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Willa nods.

“I am going to be a professional hired to do a job. I set personal boundaries on Saturday and professional boundaries this morning. Toni will respect them. If she doesn’t, then that will be that.”

“Exactly. But what if you don’t respect them?” Willa asks.

I narrow my eyes at her.

“Right. This is you we’re talking about.”

“Ned’s waiting,” I say. “Have fun at the warehouse. See you tonight.” I lightly punch her in the shoulder for a goodbye, which is just as awkward as it sounds.

Willa laughs, rolls her eyes, and calls me a dork.

I’m grinning when I walk into the conference room—Willa’s laugh has always done that to me—and stop cold in the doorway. There’s Toni, leaning across the conference table to grab a pen, her hiking pants hugging her ass on full display. My mind immediately goes exactly where Willa meant for it to. I’m going to kill her.

“You OK?” Toni says.

I shake my head and smile. “Yes. Perfect.” I sit down in front of my computer and wake it. “Why don’t you tell me about your plans, and I’ll take notes.”

“Great. Yeah.” Toni pulls out her phone and opens the voice app.

“Wait.” I place my hand over hers and goosebumps race up my arm. I can’t move my hand; it’s as if some magnetic force has forged us together. We stare at our hands for a few seconds, or maybe longer, I honestly have no idea, before our gazes meet. I know I should say something, but what? My mind fills with the memory of gripping Toni’s hands while I went down on her, her grip painful when she shuddered to her third climax. I flush with desire from head to toe which means I look like I’m breaking out into hives.

I remove my hand from hers. “Let’s—” I clear the huskiness out of my throat. I want to fan myself but resist the urge. Maybe Toni hasn’t noticed my blotching. “Just talk it out.”

“Sure. Yeah. OK.” Toni’s voice is strained and a little high-pitched, like a teenager’s. “What was the question?” I feel a smile tug at the corners of my mouth and Toni laughs. “So much for being professional. Sorry. I just, um…you felt that too, right?”

I nod. “I felt it, too.”

Toni sighs, but she’s grinning. “Thank God.”

Now I’m laughing. “What was that sigh for?”

“Well, I’d prepared myself for the typical rom-com storyline. We pretend to be professional, have a stupid misunderstanding that normal people wouldn’t have because they have basic communication skills.”

I laugh again. “In my experience very few people have basic communication skills, especially when it comes to relationships.”

“But we’re not like that, you see. Here we are, supposed to be working but we’re talking about stupid rom-com tropes. This wouldn’t happen until the mid-point of the story and here it is, happening in the first act.”

“Are you sure we’re still in the first act?” I tease, playing along with Toni’s analogy.

“Hmm. Good point. Maybe we are at the mid-point.”

“Are you a writer?”

“God, no. Sitting in front of a computer for hours all alone trying to put my thoughts into words and then down on paper? That’s my seventh circle of hell. But”—she raises her finger—“I took a screenwriting class in college because the teacher was hot. She taught me a lot. Even a little bit about story structure.”

Toni looks so cute and mischievous and I can’t help but wonder how I benefited from her “screenwriting” education. I shift in my chair and cross my legs. Toni notices, but doesn’t say anything.

My computer dings and dings and dings. Leave it to Shae to dump cold water on my good mood. Willa is right. I’m going to have to talk to her eventually because she is obviously not going to give up. I’ve already blocked five numbers and she isn’t taking the hint. I mute my computer as quickly as possible but Toni can see the screen.

“You’re popular,” she teases.

“I’d rather not be. It’s Shae.”

“Is she bothering you?”

“Yes, but I shouldn’t have humiliated her in public. I think she wants me back so she can publicly dump me.”