“Johnathan isn’t mad at you, is he?” I ask Sabryna, who was busily filling in a crossword on the couch next to me.

 “He’s not,” Sabryna says. “I swear, he’s okay with this. The office has been a little bit swamped since Dot went on maternity leave anyways. We need the extra help.”

 I didn’t quite believe her. “Did you see how they stuffed me into that closet office? I mean, I would have rather just worked in a chair in the reception room. It’s like they’re…” I fiddled with the edge of one of the couch pillows. “Do you think they’re embarrassed of me, Sabryna? That they want me hidden away? Are they trying to hint that they want me to go?”

 “No, no,” Sabryna said, a little bit too quickly. “You’re just not what they’re used to, but they’re going to have to deal. It’s fine.”

 A silence settled over her living room. It was after work, and I had made some pasta I had come across in the pantry for dinner, trying my best to atone for all the trouble I was sure I was causing Sabryna. After we had finished eating, Sabryna started on her daily New York Times crossword, and I sat awkwardly next to her, scrolling through articles on my phone, unsure of how to fit myself into her routine…what I was supposed to do, and where I was supposed to go.

 Speaking of my phone, it was quite the mess when I turned it on. I had almost ten voicemails, seven from Ben and three from my mother, who Ben had obviously called at some point. I had called back after I had initially reached Sabryna’s house and given him the truth…ish. I had told him that I had driven up to Sabryna’s house to comfort her after a bad breakup…a nonexistent bad breakup, of course. I let him know that I was safe, but that was about it. I didn’t get into details, but he must have known that something was wrong…I wasn’t the kind of girl who drove to another state on a whim to comfort an old friend without telling anyone, and I wasn’t responding to any of his less urgent texts.

 I wonder what he was thinking about our engagement.

 Sabryna smirked as she filled in squares on her crossword in large, penciled capital letters. “What did you think of Cassidy?”

 “Cassidy?” I asked, lost in thought.

 “Cassidy Evans? The hot British guy you spent all morning getting bagels with?”

 “Oh,” I said. “I mean, you make it sound like it was more than it was.”

 “It seemed like it,” Sabryna said. “Be careful though, he’ll fuck anything that moves.”

 “I thought he seemed nice,” I added.

 “I didn’t say he wasn’t nice,” Sabryna said. “I just don’t think your lifestyles would…mix well.”

 “And anyways,” I said, swallowing hard. “I’m engaged.” I rotated the tiny engagement band—silver with a modest but pretty diamond—anxiously around my finger. I hadn’t been wearing it to work. It wasn’t that I was hiding it, I suppose…I just wanted to avoid the questions and the wedding talk, considering why I had run here in the first place.

 “You’re gonna have to figure out what you’re gonna do soon, Eliza,” Sabryna said, suddenly taking a more serious tone. “You can’t put off your real life forever.”

 I thought of the shining doors of Torver Corporation, and the luxuries that lay just beyond my reach. Could I?

 “Maybe Cassidy is what you need,” Sabryna said.

 “Excuse me?” I gasped.

 “I’m serious,” Sabryna said. “You started dating Ben in high school, and you’ve never so much as had a lame date with another man. Maybe just mess around a little bit before you settle down. Maybe that’s what you need.” She smiled. “Think of it as an extended bachelorette party.”

 “That’s cheating,” I said, and halted my fidgeting with the ring.

 “I mean I guess,” Sabryna said. “But if that’s what you need to make your marriage with Ben work…well, then that’s what you need.”

 “No,” I said affirmatively, sitting up straighter. “Just no.”

 “Look, I have seen Cassidy flirt with probably hundreds of girls before, and the way he seemed to act with you today…well, I don’t know, but it was different.”

 I shook my head. “And by different I’m sure you mean he has no interest in a girl like me.”

 “No,” Sabryna said, pondering. “Good different.”

 I laughed it off this time. “No,” I said. “I’m engaged, but very funny.”

 Sabryna raised her eyebrows at me and I got up to exit the room and get ready for an early night’s sleep.

 I looked down at my finger, and at the tiny indents the ring had made in my skin. They seemed natural now, like a tattoo, and I had almost forgotten what my hand had looked like without it.

***

 The next day the office was quiet, as the excitement of the strange country girl joining the team had died down considerably. I dressed more formally this time, using the money I had brought with me to buy some new office clothes, which included two blazers with sets of dress pants to match, in navy and beige, and a white blouse. When I looked at the receipt, the reality began to sink in deeper: I wasn’t going back to South Dakota anytime soon. What the hell was I doing?

 Johnathan smiled at me politely as Sabryna and I walked in. He certainly wasn’t acting antagonistic towards me, but he wasn’t necessarily being extremely welcoming to me either. I figured he probably had bigger things to worry about than who was getting lower-level office chores done for his employees. It was my coworkers who I would probably have to worry about more than my boss.

 “See ya soon,” Sabryna said, smiling at me as she went to sit at her desk. I sighed, alone again, and retreated to my office all the way in the back.

 The door groaned as I opened it, and I made a similar sound soon after: the desk was piled in what must have been hundreds of pieces of paper, binder-clipped and stapled together, and many of them covered with urgent looking sticky notes in various colors. It looked like an entire week’s worth of work…did they expect me to complete all this in one day? Did I even have the training to do it? I felt myself begin to panic for the first time since I had arrived in Seattle.

 I sighed and sat down to look at the first stack, which had a sticky-note placed upon it by a guy called Mark who was apparently from the marketing department. He wanted me to read a bunch of research reports and then synthesize them into a more manageable document for Johnathan. I groaned. This alone would take me all day.

 I started reading the first report, highlighter in hand. It was dull work, and I found myself looking at the clock on my phone far too much to be at all healthy. Two hours passed, and my head felt completely numb from the reports, which were filled with strange words and graphs that probably only a statistics professor could decipher. I heard the doorknob turn, jumped out of my stupor, and turned around to see Cassidy, standing there in the doorway like he knew exactly how handsome he was, even this early in the day.

 “Morning love,” he said with a smirk that made me blush. “How’s the first real day of—what the hell?”

 I stared at him blankly. “What?”

 “This,” he said, shuffling through the papers on my desk. “Fucking…this?”

 “What?”

 He practically grabbed the research report I was reading out of my hands, and then looked at the accompanying sticky note from Mark. “Stupid fucking wanker. Of course he did. Of course.”

 Cassidy suddenly stormed out and I followed him down the hall timidly. “Cassidy?” I called after him. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

 I saw him turn down the hall until he found an office, and then practically kicked the door down. Sitting inside was a red-haired man with glasses, who quickly minimized a tab on his computer that was most definitely Netflix. I backed away down the hallway before the man, who I figured was Mark, saw me.

 “What the bloody fuck is this, Mark? You lazy shit. Are you kidding me?” Cassidy yelled. “Are you capable of doing anything yourself?”

 “Sorry, Cassidy, I just thought the new girl was here to help with stuff, so I—”

 “Small secretarial chores, Mark, not your entire fucking job. This is like a week’s worth of work for you, and not just any work, but work that you’re pretty much the only person in the office that has the training to do. And you were trying to hand it off to her so you could sit in your office and watch Stranger Things? Seriously?”

 “Look, sorry, I just—”

 “Piss off,” Cassidy said, and shut the door. I noticed that a few people had cracked their doors open to listen to the argument, and Cassidy had noticed too.

 “There,” Cassidy said. “I don’t think anyone will bother you with any absurd amounts of work for a while, don’t you think?”

 I stood there silently, a bit flabbergasted. We walked back to my office in silence, and I couldn’t think of the right words to say.

 “Thanks,” I practically mumbled. Cassidy was leaning against the open door of my office, practically hovering over me. “I really appreciate it, that report was uh…messing with my head.”

 “I’m not going to let anyone take advantage of you,” Cassidy said. “Never, okay? I’m your friend here.”

 I felt myself blush again. “Okay.”

 For the first time, I really noticed how strikingly attractive Cassidy was. He wore a tailored gray waistcoat over a white button down with the sleeves rolled up, showing off his muscled forearms. His blue eyes were especially striking—not just because of the color, but because they had a deep intensity to them, like they were permanently set to bedroom. And of course, I had to admit that watching him step up to defend my honor like that was just a tiny bit sexy.

 …okay, a lot sexy.

 It was then I noticed I was staring.

 “Are you alright?” Cassidy asked, and the tones of his British accent were suddenly making my knees weak.

 “Oh, yeah,” I said quickly. “And thanks again.”

 “Of course,” Cassidy said, and gave me an electric sort of smile that suddenly took me aback. “I’ll see you around, okay?”

 In a quick, almost invisible movement, Cassidy rested his hand on my waist before he left, letting it rest suddenly as he made eye contact with me. “Good luck, Eliza.”

 I took a deep breath of…relief?...as Cassidy left the room. His presence made me feel…well I don’t know what, but it had made an impact.

 I thought about the way he had rested his hand on my waist and stared at me, a delicate move yet one laden with meaning. Did he want me? I thought back to Sabryna’s stories about his womanizing. So, I mean, he wanted everyone, right? Maybe it was nothing.

 Well, he was going to be disappointed, I thought with a sudden confidence as I sat down at my desk. I had a man, a wonderful one, and this summer, I was going to become his wife.

***

 There was warmth…lovely morning warmth peeking through the windows, the kind of quiet Sunday you only get in a place like South Dakota. I was in my room, which was next door to Ben’s—we had always kept to separate bedrooms to avoid temptation, as I was still determined to keep my virginity until my wedding night.

 I rolled over to see a figure underneath the sheets, and I could almost feel his warmth as I stretched out, letting the sun warm my bare legs.

 “Morning,” I said, letting out a tiny yawn.

 “Morning to you too,” a voice replied from behind me, a thick British accent sending shivers down my spine.

 I giggled and turned to find Cassidy, his dark blond hair tousled and showing glimmers of red in the sunlight. He was lounging next to me, his shirtless and chiseled form propped up on a pillow as he gazed at me.

 “That was incredible last night,” he said. “You were incredible, Eliza, love, you really were.”

 I saw myself giggle as he leaned in to kiss me in an electric rush of happiness, and I noticed that I was completely naked underneath the sheet I had wrapped around myself.

 “You know that he’s never going to be able to fuck you the way I can, right?” Cassidy said with a sudden burst of intensity, quickly pulling me against him, and—

 I woke up in a cold sweat, almost panting as I looked at the glow of the digital clock and noticed Maggie sleeping at the end of the bed. I was at Sabryna’s. My clothes were on. Right.

 I drifted back to sleep, trying to clear my mind, trying to think about anything else, to think of Ben, of home, of anything that would stop me from thinking about—

 He’s never going to be able to fuck you the way I am.

 I was in for a long night.