Ayumi was hurrying around her apartment when her door buzzer went off. She groaned and decided to ignore it – she had an overeager neighbor who liked to personally hand her anything from her doorstep. Newspapers, packages, fliers for cheap pizza, whatever. She was pretty sure he had a crush on her, and she didn't like to encourage it.

Bzzzzzz.

She glared at her stairs as she hopped into a pair of Dior heels. Sometimes he could be persistent to the point of creepy. When the buzzer went off for the fourth time in a row, she dashed to the intercom in her kitchen and pressed the talk button.

“Sorry, Dean, I'm in a hurry today, just leave it on the doorstep.”

“Who's Dean and does he often leave stuff on your doorstep?”

Ayumi blinked rapidly and stepped back, as if the owner of the voice was going to magically climb out of the intercom. Then she shook herself back to her senses.

“Liam,” she said, then she cleared her throat. “How did you know where I live?”

“I'm not as stupid as you think I am, I can do my own detective work. Let me up,” he urged her. She glared and let her mind race for a second.

“Katya told you,” she guessed.

“Still counts as detective work. Let me up. I have espresssoooo,” he dragged out the last word. Ayumi almost groaned. As late as she was running, she'd already given up any hopes for getting coffee. Now here it was, at her doorstep.

“Fine. You get two minutes,” she caved for the coffee, and she hit the button that unlocked her outer door.

She took another couple deep breaths while she stood at the top of her stairs. Her front door had a window in it and she could just see the bottom inches of it. Liam was outside it, standing in her vestibule. The last time she'd seen him, she'd had her hand down his pants. Or his was down hers. Something, it was all fuzzy. She'd meant to call him – she had every intention of continuing where they'd left off – but work had been crazy the day before, she hadn't gotten home till almost two in the morning. She'd planned on texting him that day, but now here he was.

Is he looking for a quickie? Too bad it had to be today of all days.

“I'm running late,” she said as soon as she'd opened the door.

She made her way back up into the apartment and he followed close behind her. When they got to her kitchen, she finally turned to face him. He wasn't looking at her, though; he was checking out her home.

“This place is great,” he commented.

“Thank you.”

“How long have you lived here?”

“A couple years.”

“Own?”

“Yes.”

“It's nice. And who's Dean?” his eyes finally landed on hers and she saw that he was smiling big.

“You have one minute left,” she replied, taking one of the coffee cups from his hands.

“C'mon,” he laughed. “What's gonna happen if you're late? What, is Wulfy gonna fire you?”

Ayumi didn't know – she'd never been late to work.

“It's not about Wulf, it's a matter of pride and respect. I take pride in doing a good job and I respect my boss, so I show up on time,” she informed him while she sipped at the warm brew.

“Ooohhh, that feels like a dig. Are you flirting with me?” he teased her. She swallowed thickly, absolutely refusing to blush.

“No. Why are you at my house?” she asked.

“Something happened last night,” he told her, but didn't elaborate. She was shocked to feel a shot of panic race through her system.

He slept with someone else. You waited too long. You didn't even get to tell him about the “no other people” rule.

She stared at him for a second, then grabbed her blazer and started wiggling into it.

“Did it happen during your evening at the sex club, or after?” she asked, then instantly regretted it.

“No way, you don't get to be jealous of what I do at work, when you have some dude name Dean coming to your door often enough to be annoying,” he laughed. She rolled her eyes and grabbed her attache case off her counter.

“Not jealous. So what happened? Talk and walk,” she instructed before heading into her living room.

“I know we just made this like sex deal thingy,” he said. “And it was great, really. You're totally hot and I was pretty much dying the whole time I had to deal with that sprinkler situation.”

Jesus, I'm getting dumped and we're not even dating.

“I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” she managed to say as she grabbed some files off her coffee table and shoved them into her case.

“Ice Queen, you make me uncomfortable in the sexiest way possible,” he chuckled.

“You're welcome?”

“But I'm afraid I have to turn down your offer.”

Ayumi stumbled and almost fell against the doorway into her living room.

“What?” she said, looking over her shoulder at him. “Why? What happened?”

“Nothing happened,” he said, shrugging as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “You were fantastic. Honestly. Best sex I've had in a long time. But I sort of had this ... heart to heart, you could say, with my brother. And it got me thinking about a lot of stuff. I don't think I'm in a good place to do this kind of thing with you.”

“You're not in a good place to have sex?” Ayumi asked, turning to face him.

“Well, I mean, not literally,” he laughed. “I'm leaving town. A while ago a friend asked me to drive his car down to San Diego. I decided fuck it, time to take a vacation, why not move the car? So I'm sorry, but I can't be your fuck buddy right now.”

“You just decided last night to take a vacation? That's why you can't sleep with me?” Ayumi was confused. Where had this come from? He wasn't in a good place? He need a vacation? He'd seemed fine the other day in his office.

Though when she really thought about it, she remembered their conversations from their night together. Him admitting to putting on an act, him saying how tiring it could be. She understood how that felt, so she couldn't really begrudge him a vacation.

Though the fact that he'd rather move some car across the state than have sex with her kind of stung.

“I'm sorry,” he said again. “Really. It's not you, I swear.”

“That's what everyone says,” she managed to laugh.

“It's really not. You could come with me, if you want. I promise I'd fuck you the whole time, it would totally be a not-friendly vacation,” he swore, and she laughed for real.

“We hardly know each other, I'm not going on some road trip with you.”

“I've practically been face to face with your vagina – I'd say we know each other pretty well,” he pointed out. She snorted.

“Sex doesn't equal friendship. And you may not care about your job, but I care about mine. Who's going to run your den of iniquity?” she asked, shoving her thick hair behind her shoulders.

“Tori jumps at the chance to prove herself, she'll love having me out of the way so she can boss everyone around,” he replied. She turned to leave.

“You take her for granted. And thanks for the invite, but I can't go on vacation with you,” she informed him as she started down her stairs.

“I get it, and I'm sorry about making it awkward. Maybe we can try again when I come back.”

“It's not awkward,” she said, opening the door and leading the way through the vestibule.

“Totally not awkward at all. It's super normal to not make eye contact for most of a conversation. You're breezy as fuck,” he teased.

There he goes again, seeing right through me.

“I'm not awkward,” she insisted. “I'm just late. Have a fun trip, Liam.”

She made it down two steps when she felt him grabbing the back of her jacket, yanking her to a stop.

“What are you, crazy? It's freezing out there! Com'ere, silly.”

Ayumi was still stunned by him grabbing her, so she didn't do anything when he reeled her back up the stairs. She stood still and stared at him while he grabbed a scarf from off her coat rack. He smiled to himself as he wrapped the thick wool around her neck.

“There,” he said when he'd tucked the ends into her blazer and buttoned the jacket closed. “You need to take better care of yourself, Ice Queen.”

She didn't like this feeling. She did not like it at all. Ayumi knew all about Liam Edenhoff's tricks. It seemed all the women in his life had at one point been, in some fashion, obsessed with him, so she'd heard about him from everyone. Katya, Tori, and Brighton. They spoke in front of her like she wasn't there, or bitched to her like they thought she cared. She heard everything.

So she knew how good he was at saying what women wanted to hear. How he had a talent for making them feel special and loved. She wouldn't be another one of those silly little girls, falling for his warm brown eyes and his incredible smile.

Or his thoughtfulness or caring ways.

“I take excellent care of myself,” she said, jerking back from him. “Take care of yourself, Liam.”

“I will. I'm really sorry, Ayumi. I had ... it was fun. Really fun, surprisingly,” he chuckled. She managed a small smile for him.

“See? I do know how to have fun once in a while,” she said.

“You do,” he agreed. “Now learn to have fun all the time, and you'll be set.”

“Then I'd just be you.”

“Which is the most fun ever.”

They smiled at each other for a second, then she surprised herself by stepping up next to him and kissing him quickly.

“You're not so bad, Mr. Edenhoff,” she breathed, staring up at him for a second. Then she hurried down the steps and ran for her car, not giving him a chance to say anything in return.