Throughout the day Madeline couldn’t help but keep an eye out for Bennet, secretly hoping she’d see him hanging around. Even through lunch with her coworkers in the break room she could tell she was distracted. When the subject of what everyone was working on came up she casually mentioned the new sunglasses campaign Bennet had put her on as something that was taking up a decent amount of her time and focus.

“You're working on the Larson file?" Amy asked in disbelief as her fork full of salad fell back to the table.

Jason chimed in as well, "How did you get put on THAT file? You’ve been here like two seconds!" She instantly realized her mistake and wondered if she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone she was working on it.

"Madeline is working on the Larson file because she has shown that she is an outstanding asset on the team and because I said so." Bennet’s voice interjected.

Everyone spun around in their seats to see Mr. Windsor standing beside their table.

Before anyone could respond Bennet locked eyes with Madeline, "Can I see you for a moment?" She got up from her seat, throwing a nervous smile to her coworkers as she walked to meet him in the hallway.

"Mr. Bennet, I mean Windsor, I’m sorry if I shouldn’t have said anything, honestly I didn’t think it through before the words came out." She rang her hands as she apologized.

"I couldn’t care less if you told them, in fact I might just send out a companywide memo announcing you as our lead designer on those files." She couldn’t tell if he was joking but laughed anyway with a nervous snort.

"I wanted to see you because I got your designs this morning and I had some questions. I think they look fantastic but wanted to run some thoughts by you. I’m on my way out for the rest of the afternoon but tomorrow come to my office first thing in the morning to discuss ok?" Before she could agree he turned and headed down the hall, but right before he rounded the corner for the elevators he turned back and said "Oh and Madeline, see you at the gym tonight?"

The rest of the day was a blur. Her coworkers seemed miffed that she had been hand-picked by the CEO to work on files that they had never even seen and her mind was swimming with questions about what he didn’t like about her designs. Oh and that tiny little detail about seeing her at the gym later! What the hell was that?! She thought.

She knew his friendliness was just that, genuine friendliness and nothing more but she wasn’t exactly used to having a friendly boss that was a successful billionaire and looked like he’d walked out of a plastic surgery ad. She had certainly had her fair share of attention from men and still did; however she was usually too engrossed in her own world to notice it or flirt back. She realized that with her long blonde hair and slender frame she was bound to get noticed but barely standing over five foot tall she was always the "cute" friend or the girl next door.

The day had finally wrapped up and Maddie was heading to her train to catch her boxing class. She pulled out her cell phone to type a quick note to Jazmine about Bennet possibly being at their class tonight but decided Jaz’s comments would only make her more nervous.

She tried to rationalize her fear in her head, it's not every day you see your sexy ass, hot as hell boss shirtless in the gym. Anyone would be nervous about that! These thought rolled around in her head as she finally made it to her gym and rushed inside. She did a quick look around and saw no Bennet.

"Thank the gods," she said aloud as she headed to the locker room. She pulled her long blonde curls into a ponytail and gave herself a once over in the floor length mirror. She was definitely petite, something she had been self-conscious about growing up but had since filled out some. She was wearing her favorite pale pink workout leggings and sports bra, the outfit made her feel like a ballerina. She chucked her stuff in her locker and headed out to the ring.

"Hey Damon, Jaz is on her way but had a meeting or something so she’ll be a few minutes late."

"Ok no worries, I’ll have you start with some warm up drills over on that bag," he replied. Just as Madeline tightened up her gloves and headed over to her bag she saw Bennet walk out of the men’s locker room.

"Shit!" She said under her breath and quickly turned her back hoping he didn’t notice her. She took her stance and began her drills, throwing punches in rhythm.

"Taking out work frustrations?" Madeline threw one more hard punch then steadied the bag.

"Something like that, overbearing boss stuff." Bennet let out a hearty laugh in response to her sarcastic remark.

She smiled as she wiped her sweaty forehead. She tried to be coy and lean against the bag forgetting that it moves and practically fell at Bennet’s feet. She jumped back up quickly before he could reach his hand out to steady her, trying to play it off while feeling like a full blown idiot.

"I didn’t realize you worked out here." She said casually as she regained her posture. Acting as if she hadn’t noticed him a few weeks earlier.

"I usually workout in the morning," he said. "But when I have early meetings or my trainer is booked I’ll fit it in wherever I can." Madeline arched her back a little to relieve some tension she was feeling.

"You know, I don’t want to be “that guy” but I can tell you how you can fix that back pain you’re feeling." She gave him a questioning look but he walked behind her and put his hands on her waist.

“It's in your stance. Keep your feet like you had them but instead of just punching with your arm, lean into the punch." He said as he guided her body forward to show her.

"Now throw a punch with your right arm," she could feel how close he was to her body, his chest almost touching her back. "Now lean into it," he said as he leaned forward with her. Trying to focus on what he was actually saying, she continued to try a few more times and had to admit his technique worked.

“You're letting your back absorb the shock so by leaning into it your whole body absorbs it." She felt almost lightheaded when he stepped away from her.

"Thanks, I’ll put that into practice. Oh my friend is here so I have to get to my lesson." She walked as fast as she could over to her ring where Jazmine stood with a deer in headlights look on her face. “Don't ask." Maddie said matter-of-factly. “Let's just get on with the lesson, huh Damon?"

All through her lesson Maddie tried to keep her focus on what Damon was saying but she couldn’t help but try to steal glances of Bennet’s sweaty, rippling abs and thick, muscular arms…

"Maddie come on I need you to focus, this next drill is pretty complicated." Damon’s patience where wearing thin with the amount of time's he’d said this exact phrase tonight. Madeline readjusted her focus and squared up her shoulders, ready to execute the next set of drills.

"Sooo you going to address tonight orrr?" Jazmine was fishing but she could tell Madeline seemed frustrated.

“It's nothing Jaz honestly. He was just showing me how to avoid hurting my back. We’ve been working together a lot more since I’m handling some of his major accounts at the firm. Please don’t read into it. Trust me a he’s not into me, he’s out pf my league, and on and on." She tried to sound unbothered but her response was a little terse. She wasn’t even sure why she was in a mood…She was frustrated more than anything. Frustrated that she was so affected by Bennet, frustrated that she couldn’t seem to get him out of her head and frustrated she was having to spend so much damn time around him!

Madeline explained to Jazmine that she was just feeling overwhelmed with work and overly tired from long nights, hoping her excuse of an apology would keep her friend at bay.

"Listen Maddie you don’t need to explain yourself, I get it." She gave her friend a warm hug outside of the gym and they both headed their separate ways.

Madeline decided to skip the train tonight and walk the 15 blocks home, she didn’t even seem to notice the January wind whipping past her. She knew a call to her brother would cheer her up.

"Hey lil sister I was just wondering if the earth had swallowed you up!" Her brother went on about how little he’d heard from her and how it wouldn’t kill her to call her big brother now and then.

"Chase I know I’m sorry…you know how it is though, just graduating and trying to establish yourself. How are you? How’s Denver?" They spent time catching up and filling each other in on their perspective lives.

Chase was a real-estate developer in Denver, one of the fastest growing cities in the US so he was never not busy and he had recently got engaged so any spare time he did have was spent wedding planning.

“How's Michelle? Drowning you in invitations and color schemes yet?" Maddie chuckled.

"She actually text me a few of her dress choices the other day and she looked so beautiful. You better not screw this up Chase!"

Chase let out a long groan "Uhhhh yes. I mean I am beyond thrilled that she wants my input but my god I didn’t realize how much went into planning a wedding! I told her money isn’t an object and to just hire a damn wedding planner but she insists she wants to do it herself. I’ll never understand you women." He joked.

Although they were born and raised outside of Chicago, Chase had moved to Denver when Maddie went to college at North Western and their mother had lost her battle with breast cancer several years previously. He had felt (with much convincing from Maddie) that with her in college it was finally an ok time for him to move to Denver to be with his girlfriend and her family.

"So when are you coming back to Chicago?" Maddie asked as she walked the last few blocks toward home.

"When the winter is over! If I can avoid ever dealing with that shit ever again I’ll die a happy man. It was 64 here today" he bragged.

"Trust me I’m jealous! Listen Chase I’ll call you back later or in the next few days, there’s crazy sirens in my neighborhood so I can’t really hear you. I love you and miss you like crazy, tell Michelle I said hi!" Maddie hung up the phone as she rounded the corner to her apartment only to realize the sirens were for her building!!

"What?! What’s going on?" Maddie said to nobody in particular as she pushed her way through a few people that had gathered. "Excuse me sir what’s going on? This is my building!" She asked to the policeman walking past.

"Well ma’am the building is on fire" he said with clear annoyance.

"I can see that but what happened? I live here, can I go grab some things?"

“Ma'am I’m going to have to ask you to please stand behind the barricade," he said as he motioned her to move.

After several attempts to get an answer on what happened from someone, anyone…Maddie decided to give up and text Jazmine, “I'm coming over, it’s an emergency. I’ll explain when I get there."

"OH MY GOD!" Jazmine grabbed Maddie in a tight hug. "So they didn’t tell you anything?! Ugh I’m so sorry! I mean what if you’d been home?!! I don’t even want to think about it!" She said almost in tears.

"Jaz I’m ok, honestly I’m just exhausted and I feel terrible that I have to ask to stay with you and Ethan. I just want to take a shower and crash." She pulled Jazmine’s arms off of her and took her coat off.

"Trust me Ethan won’t care, he'll just be happy you’re ok plus he’s on call at the hospital all week so you don’t need to worry about being in his way." While Maddie showered and de-stressed, Jazmine made up the couch and laid out some pajamas for her.

Madeline put on the borrowed pajamas and fired off an email to Bennet. "Good Evening Bennet, I apologize for the late notice but I had an unexpected emergency tonight and will not be able to come into work tomorrow. I will have my cell phone with me for anything urgent and will be sure to make up for any work that I will be missing. Thank you for your understanding, Madeline." Thank god tomorrow was Friday so she hopefully would only need to miss one day. She placed the phone on the table beside her and closed her eyes for some much needed sleep.

Madeline had just begun to fall asleep when her phone blasted in her ear. She reached over without opening her eyes and silenced the phone, rolling over in protest. Seconds later the phone’s shrill ringtone rang again. Maddie groaned aloud as she looked at the screen seeing a number she didn’t recognize.

"Hello?" She squeaked out.

"Madeline? Hi I apologize if I’m waking you but it’s Bennet. Is everything ok? I just got your email." His voice sounded strained, as if he were genuinely worried.

"Oh hey, yeah sorry I didn’t recognize your number." She stammered as she sat up and tried to get her bearings.

"My building caught on fire tonight and I wasn’t able to enter my apartment. I’m staying with a friend temporarily until I get clearance from the fire department to enter and assess the damage of my stuff." She apologized again for the abrupt time off request but insisted it wouldn’t impact her performance.

"Madeline I am not worried about that. I just wanted to make sure you were ok, your email seemed urgent with little explanation so naturally I was concerned." He elaborated on about how she could take off as much time as she needed or work from home and that if she needed anything at all he would be more than willing to oblige.

"Thank you Bennet, I honestly appreciate your concern and kindness. I’ll stay here for a while and I’ll be back in the office Monday hopefully and if not I will definitely take you up on the offer to work from home, I don’t want to miss any deadlines."

“You're more than welcome and I’m just glad you’re ok, that’s the most important issue." His voice seemed to drop an octave as he continued on, “I'll let you get back to your rest. Be a good girl and have sweet dreams. Goodnight Madeline."