“Oh my God,” I exclaim to the almost-empty office.

It's lunchtime now and most people have gone out to eat. It's just Lily and me now, two paupers digging our way out of abject poverty, one bagged lunch at a time.

She looks up at me from underneath her straight bangs, a few strands of spaghetti hanging out of her mouth, red tomato sauce smeared on her lips. Her wide eyes are fixed on me as she waits for me to continue.

“How do these ads know what's in my shopping cart at Banana Republic?” I turn my monitor toward Lily so she can see the rectangular banners on the screen for herself.

Lily narrows her eyes at me.

“Really?” Her voice comes out muffled, the noodles bouncing on her lip as she speaks. She noisily sucks the spaghetti into her mouth, chews, and swallows. She repeats, “Really?”

“Hey, this is serious, okay? It's creepy,” I say, taking a big bite of my ham sandwich.

“It's the twenty-first century. Live with it,” she says. “Why were you shopping in the first place?”

“That’s in the past.” I shrug. “What's important is right now. And right now I’m working. I’m looking for the tickets and hotel for the Seattle conference.”

“Oh, for Cole and Steffi?”

“Yup.”

“Oh. They're not taking the private jet?” Lily sounds surprised. “Trouble in paradise.”

I raise my eyebrows at Lily, widening my eyes.

“Are you saying… Are they…” The question is right at the tip of my tongue, but for some reason, I can't quite spit the words out.

“That's what I heard,” Lily says, lowering her voice and looking around the empty office. As she leans closer, her dark hair tumbles forward to partially cover her face. “You know how private Cole is. I'm his personal assistant and I don't know much about the guy.”

“Uh-huh,” I say, urging her to continue. I put down my brown paper bag on the desk and pay attention.

“Well, Brian from accounting told me that a bunch of people from the office went out for a drink one time,” Lily says in a low, conspiratorial tone. “And they saw Cole and Steffi going home together.”

I gasp.

“Right? Shocking.” She smiles, her eyes dancing with excitement. “They say those two are actually living together, but they’re just really secretive about it. They always arrive and leave separately.”

My chest tightens at the thought of Cole and Steffi secretly ducking in and out of his car together, going home together. I think about how to respond to this news, but my own emotions surprise me. Why should I care who goes home with him?

“Oh, speaking of the devil,” Lily says, glancing toward the elevator doors. I hear the familiar clicking and clacking of Steffi’s stilettos getting closer.

Who wears stilettos to the office anyway?

“Steffi,” I say.

She keeps walking, her eyes looking straight ahead, her wavy brown hair swishing against her back.

“Steffi,” I say louder.

“Huh?” Steffi stops and scans the office with a confused expression on her face, like she can't comprehend why there would be people in the office during lunch. Well, sorry I don't have a rich boyfriend to take me out for expensive meals every day.

“Oh, Emily,” Steffi says finally. She looks annoyed already. “What do you need?”

Wow. Sorry for trying to help you.

“I need your frequent flier number and some other details,” I say.

Steffi continues to stare at me like I’ve barged into her living room in the middle of the night and she can't understand why.

“You know, to book the flight? Seattle?” If that doesn't jog her memory, I don't know what will.

“Right.” She continues her march and says, “Just email me,” before she disappears into her office.

I look at Lily and roll my eyes. I open my notes on the computer, copy the list of personal details I need from Steffi, and paste it into my email composer.

“Wow,” Lily says.

“Yeah,” I say while I hit the Send button. “Welcome to my life. I'm doing her work and whatever work her nonexistent personal assistant is supposed to do.”

“Wow,” she repeats.

“You’ve already said that.”

“Well.” Lily puts her fork down and leans back in her chair, her arms crossed over her chest. “Now you know why.”

“Why what?”

“Why she's so mean to you, dummy. She's Cole’s girlfriend, you're...you, and she's jealous.”

“Whoa, back up a little.” I raise both my hands, palms facing Lily. “What do you mean I’m me?”

“You obviously have something going on with Cole,” Lily says, raising one eyebrow at me.

“What are you talking about?”

“He interviewed you personally. At first, I thought you were management, but you're not. So there must be something between the two of you. I know Cole doesn't do interviews for junior positions,” she says, drawing confident conclusions like she's Sherlock Holmes.

“But you obviously didn't know he has a girlfriend before I told you,” she continues, rubbing her chin like she’s in deep thought. Suddenly, she gasps. “Did he lie to you and tell you he was single?”

It's my turn now to narrow my eyes at her.

“Seriously? Would Cole Foster’s mistress eat bagged lunch to save five bucks a day?”

“You have a point there.” Lily purses her lips and nods.

I sigh in exasperation.

“So this whole time you’ve been thinking I’m Cole’s mistress and never thought to ask me?”

“Well… Now that you put it that way, it sounds kinda bad,” she smiles sheepishly. “But, in my defense, if you were Cole’s mistress and you got offended when I asked, I could’ve ended up in deep doo-doo.”

I laugh. Lily has to censor her language at home so sometimes she uses some ridiculous words.

Lily may be the office gossip, but she's also kind, funny, and helpful. Maybe she's just bored out of her mind. With a young kid in the house, real life is probably the only kind of adult drama she gets to watch anymore.

Or maybe I’m just fooled by those damn bangs and saucepan eyes that make her look all cute and innocent even though we're about the same age.

“I’m not the only one who thinks there's something between you and Cole,” Lily says. “There are benefits, you know. Like, for example, Parker pesters all the single girls but you.”

“Ugh.” I cringe as I think about the five different girls in the office Parker has awkwardly asked out over the past month alone.

“I know. Trust me. He only leaves me alone because I made him believe Aiden’s Dad is still in the picture,” Lily says.

“Last week, he asked Fiona out for drinks after work and she said no. Then he walked to the next table and asked Deandra! Unbelievable.”

“Yup, that's Parker,” Lily says. “Your ring threw me off, though.”

“My ring?”

“The first few days you were working here, you were wearing something that looked like an engagement ring.”

“Oh, that.”

“Yeah. I thought Cole was leaving Steffi to marry you,” Lily says with a straight face.

“Are you serious?” I laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

“I am,” Lily says. Slowly she realizes how impossible her scenarios are and starts to laugh. Gasping between peals of laughter, she says, “I probably need a life.”

“You probably do.”

As people start streaming back into the office, Lily packs up her stuff.

“He is nicer to you, though, for some reason. That's why I asked you to stay behind for me the other day and not someone else.” Lily winks and walks away toward her desk, not giving me a chance to protest.

I have to say I’m relieved. I was getting worried she might ask questions about rings and engagements.

I mean, I have plenty of questions myself. Like, does it count as being engaged if the paramedics found a diamond ring in the pocket of my boyfriend-slash-fiancé, but he didn't get a chance to actually pop the question?

Either way, it's not something I want to share with the office gossip, no matter how nice she is or how much she makes me laugh.

I crumple up my brown lunch bag and throw it into the trash. On the computer screen, Google Flights is still showing me the airfare options for Cole and Steffi’s trip to Seattle.

One First Class ticket for Cole and one economy ticket for Steffi. Two deluxe suites at the hotel.

If these two really turn out to be an item, they must have the strangest relationship dynamics ever. Or there may really be trouble in paradise, as Lily puts it.

I wonder if there could be any truth to what Lily says. Could Cole possibly be treating me special? There was some flirting last night, but he probably does that with many girls.

And for all the fuss people make over the interview, it can probably be explained by my having Marco on my side. Marco has always been persuasive. He probably put in a really good word for me, so good the CEO himself wanted to meet me.

I softly shake my head as I click around to see the details of the flights available. It’s crazy to suggest I’m involved with Cole in that way. Sure, he’s hot as hell, but I'd be nuts to even think about us being together in that way.

Firstly, if I want to get ahead in my career, I need my boss to take me seriously.

Secondly, yeah he's filthy rich, but so what? I make enough to support myself, and I take pride in that. I’m not going to sell my soul — and my body — just to be some guy’s arm candy and be dependent on his wealth for the rest of my life

Thirdly, Cole Foster is like the most eligible bachelor in the whole city. He’s hot, successful, and charming when he wants to be — I’ve seen him work his magic on the most difficult business clients. I’m not ready to take on half the single girls in San Fransisco as my competition.

Lastly, he probably has slept with half the single girls in San Fransisco. He keeps a lower profile these days, but the tabloids used to print pictures of him with a new girl hanging on his arm every week.

I’m not interested in just getting laid. I want a real, deep, enduring connection with someone who really gets me. And I’m not going to find that in Cole Foster.

I mean, what would we even have in common?

He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and I've had to struggle my whole life.

Sure, they say Cole has worked his ass off to make Foster Hotels the success that it is today.

But with his wealthy family and powerful network behind him, how can it possibly fail? I've come across Foster Senior at the office a few times, probably providing priceless business advice to his son.

And how much of a workaholic can he be if he goes home before I do most nights?

Wait. Where was I?

Right. Cole Foster. Rich spoiled brat. Not going to happen.

I open my email window and sigh when I still don't see Steffi's reply to my message.

Is it really so hard to quickly type out her information in an email? This is not part of my job description, so it’s bad enough she’s making me do this. Now she's deliberately turning it into a difficult task.

It's probably going to be faster if I just try asking her in person again.

I scribble the flight times available on a piece of paper and take it to Steffi's office.

I knock on her door. There's no response.

"Steffi," I say, knocking harder.

When I only hear silence from inside, I grab the door handle and slowly open it.

She's not here. Strange. I didn't see her leave the office, but then I was busy daydreaming about her hot alleged boyfriend.

There's a plain envelope on the desk. There's no writing on it, but the bulk suggests that it contains something.

I wonder if Steffi's personal details are in that envelope. Maybe she’s already written down all the information I need and left it on her desk for me to find. Perhaps Steffi is not the monster I've built her up to be in my head.

I pick up the envelope and find a folded piece of paper inside. As I read it, my hands grow shaky. It becomes harder and harder for me to read the letters.

This doesn't make any sense. I was wrong. Steffi is worse than the monster I've built her up to be in my head.