Leticia rolled her eyes at Sharon. “I didn’t get up to anything, no.”

Sharon finished pouring the wine for everyone—minus herself, given her condition—and set the bottle down. “Oh, sorry. Allow me to rephrase that. Did you get up to anyone last weekend?”

“You had that look,” Jonas said, helping himself to the box of crackers on the counter. Sharon had long given up on plating everything nicely and tended to just pile food up on her kitchen island for everyone to rifle through.

Leticia folded her arms. “What look?”

“The…” Jonas waved his hand vaguely in the air. “The glowing post-sex look. The one Sharon has on her face all the time.”

“I suppose you expect me to be offended by that,” Ross said, walking up to grab his glass of wine. “How dare we be happily married with an active sex life, and all that.”

“Point is,” Sharon said, loudly, “Who was he?”

“There wasn’t anyone!” Leticia replied. She wasn’t sure why she was protesting so much. Normally she would have been happy to share the details about her one-night stand with Carter. She did it all the time with her other hook ups. But this was different. Carter was her coworker. It embarrassed her that she’d made the mistake of sleeping with him, even though she’d had no way of knowing at the time who he was.

Actually, she might have, if she’d taken the time to talk to him before she’d slept with him. She would have found out where he worked, what he did, and he would probably have told her about his new job. It wasn’t like he was required to keep it a secret or anything. Then this whole embarrassing scene this morning could have been avoided.

Leticia picked up her own glass of wine and took a sip, contemplating. Maybe this was a sign that she needed to think about dating more seriously? Maybe the universe was having her latest hook up come back to bite her in the ass as a sign to get a move on. Once Carter was properly trained, she’d hopefully have more time for things like proper dates. Perhaps she should start considering that.

“Hello? Earth to Letty,” Sharon said, snapping her fingers. “C’mon, you think I don’t know when you’re hiding something?”

“Maybe it was something embarrassing?” Debbie called from the couch, where she was sitting with her head tucked into the curve of Melanie’s shoulder.

“It wasn’t—” Leticia started, only to realize that saying ‘it wasn’t embarrassing’ would mean admitting that ‘it’ had happened.

Debbie caught onto that. “Ha!” She crowed triumphantly.

“Damn lawyers,” Leticia muttered.

“So?” Jonas asked. “What happened? Who was he?”

“Who was who?” Tom asked, emerging from the bathroom. “Oh, wait, did Leticia find another guy?”

“He—” Leticia sighed, giving up. Her friends were only going to keep poking at her until she gave in. “Okay, yes, last Friday night I met this guy at one of the clubs. He was great, we had sex twice, I took him back to my place, etc. I had a great weekend with you guys, and then I went into work on Monday.”

“And?” Sharon probed, knowing there was more to the story. Ross chuckled, privately amused by her, and pressed an absentminded kiss to her temple.

Leticia took a deep breath. “You know how I just got promoted to head curator, right?”

“What does this have to do with the guy?” She heard Melanie whisper to Debbie, who shushed her.

“Right,” Sharon said, nodding.

“So they need someone to fill my former role as assistant curator,” Leticia explained. “So, I walked in on Monday morning, and found…”

“Oh my God,” Ross said, jumping to the truth. “Your Friday night guy is now your assistant.”

“What?” Jonas yelped.

Leticia didn’t answer just yet, but she was sure the heat she could feel creeping up her face spoke volumes.

Ross shrugged. “What can I say, I know a little something about weird coincidences.”

Sharon laughed. Leticia had to smile at that, remembering the coincidences surrounding how Sharon and Ross had gotten together. That night when Sharon had gotten into the car crash had been one of the worst of Leticia’s life. She’d been on the phone with her best friend, helpless, hearing the car swerve and metal bend and break, hearing Sharon scream in pain—and then hearing nothing as Sharon passed out, forcing Leticia to call an ambulance and then jump into her car and race to the nearest hospital.

Thank God Ross had operated on her, and thank God it had only been her leg. Leticia was grateful, in a way, that it had happened because it had led to Sharon and Ross falling in love and getting married. But she hoped to never, ever have to endure something like that night again, gripped with fear and unable to help.

“Is he your new assistant?” Melanie asked, twisting around from her position on the couch to look Leticia in the eye.

Leticia nodded. “I mean, he’s not my direct assistant. He doesn’t fetch me coffee or make appointments or anything. But he’s my right-hand man when it comes to running the museum. He’s the second in command.”

“So you’re his boss,” Tom mused. He chuckled. “Man, Letty, you do sure know how to pick ‘em.”

“I didn’t know who he was!” Leticia protested. “How was I supposed to know who he was, huh?”

“She’s got a point,” Sharon said. “I mean, what are the odds?”

Everyone looked pointedly at Sharon and Ross.

Sharon laughed. “All right, sorry. But seriously, Leticia, you had no idea of knowing. I’m sure he’s just as embarrassed as you are.”

“Even more so, maybe,” Jonas said. “After all, you’re the one who’s in charge. You could fire him if you wanted.”

“I wouldn’t fire him over something that neither of us had any control over or knowledge of,” Leticia replied. “That would just be unfair.”

“How are you going to keep working with him?” Debbie asked.

Leticia shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, people have one-night stands all the time. It doesn’t mean anything, or at least it doesn’t have to mean anything if we don’t want it to.”

“Only Letty would end up in this situation,” Tom said, shaking his head in amusement.

“That’s because you’re boring and never go out anywhere anymore,” Leticia shot back.

“Stuck with a hot coworker,” Sharon teased, clucking her tongue. “However will you survive?”

“True,” Melanie said. “Just because you can’t order off the menu doesn’t mean you can’t at least look at it.”

Leticia laughed. “Honestly, I’m sure this is something that’ll just blow over and we’ll laugh about it in a few weeks. It’ll be a funny story to tell people at parties. I’m not worried.”

The others all smiled and moved on. Debbie asked Melanie something about work, Tom and Ross continued a long-standing argument about football, and Jonas went to go pick a movie from the DVD collection.

Only Sharon seemed to see that Leticia was still nervous—and that she’d been lying when she said she wasn’t worried. Sharon laid her hand over Leticia’s, smiling gently.

“It’ll work out,” she told her. “Whatever way it’s supposed to work out, it will. Whatever you’re worried about, I’m sure it won’t be as bad as all that.”

Leticia let out a shaky breath. “I suppose. I just—the museum is my home. That art, it’s my life. It means the world to me. I hate the idea that a place that’s so special to me might become somewhere I don’t like going to because of a coworker.”

“I highly doubt it will be,” Sharon replied. “C’mon, when I was so worried about this whole thing with Ross and freaking out, weren’t you the one who told me to calm down? And you were right, it all worked out for the best.”

Leticia nodded. It was true. Sharon and Ross were still deeply in love, had a beautiful house, and were expecting their first child. It didn’t get more picture-perfect than that.

“If I can manage to come out on top when you and I both know I’m a huge mess just waiting to happen,” Sharon teased, “Then I know that you’ll be okay too. This doesn’t have to ruin anything.”

Leticia turned her hand over so that she could intertwine her fingers with Sharon’s and give her hand a squeeze. “Thanks, hon. I appreciate it.”

“Of course. What are best friends for, huh?” Sharon winked at her.

“Sharon?” Jonas called. “Care to explain why you’re missing the third film in the Dark Knight Trilogy?”

“Ask Ross,” Sharon replied.

“Throwing me under the bus,” Ross mourned. “I knew this day would come.”

“You brought this fate upon yourself, dear,” Sharon replied, winking at him.

As good-natured bickering started up among the group, Leticia relaxed back against the island. Sharon was right, she thought. She was going to be okay. It was a hiccup, and it was a little embarrassing, but she was going to be fine. No reason to freak out.

Even in her own mind the argument sounded weak.