side, but right after college Lolly followed a man to Northern Virginia.

Her mother retired and moved in with her when the man left. Nellie now took care of Lolly’s two children. He never came home from work one night, then texted her with his plans to move on and divorce her.

Lolly was strong and smart. She took everything—the house, the car, and custody of the kids. He’d begged to come home shortly after the divorce was final, but Lolly stood firm. Jess respected that kind of strength. Lolly had a backbone. She could’ve caved and let him come back, let him help her support the family and take care of the house. It would’ve been easier. But she didn’t. Lolly stood tall with her back straight and stuck to her principles. Jess often had trouble fighting back and standing up for herself. She really needed to work on that. She kept telling herself and she kept trying to practice what she preached to herself in her head.

“I’m on my way to an interview, sweets, but I will meet you in the morning at Henry’s. Six o’clock okay?”

Jess nodded.

“Are you sure?” Lolly cocked an espresso-colored eyebrow at her, and Jess nodded again, looking her in the eye. “See you then.” Lolly was the human resources manager and spent a lot of time in meetings and interviews. Jess hated meetings and interviews. She much preferred her quiet office with her plants and computer.

The complex had an employee coffee and lunchroom area. There was a machine where you could fill your cup with several different kinds of coffees or teas, and there were vending machines full of chocolate and salty temptations. Jessica refused to look at them. No soda, no popcorn, and no chocolate bars. Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look. A minute of satisfaction takes forever to work off on the treadmill, she repeated in her head.

The room was empty now because lunch was over. Jess got a new paper cup from the cabinet and put it on the dispenser tray. She pushed the coffee button and slid the packet into the slot on the front, then got her mocha creamers out of the bin. Usually the machine would make noises at this time and liquid heaven would shoot into her cup, but nothing happened. Jess pushed the coffee button again and slid a new packet inside the slot. Again, nothing. She bit her bottom lip and put her cup back inside the cabinet then sighed. When she turned to leave, she noticed that a police officer was standing behind her, waiting and checking her out. Jess startled and stumbled out of his way.

“You aren’t going to let it win, are you?” Jess’s brows knitted at the sight of the gun at his hip, and her teeth sunk into her quivering bottom lip. His nametag said Lt. J. Crenshaw. She didn’t meet his eyes, only nodded, and quickly walked away.

A growl rumbled through his chest. He was so damn big and intimidating compared to her. Jess swallowed the fist-sized knot in her throat and almost ran down the hall. She didn’t see officers at this end of the building very often because they spent their time out on the roads, but sometimes one would pop up, and that one had growled at her. They left her alone if she didn’t meet their eyes, which she never did. The gun he wore on his hip was huge, too, and Jess hated guns. A gun and a tragic accident was the reason she spent her childhood without her siblings.

Damn it. She really wanted a coffee. Lolly was great at fixing the damned thing when it acted up, but she was busy so there was no hope. When she got back to her desk, Jess opened the program on her computer that she would spend the afternoon with. Now that Debbie’s work was completed, she could work on her own. If that witch said one word about her project being late she might just…oh, who was she kidding? She would keep her mouth shut and take it like a man. God, she needed to get a set.

Jess started keying the numbers into the computer and clicking on cells in the spreadsheet. She glanced at the clock. If she hurried, she may finish this on time. “Here you are. You aren’t easy to find, are you?” The big cop, oh God. He was even bigger now since she was sitting down. “I got it to work and I think I got it right, coffee with mocha, right?” Jess nodded without meeting his eyes and took the small hot cup from his huge but graceful hand. She noticed his neatly clipped nails and his smooth tanned skin. It was quite the contrast to her pale trembling hand with its chewed cuticles.

“Thank you,” she said softly, and glanced at the gun like it might attack on its own.

“I was wondering if you’d like to go to dinner later. We can go over to Dan Dan’s across the plaza. Do you like Chinese?”

She nodded.

“Great, should I pick you up here, or would you rather meet up over there?”

Crap. That’s what happened when you nodded instead of speaking. Yes, she liked Chinese but no, she didn’t want to have dinner with the big killing machine on his hip. She glanced at it again.

“Don’t like guns?”

She shook her head and finally met his eyes. They were navy blue, sharp, so dark and deep, the kind you could fall into like a warm pool. There were crinkles at the corners as if he either smiled a lot or squinted often. She inhaled sharply, and the corner of his mouth lifted. His thick black hair had a wave to it, but just barely since it was so short. There was a dimple playing at the corner of his mouth, and she could see straight, white teeth when he spoke.

“Then I will lock it up at the office before dinner.” He smiled then, and her breath caught. It was a nice dimple, deep, and made him seem less serious than his uniform suggested. “Is four o’clock okay?”

“I don’t get off until four thirty,” she murmured, watching the muscles ripple up his forearm as he lifted his coffee to that beautiful mouth to sip. Her midsection clenched. He was the definition of male beauty, and she couldn’t help that she’d only given him her full attention a few seconds ago but she wanted him. Her very soul cried out to have him.

“Okay then, four thirty. I’ll pick you up here. I don’t want you to get away.” He winked, and she swallowed again. “My name is James, by the way, and you’re Jessica, right?”

She nodded, and he turned to leave.

“See you at four thirty, Jessica.” And he was gone.

Crap. Had his eyes changed color? She might be getting sick. Was she really going out with a cop? They scared her, but then most men did. That was something else that she was trying to get over. She really wanted a family—a husband, kids, a dog, and a house. She knew that she couldn’t have her idea of a family without a man, so she was doing her best to be brave. A male student was aggressive with her in college, so it was difficult to trust men, but she was trying. He didn’t rape her because she screamed and was rescued by a crowd of girls, but the possibility of what could have happened always lingered at the back of her mind.

Was she really going out with that cop? He was gorgeous. Jess bit her lip and grinned to herself. It was frightening and exhilarating at the same time. She wondered what his lips would feel like when he kissed her goodnight. She also wondered what those elegant hands would feel like on her skin. Jess shivered. She stared at her computer screen, but it was nothing but a big blur. When Lolly stopped in with a cup of soup in her hand, it was an hour later.

“What’s put you off in dreamy land?” Lolly snapped her fingers in Jess’ face.

Jess smiled up at her.

“What gives? You are usually focused and this is definitely out of focus.” Lolly grinned while twirling her long finger around Jessica’s face.

“I went to get coffee and the machine was nasty to me. There was a big gorgeous police officer in there, and of course, I ran away.” Jess worried her lip.

“Of course you did.” Lolly sipped her soup, with her brows raised expectantly.

“Well, he got it to work, made my coffee, and brought it to me.”

A smile slowly spread across Lolly’s pretty face, but she remained silent.

“He’s taking me to Dan Dan’s after work.”

Lolly bounced in place. Her soup sloshed over the side and she put it down on Jessica’s desk so she could continue bouncing while she wiped her fingers with a tissue. Her rainbow-striped maxi dress flared out around her.

“Which one is he? There are bunches of them that are cute. Oh! I am so happy for you.”

Jessica frowned.

“Oh, no you don’t, Jess. He brought you coffee, he asked you out and you accepted. You are going. Cop or not.”

“I didn’t, though. He asked if I liked Chinese and I nodded. I never said that I would go.” She crossed her arms over her ample chest.

Lolly grinned at her show of spirit. There was no way that she would let her get away with backing out of the date. Jess spent too many evenings alone. She was young and should have fun with boys, many boys, Lolly always said.

“It seems to me that you did, whether you meant to or not. You accepted and you are going. I wish you’d worn something more low cut. Boys love boobs, and you have a nice set.”

Jessica’s face scrunched up.

“Oh stop it. You have a great body, it’s curvy and luscious, every man’s dream. You have a great face, pretty eyes and shampoo commercial hair. Accept it. If I were a guy, I would be all over you.” Lolly laughed at Jess’s expression.

“Yeah, that’s why they’re lined up around the block. Get out of here. I need to get back to work.” Jess made a shooing motion with her hands. “Really, or I won’t be able to go because I’ll be stuck here, and I’m not dating you, you’re too aggressive.”

Lolly cackled at that. “But you are going.”

Jessica nodded.

Lolly bounced again and clapped. “See you in the morning at the gym, and I want to hear all of the juicy details.”

Jess rolled her eyes.

Lolly walked out, humming and carefully balancing her soup. The cloud of perfume that she left behind wasn’t unpleasant, but was overwhelming, and Jess had to clear her throat. She tried to focus on the spreadsheet and not think about Lolly or James.

“Back to work, Jess. Get back to work and don’t think about the big hunky police officer.” She scowled at the screen.