Finally, Maddy had a Sunday to herself. She’d been spending most of her free time with Carter, in bed and out. Out of bed, he’d taken her to hole-in-the-wall jazz clubs she’d never heard of, and in turn, she’d taken him on a mini-tour of the newer places in Portland he might have missed since moving away.

She had so much fun with him, it was almost strange to be spending this Sunday alone, doing what used to be her normal: a latte, a Danish, and the New York Times crossword puzzle. Though she still tried in vain, she never, ever managed to finish it.

It was rainy out today, so she took a seat inside the coffee shop, sipping her coffee and fiddling with her pen before checking her texts. Carter had sent her one, a picture of him with Olivia on his lap. He was visiting his parents today, and the photo made her smile. Olivia was beaming, she clearly adored her big brother.

She tapped out Cuties! And sent it, putting her phone down so she could turn her attention back to the crossword.

“Mind if I sit here?”

She looked up, about to tell whoever it was to find somewhere else to sit when she realized who it was: Dillon Palmer. The guy who had cornered her in the toy closet. A few days after that, Zoe had told her about her own experience in New York, making Maddy relieved that Carter had come in when he did and so sorry that Zoe had to deal with that. The two had bonded then, and now had a standing weekly dinner date trying new restaurants, after they both discovered a mutual love for Indian food.

“I have nothing to say to you,” Maddy said. “Please leave me alone.” She kept her voice level but strong, refusing to look away from him. She tended to intimidate guys like him. There was something about a tall woman that either attracted them or unsettled them. But it made both types want to poke at her. Like she was a target to either be hit, or destroyed.

“You should be nicer to me,” Dillon said, sliding into the seat despite her request. “You never know when the company you work for may undergo a sudden management change.”

She shot him a disgusted look, saying nothing. She didn’t want to give him any ammunition or reason to continue sitting next to her. Maybe if she ignored him, he’d go away. She turned her attention purposefully toward her crossword, contemplating it deeply, even though her real focus was on him and the potential threat he might pose.

God, she hated guys like this. Some of them were just gross. And some of them were truly dangerous. It wasn’t like they wore buttons identifying which was which. Plus, all of them were toxic, and the gross ones could turn dangerous. Basically: avoiding them was the best recourse. Problem was, avoidance required boundaries they didn’t respect.

“I saw you, you know,” Dillon continued. “At the party.”

Maddy’s heart began to beat too fast. Was he talking about the Halloween party? Shit. That wasn’t good.

“If you give that kind of attention to all the CEOs, I’m in luck,” he said, shooting her a look that made her skin crawl.

Maddy refused to react to him, knowing that’s exactly what he craved. “I hate to disappoint you, but I wouldn’t touch your dick with ten-foot pole,” she said, getting up and grabbing her crossword and her purse and stalking out of there, leaving him gaping after her.

* * *

Sometimes, a girl needed her best friend. Right now, Maddy was that girl.

“I need your advice,” Maddy said, charging into Nat’s new apartment as soon as she opened the door, without even so much as a hello.

“Hi,” Nat said slowly, looking bewildered as she chased after Maddy, who was already in the living room.

“I can’t believe you still have that old couch,” Maddy said, looking at the expensive designer cream-colored linen couch that Nat had found at a thrift store their second year in college. She’d dragged it in and out of every dorm room and apartment the two of them had. And then she dragged it to New York with her.

“I love that couch,” Nat said. “You look positively green. You’re not pregnant, are you?”

“No, I’m not pregnant,” Maddy scoffed. “I just got, I dunno… threatened? Blackmailed? Kind of? I don’t even know. It was weird.”

Nat frowned, sitting down on the infamous couch and patting the spot next to her. “Okay, sit down. Breathe. Explain.”

But Maddy couldn’t sit down. She needed to move. She began to pace in tight circles around Nat’s living room. There were things she recognized on the walls and shelves—pictures and paintings that Nat had had when they were in school or before—and then there were new things: a sheepskin blanket tossed over a chair, a series of hooks shaped like horseshoes, an old barn wood sign that said EST 1887. Finally, she turned around, facing her friend.

“I’ve been sleeping with Carter,” she blurted out.

Nat cocked one of her impressive eyebrows at Maddy. “What a shock,” she drawled, with such sarcasm it told Maddy it was anything but.

“You knew.”

“Of course I knew,” Nat said. “You two keep making goo-goo eyes at each other. The entire office knows. There’s a pool on how long it’ll be until you get married. Renee’s also taking bets on how big your first baby is going to be, because oh my God, Maddy, you are going to have a basketball team with that man.”

Maddy groaned, flinging herself on the couch next to Nat and burying her face in her hands.

“I was joking about that last thing,” Nat said, and Maddy could see her frowning through her fingers. “What’s wrong? This is a good thing.”

“No, it’s not!” Maddy said. “Because that asshole Dillon Palmer just came up to me at the coffee shop and kind of weirdly implied that he was going to get Carter ousted from the company!”

“What? Dillon is still in town?” Nat sat straight up, looking irate. “I swear to God, I am going to kick that guy’s ass. What did he say to you?”

“A load of bullshit, or so I thought,” Maddy said. “I was getting my Sunday coffee and just sitting there doing the crossword like I always do,”

“You are such a dork,” Nat interjected.

“Anyway,” Maddy said, pacing back and forth. “He sits down at my table. Starts talking about how companies go through management changes. He… he said he’d seen Carter and me at the Halloween party at the Secret Society Lounge,” her cheeks began flaming as she continued. “We, um… might have been sharing a moment. You know…”

“You were getting frisky in public,” Nat filled in. “Dirty. I like it.”

“Oh God, this is so embarrassing,” Maddy moaned, making Nat laugh. “I was not having sex in public! We were just kissing! But I guess Dillon saw us, and he seems to think that gives him some major ammunition. Does it? I know Carter was worried at the beginning, about the whole being-my-boss thing. But is it going to hurt the company?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Nat said. “Really,” she stressed, when Maddy continued to look skeptical. “There’s nothing in the company contract you signed banning higher-ups from dating employees. You can’t get in trouble for this. And Dillon can’t take over the company. He doesn’t even own any of it. He’s just an investor’s son. You don’t have to worry at all.”

“I wanted to talk to Carter first,” Maddy said. “But with the transplant coming up…”

“I’ll take care of it,” Nat said. “No point in bothering him. Plus, this is what CEOs do—they take care of problems.”

“You are going to be an amazing CEO,” Maddy said, feeling relieved that Nat was so sure that this wasn’t a problem and she had a plan. Dillon Palmer was clearly just a jerk who was trying to get back at Carter for banning him from the company. He’d been in the right place at the right time to see Carter and Maddy kissing and had decided to use it to mess with them.

“Okay,” she got back up, that restless energy filling her again. “I should go.”

“Um, no,” Nat said. “You should sit your ass down and give me details. You owe me. I want to know everything. Well. Not like, everything, because eww. I love you both, but no. I want a fuzzy, tasteful picture.”

Maddy’s mouth quirked up, her amusement evident. She sat back down, taking the Godiva chocolate that Nat offered her from a little ceramic box on the coffee table. “Okay, so, you know how you hit a point with someone you’re in a relationship with, where they really know you and they can just… anticipate what you need? What you want?”

“The really good sex phase that comes after the kind-of-awkward learning-each-other stage?” Nat asked.

Maddy nodded. “Yeah. That. Except without the awkward learning-each-other stage. It’s just all amazing,” she said. “It’s like… it’s like we knew each other from the first touch.”

Nat was making a face that was usually reserved for looking at puppy pictures. “Maddy, oh, my God,” she pressed her hand against her heart. “This is great.”

“Yeah,” Maddy said, smiling, trembling, and finally hopeful, for the first time in a long time. “I think it is.”