It was so funny – this was the same room where I’d lain so many nights in junior high and high school, dreaming of a night much like the one I’d just had. The only difference was the reality had been far, far better than any of my dreams ever had. I’d never imagined meeting a man like Andy ... much less losing my virginity to one.
A contented smile spread over my face as I tossed and turned. I was still tingling and raw from the experience that I’d had, and I knew that I had to smell like sex and sweat. But I didn’t want to get up and shower and wash the last traces of Andy off my body. Not yet, at least. After all, it was still the night.
And he was still my boyfriend.
Tomorrow, when the sun rose and I was a single woman once again, I’d take a shower and look to the future. I did have a lot to look forward to – after a couple of years of temping after college, I’d finally gotten an entry-level position at a firm in Cleveland. Cleveland wasn’t exactly New York City, but it was a lot better than Ames. It was a real city, with apartment buildings and a hell of a lot more going on than I was used to. The salary wasn’t much, but I was looking forward to living like an adult: having my own place, paying my own bills, getting experience for the future.
Which meant, unfortunately, that even if I’d wanted to see Andy again, nothing would come of it. I was moving in the next week, and that left little time for things like romance and sex. I’d had my fun, and now it was time to be serious.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t spend tonight replaying every delicious second of our time together in my head.
By the time I was falling asleep, the sun was coming up and I was lying in bed with a smile on my face, eyes closed, thinking of Andy.
5
Andy – Monday, two weeks later
As the days passed after my little cousin’s wedding, I found that I was still having an incredibly hard time focusing on anything other than Sasha, and the incredible night that we’d shared. It was so unlike me that I was almost frightened by it – I’d never been so thrown by a woman before, or so captivated. Everything she’d done, everything she’d said had won me over. Hell, even the way she’d giggled had made me feel like more of a man than I ever had before in my twenty-six years on earth.
I was trying to stay focused, but it was fucking difficult. I did everything I could to stay on task: go to the gym and work out until I was breathless and sore. Stay up all night over work briefings. Start leading a mentorship group for young men in the Cleveland area who were thinking about college but didn’t have the resources or the grades for a scholarship.
Some of it worked. But as soon as I was idle once again, Sasha and her red hair and her curves would creep into my thoughts and stay there until I threatened to exorcise them. I found myself resorting to desperate measures: going to a grocery store twenty miles out of my way and buying two hundred dollars’ worth of fancy ingredients for a single meal, then painstakingly following the instructions on a YouTube video only to wind up with my smoke alarm beeping and my kitchen filling with grey clouds of failure. I tried looking up new management classes that I could take for my new role as a supervisor, and even sent a proposal to the head of our Employee Development program in hopes of getting in one of those classes as soon as possible.
To my chagrin, the head of ED had laughed. “Oh, Andy,” she’d said, tossing her head and giving me an indulgent smile. “There’s no reason to be insecure about your management style! You might be young, but you’re one of our highest performers. I have great confidence in you. Tell you what: if you’re still feeling insecure in six months from now, we’ll talk about sending you to a leadership conference. Sound good?”
It had taken everything in me not to roll my eyes.
Now, two weeks after Darla and Greg had said “I do,” I found that I was finally able to start throwing myself into work again. I got into the habit of coming into the office early every morning, to prepare myself for the day and look over all of the things that I’d missed when I’d been in a haze of lust due to Sasha and her amazing body. I was happy that I was finally starting to get back on track, if more than slightly embarrassed that it had taken me so long.
But it was time to get my head back in the game. My new hire started today: an entry-level position that had been created just to report to me. The new hire would be responsible for all administrative tasks in my office, as well as working closely with me on project development and management. It was a lot to ask for a recent graduate, but I had confidence in Human Resources. I didn’t know very much about the hire – the week she had been interviewed, I’d been out of town at a conference. The only thing HR had passed on was that she was a college graduate who was very eager and ambitious.
“The perfect fit for someone like you, Andy,” Catherine, the head of HR, had told me, beaming brightly. “She’s young and green, but I think she’ll do very well here.”
I was sitting at my desk and looking over the email that confirmed the new hire’s start time when Amanda, my new supervisor, poked her head into my office.
“Yoo-hoo,” she said flirtatiously. “Have time for a quick chat?”
With Amanda, a chat was never quick, but she was my boss. What the hell was I supposed to say?
No?
Fat chance.
“Sure,” I said, making a conscious effort not to look away from my monitor. “What’s up?”
Amanda walked into my office with a smile. “I knew you’d be here early,” she said. “You’re always so dedicated.”
“I was just looking over some email,” I said. “My new hire starts today – I wanted to make sure I had everything squared away for her.”
Amanda smiled again. “That’s what I mean,” she said. “You’re such a hard worker, Andy.” Pausing, she crossed my office and looked out the window for a moment before turning her head over her chin and fixing her gaze on me. “I don’t regret encouraging the higher-ups to promote you. You’re obviously perfect for the job.”
“Thanks,” I said. Accepting praise had always been difficult for me – and it was even harder when Amanda was concerned. Although she hadn’t done anything overtly inappropriate, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was far more interested in me than she needed to be. Her demeanor towards me wavered from flirtatious to almost maternal, and I didn’t like it one bit.
Amanda didn’t reply. She looked out the window again and tossed her head. I caught a whiff of strong floral perfume and suddenly, I had the strangest feeling that she’d sprayed it on right before coming into my office.
“So,” I said, tearing my gaze away from Outlook and looking at her. “How can I help you?”
Amanda sauntered over to my desk, placing one high-heeled foot in front of the other. I thought she was going to take a seat in the chair across from where I sat, but to my surprise she parked her ass right on the corner of my desk.
“I’ve got a big presentation coming up at a corporate conference in Vegas,” she said, slowly drumming her lacquered fingernails on the surface of my desk. “And I want you to lend a hand. You’re the only one who I can trust to make sure everything is perfect.”
“That sounds great,” I told her. Even though I didn’t care much for Amanda, I figured that helping out the boss could only help me climb the ladder at a faster pace.
Amanda smiled. “You’re wonderful,” she said, once again veering obnoxiously close to flirtatious territory. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Of course,” I said awkwardly. “I’m more than happy to help.”
My boss leaned closer and again, I smelled that strong floral perfume. It was a mature floral, like a gardenia, and it made me think of a funeral home.
“I’m going to enjoy working so closely with you, Andy,” Amanda said. She smiled again before hopping up from my desk. Despite being on her feet, she didn’t move further away and there were now only mere inches between us.
“Is there anything else?” I asked.
“I’ll
send you an invite to the next planning meeting,” Amanda said. “Or rather, send it to your new assistant.”
“Thanks,” I replied.
“I hope she’s up to snuff,” Amanda added. “This can be such a tough atmosphere for women. But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” Then, flashing another bright smile at me, she made her exit, leaving my office door wide open.
I let out a sigh of relief as soon as the last traces of her gardenia perfume had faded. Maybe I was the one making things weird – maybe I was the one with issues. Hell, maybe that was even what she had meant about this atmosphere being tough for a woman?
Ugh. I didn’t know. And thinking about it was making my head hurt. Back when I’d first been promoted, I’d been told two things about Amanda: that she got things done, no matter what.
And that she could be a little excitable.
Maybe she’s just excited about the conference and what it could bring to the company, I thought. It probably doesn’t have anything to do with me at all.
The thought wasn’t exactly comforting.
Before I knew it, it was almost eight-thirty – time for the morning team meeting. That was one of the changes I’d first implemented: a stand-up meeting, that was meant to highlight concerns, not fix them. I’d figured that getting everyone’s attention first thing in the morning would yield more results than forcing everyone to sacrifice their lunch hour to sit in a conference room while we talked in circles. On Fridays, I even sweetened the deal with doughnuts or bagels. I knew that people thought of me as a real stick-in-the-mud, but I was here to do my job.
And so far, I had to admit that it was working.
I left my office, closed the door, and walked down the hall where my team was gathered in a circle by the printers.
“Morning, all,” I said brightly. My team members nodded and greeted me back, and then I launched into today’s short discussion: weekly targets and metrics, and how to meet them quickly. The team who had first looked half asleep finally began to perk up just as I was hitting my stride.
“Andy!”
Turning around, I saw Catherine, the head of HR, walking towards me. She was smiling brightly and my jaw hit the floor when I saw who was walking behind her. The redhead’s business attire was conservative but still clung to her Rubenesque curves, and she wore a saucy smile on her face. Immediately, my mind flashed back to what she looked like without that business casual dress, and my heart began to beat fast and hard.
“Andy,” Catherine said again, still smiling. “I’m so sorry to interrupt the meeting, but I’d like you to meet our newest team member: Sasha Freedman!”
6
Sasha – Monday
The last week had been such a whirlwind that I wasn’t sure I was ever going to catch my breath. It was all so exciting – finally moving out of my mom’s house in Ames, renting a U-Haul by myself and driving my stuff to Cleveland. A lot of people who Darla and I went to college with had moved out on their own immediately after graduating ... and I’d envied them, because who wouldn’t want their own apartment? But living with my mom for the last couple of years had helped me save a lot of money and now, at the age of twenty-three, I was finally ready for my own place.
It was funny – back in college, when I’d pictured moving out of my mom’s house and into my new apartment, I’d always thought about Darla doing it alongside me. At twenty-five, she was a couple of years older, but because she was so serious and shy, I always felt like the more senior one of us.
At least, I’d always felt that way in the past. Now, Darla had skipped and leapt ahead of me in terms of life milestones. She was married, on her honeymoon, like an adult woman ... and here I was, acting like I’d just thrown my mortarboard into the air at graduation.
I wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, not even Darla, but it kind of made me sad. Maybe sad wasn’t quite the right word for it. Poignant, or maybe even bittersweet. I’d imagined Darla and I being two single girls out in the city, and now I was about to do it alone.
Still, I couldn’t deny that I was really excited. I loaded my things into the U-Haul while my mom stood and supervised (“You got one move out of me, sweetie, and that was when I moved you into the dorms”), sitting on the porch with a mug of coffee in her hands. I didn’t have much – my bedroom set that I’d bought from IKEA earlier that week, and some odds and ends that Mom and I had found at yard sales, like kitchen stuff and a futon that had admittedly seen better days. I was hoping that with my new job, I’d be able to afford “grown-up” furniture soon, but for now, I still felt pretty proud of everything that I’d managed to collect.
“I can’t believe you’re really doing it,” Mom said. She blinked back tears and I was surprised to find myself overcome with emotion, too. “You’re moving to the big city.”
I laughed. “Mom, I’m not going to the moon,” I told her. “It’s a ten-hour drive. You’ll see me all the time.”
Mom raised an eyebrow at me and I flushed.
“Okay,” I told her. “Maybe not all the time. But I promise I’ll be home for all the holidays.”
Mom hugged me again. “You’d better,” she said. She glanced down at her watch. “You should get on the road, sweetie. You want to get there before it gets dark, right?”
I nodded. After one more hug and a promise to be careful in the “big city”, I hopped behind the wheel of the U-Haul and got right on Interstate 80, where I’d spend most of the time behind the wheel. It was fun at first, driving and listening to some of my favorite songs, thinking about my new job. But after a few hours, I started wishing that Darla was there with me instead of being on her honeymoon. If she were there, we’d stop at rest stops and take silly selfies and buy weird snacks that we’d never eat in real life.
Then, my thoughts turned to Andy, the gorgeous guy I’d met at her wedding. God, thinking about the night we’d shared still made me so hot. It had been a couple of weeks, but when I closed my eyes, I swore that I could still feel his touch all over my body.
By the time I got to Cleveland, my panties were soaked and I was dying to lie down and reminisce about my perfect “one-night boyfriend” once more.
Now, today, was the first day of my new job. I stood in front of my bedroom mirror for ages, plucking at myself. I’d managed to cobble together a few business casual outfits that made me look professional, but as a big girl, it had always been hard finding flattering clothing that wasn’t too revealing. It wasn’t fair – skinny girls could get away with wearing something that would have gotten me written up to HR.
I wouldn’t have traded my curves for the world, though. They were my best asset, and even in a demure grey sheath dress, I was going to make them work for me. With one last glance in the mirror, I grinned at myself, then took my work bag in one hand and left my apartment.
The office was downtown, a large building with several elevator banks and an impressive lobby with marble floors and columns. Several men stared at me as I waited for the elevators and I glanced at them but didn’t let my stare linger. As eager as I was to explore my sexuality now that I was out of college, I couldn’t lie to myself – unless I found myself around someone with fascinating chemistry like Andy, I wasn’t going to do anything at all. As I stepped into the elevator, I forced all thoughts of Andy out of my mind.
This is the first day of your job, I told myself as the elevator took me higher and higher. And you’re going to pay attention, and do well, and move up the ladder as fast as you possibly can.
When I stepped into the office, an older woman in a suit was waiting for me. She gave me a friendly smile and held out her hand.
“Sasha? I’m Catherine – we spoke on the phone,” she said. “I’m the head of Human Resources. If you want to come with me, now would be a great time for you to meet your boss and the rest of the team.”
“Sure,” I said. We shook hands and I smiled at her. “That would be great.”
In truth, I’d been hoping to get a chance to
put my things down and settle in before meeting anyone, but I reminded myself that I was a very junior employee, and it would be better to go along with whatever ideas were suggested to me rather than try to forge my own path.
At least, in the beginning.
Catherine talked a blue steak as she led me through a cubicle farm. Most cubes were empty and I heard a booming, masculine voice.
“They’re in the middle of their daily standing meeting,” Catherine said. “Andrew, your new boss, thinks it’s a great idea for everyone to synchronize first thing.”
I nodded.
“And here we are!” Catherine said. We’d arrived at a circle of about twenty people, all listening to the boss speak. When I saw who he was, I froze right in my tracks. Catherine put her hand on my arm and nudged me forward.
“Andy,” Catherine called brightly. “I’m so sorry to interrupt the meeting, but I’d like you to meet our newest team member: Sasha Freedman!”
Andy was staring at me with his mouth open, and for a moment I wondered if I was in the middle of some horrible nightmare. I wished I could pinch myself discreetly just to make sure that I was awake, but the moment passed and Andy recovered quickly. He threw me a bashful smile, then his face became serious again and he turned to Catherine.
“Thank you so much, Catherine,” Andy said smoothly. “I really appreciate you bringing her in.” To me, he said: “Sasha, welcome to the team! We’re all glad you’re here, and we can’t wait to get you caught up on everything going on.”
I swallowed hard. My heart was pounding, and I realized that I was grinning.
“Thank you,” I said, forcing my smile back to a demure one. “I’m very glad to be here.”
Catherine beamed. “Well, I’ll let Andy get you all set up,” she said. “But if you need anything, feel free to stop by my office.”
One Night Boyfriend (Be My Boyfriend Book 3) Page 5
