The trip back to D.C. is much like the trip to Vegas, except Mya and I drop our usual banter and instead treat each other like polite acquaintances. She doesn’t make any comments when the flight attendant slips me her number and I don’t make fun of her plastic stress cow.

The whole thing feels fake as hell.

But we’ve come to an unspoken agreement to pretend last night didn’t happen. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?

Well, I think that’s bullshit but I can’t tell where Mya stands on this. Are doubts starting to creep in? Is she wishing last night didn’t happen? Maybe a part of me is afraid to find out because I’m hoping our newfound chemistry will continue on our home turf.

After the plane lands, Mya lets out a sigh of relief as the pilot makes his announcement and welcomes us back to the nation’s capital.

“We made it. Safe and sound. I told you we had this in the bag.”

Her lips curl up slightly. “Things didn’t go exactly as planned though, did they?”

I wish I could read her mind right now because her comments aren’t giving anything away. That statement could be referencing last night’s dinner debacle with the Lavin team or our late night mattress wrestling. Her expression gives nothing away.

Flying across the country and back within twenty four hours has even the most perky of our employees looking dead on their feet. Even Kevin is quiet and he usually doesn’t miss an opportunity to talk James’s ear off.

“No. But I don’t regret any of it,” I tell her in a low voice, so we won’t be overheard by the others, who are walking past, eager to get off this plane and go home.

“I don’t regret it either,” Mya responds finally.

Relief floods my veins and it’s as refreshing as a rain shower on a hot day. I didn’t know just how much it mattered to me until I thought she was having second thoughts.

“So, what do we do now?”

I know exactly what I want to happen. For Mya to follow me to my place so we can pick up where we left off in Vegas. Mind-blowing sex in a hotel room can only be topped by the comfort of my own bed. But based on her body language and the way her eyes won’t meet mine, I’m pretty sure she’s not up for a repeat any time soon.

Or ever.

“Milo, I just need some time to think. I don’t regret it. Not even slightly,” she says with a small smile that assuages my ego somewhat. “But now that we’re back, I have to think about what this all means because it doesn’t just affect us. James and the whole team are counting on us to pull off a win here. I’m not sure we can afford any distractions right now.”

Everything she’s saying makes sense. I would love to argue that sex between us wouldn’t be a distraction but there’s no way in hell I can pretend that’s true. Every single thing about Mya Taylor distracts me.

“You’re right.”

“I am?” Her expression betrays her shock.

“Hey, you’re not the only one worried about this blowing up in our faces. I just have two requests. Rules for this new reality, if you will. Number one, we don’t let things get weird. It happened and it was the most amazing night of my life. But if it can never happen again, I understand. We’ll keep things professional from here on out.”

“The most amazing night of your life, huh?”

I chuckle at her self-satisfied grin. “Yeah, it was.”

“For me, too.”

My heart shouldn’t be beating this fast at her admission. “Number two, that we keep things professional at work. The office is like Switzerland. Neutral ground.”

“I completely agree.” Mya’s eyes meet mine and she looks grateful. “Thank you for understanding. And for… you know. Everything.” She blushes as she says it.

And just like that I’m hard as a rock. With just one word, it’s like I’m back in that hotel room again, doing the most depraved things I can think of, all to make her shake with pleasure.

Don’t make it weird.

Keep it professional.

“Milo? Mya? Are you coming?” James is waiting at the front of the plane. Everyone else has gone and we’re the only ones left. The flight attendant stands at the head of the aisle waiting.

“Shit, I guess we’d better go before they kick us out.”

Mya gathers her things and follows me off the plane. We walk across the tarmac and enter the main terminal. With a wave for James, I follow Mya onto the elevator that will take us to where she parked her car.

We’re silent the whole time, having said everything we wanted to say on the plane. But this time, it’s not a comfortable silence, the air heavy with all the things I’m holding back.

“This is me.” Mya points to her small gray economy car.

“And I’m one level down.” We stand awkwardly for a few seconds before she opens her arms for a hug.

Fuck professionalism, I think before sliding my hand up under her low ponytail and pulling her closer. If this is all I can ever have, then I’ll take it all. I close my eyes soaking up the sensation of her soft curves pressing against me.

“I’ll see you on Monday, beautiful.”

With a shaky nod, she climbs into her car and I watch as she drives off. Then I walk back to the elevators.

We’ve already violated rule number one because that was definitely weird.

* * *

Over the weekend, I have time to reset my equilibrium. Once I’m away from Mya, it’s like the fog clears a little and I can see how far into the weeds we’d gone.

What was I doing? I’d finally met a woman who was open to sex with no strings and here I was pining for more. Mya was basically like a unicorn, that perfect specimen of woman that I’d always hoped I’d find. Beautiful, sexy and independent.

So what the hell is wrong with me? I should be celebrating. Instead I just have a vaguely sick sense that I’ve lost something precious.

I hate to admit that she might have been right about this affecting our work. Her behavior when we got back on Friday afternoon leads me to believe things will be awkward in the office. Mya could barely look me in the eye when we hugged goodbye so how are we going to collaborate effectively on the Lavin campaign? But it’s only going down that way if we allow it to.

I arrive in the office early on Monday with my counterattack measures ready to go.

As usual, I’m the first one in so I have the break room to myself as I brew the coffee. Before I’m done, Anya wanders in.

“Hey, congrats on the Lavin meeting. I heard it went really well.”

“Thank you. I think this is going to be one of our biggest projects to date.”

I don’t bother asking how she heard about it already when everyone who went to Vegas didn’t report back to the office after we landed. It was already so late in the day and we were all exhausted so James told us all to go straight home. Anya always seems to know everything that’s going on around here. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if she knew what happened at dinner Thursday night as it was happening.

Hell, Wallace might have even posted about it on Instagram.

“Anya, does Mya have any meetings first thing this morning?”

She shrugs. “Nothing that I’m aware of. Planning on sneaking into a supply closet with your fiancée?” It’s clear from how she’s grinning that she’s bought the story and thinks that Mya and I have been canoodling at the office this whole time.

Good. That works in my favor.

“Perhaps.”

“Well, I won’t stop you. Someone needs to have fun around this place.” She wiggles her fingers over her shoulder as she walks away.

I leave the door to my office open so I can watch the hallway which is the only reason I notice when Mya comes in. She marches down the hall with her head held high, without a spare glance toward my open office door.

So it’s like that?

I decide to give it another hour, just to be fair. Maybe she has a ton of stuff going on that requires her attention this morning. Never let it be said that I’m not a patient man. When another hour passes and Mya doesn’t call, text, email or drop by, I realize that she’s definitely violating rule one. We talked everyday even when we were pretending to hate each other. But now she can’t even acknowledge that my office door exists?

It stings a little, being ignored, even if I know why she’s doing it. But if she thinks pretending I’m not here is going to fix this, then she needs to think again. I wait until I see her walk down the hall, coffee cup in hand, before I make my move.

The hall is empty so no one sees me slip into Mya’s office. I sit in her chair and turn it so it’s facing away from the door. It has such a high back that no one will know I’m here unless I turn around.

About ten minutes later I hear the door close, so I turn around in the chair slowly.

Mya squeals. “Milo? What the hell? You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Now you can see me? Oh that’s good. I figured I must be invisible considering that you rushed right past my open door and couldn’t see it.”

“I was in a hurry,” she protests.

“You were being weird. Which we agreed not to do.”

Her face falls. “You’re right. That was weird and rude. I guess I just don’t have a lot of experience with this kind of thing.”

“Believe it or not, neither do I. Things are awkward, I get it but our plan will work if we both commit to it. If we work together, I know we can come up with some kick ass campaigns that are sure to wow the Lavin team.”

“Sounds good to me.” She sets her coffee on the edge of the table just as Anya walks in carrying another vase of flowers.

The sight of that obnoxious bouquet causes an unexpected pang in the center of my chest. Before Mya can move, I jump up and take the flowers from Anya, putting them on the worktable in the corner.

“Meet me at my place after work. I’ll text you the address,” I whisper so Anya doesn’t overhear. “We can work on our campaigns.” My eyes go to the flowers in the corner again. “And have a bonfire.”

Then before she can overthink it, I lift her chin and plant a soft kiss on her lips. Anya gives me a thumbs up before she backs out of the room.

“You shouldn’t have done that. Anya is the biggest gossip in the office. They’ll all be talking about us before lunch.”

She says it as if that should frighten me but truthfully I don’t care if the whole office is gossiping about us. Whatever they’re saying isn’t going to come anywhere near the actual truth.

“Let them talk.”