My giant white marble fireplace yawned at me across the wide living room. For a minute, I considered breaking up my old dining room chairs and starting a fire of my own, but my phone rang.
"Tasha?" I asked. I stood up and paced around in three tight circles. Did she want me to drive back over?
"Did you make it home okay?" Tasha asked.
"Worried about me, huh?" I asked. "And here I thought you didn't care."
Tasha carefully cleared her throat. "About that, Rainer. It was a complete mistake. I have no idea what came over me. I'm sorry. You don't have to worry about it. It won't ever happen again."
"I think you forgot 'we never should have' and 'let's just pretend it didn't happen.'" I kicked one of my dining room chairs.
Tasha paused, considering the loud clatter, and then said, "I don't mean to be a cliche, but this is my career we're talking about."
"That's all you care about, isn't it?" I stopped myself and held the phone back while I took a deep breath. "Never mind. Your secret is safe with me. It's already forgotten."
"Good night, Rainer." Tasha hung up on me.
"See you in the morning," I muttered. Then I threw my phone across the living room.
That damn phone was the reason I was late for our early morning meeting. It had somehow skidded into the kitchen and slipped under the refrigerator. By the time I found it, there were already five messages from my assistant.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way," I said when Topher called again.
"Mr. Berger dropped by to see if you were in. He seemed to think you were going to be very late this morning." Topher was worried, I could hear it in his voice.
"No, I'm on my way."
"It's just, I saw this morning that a meeting with Mr. Eastman had been added to your calendar by Ms.—"
I gripped my scuffed phone hard. "I know. I've still got time to grab a coffee upstairs, so find me there if anything else comes up."
Berger and the other junior executives were already lounging around the dining hall when I arrived. I ignored their catcalls and jokes, poured myself a large coffee, and then came to stand at the corner of their table.
"So?" Berger asked. "We've got numbers to run. What happened with the Ice Queen last night?"
"Who says I was with her? There's a whole other world of women over there in the East Bay," I said.
They all laughed, and that's when I caught sight of Tasha. She stopped in the doorway of the dining hall and then made an abrupt exit. Luckily, no one else saw her hasty retreat, but it was all I could focus on. There was no doubt she was worrying that laughter was about her.
"Convince me," Berger said. "Traffic on the Bay Bridge is crap. Give us some details, or we're all staying in the city like civilized men."
I shook my head. "No details before cocktails. Don't you have a meeting to get to?"
Berger laughed and stood up. "A few days working with the Ice Queen have really changed you, man. Now all you talk about is meetings."
Everyone laughed again, but I was relieved when they filed past and I could drop my fake smile. Tasha would already be waiting in Stan's office, and I worried how close she was to her mentor.
"Glad you could join us, Rainer," Stan said as I rushed through his office door.
Tasha barely glanced up from her reports, but I caught a warming blush on her cheeks. It made me angry. She was the one who had invited me back to her condo, she had kissed me first, and now she was pretending to be the blushing maiden? For all I knew, Tasha chewed up and spit out eligible men every day. She was just smart enough to choose her prey outside of work. I vowed to do the same, starting that very night. It was the only cure I knew for being used by a beautiful woman.
She really was beautiful. Tasha wore winter white pants with gold high heels. One bright heel bounced nervously as I sat down next to her. "I see you didn't bring the reports I sent you."
"I'm sure my assistant will—" Topher slipped through the door, ran the reports over to me, and then disappeared again within seconds.
"Does your assistant even know where the printer is?" Stan asked Tasha.
Tasha sent him a sharp look, but the older man just smiled. He looked back and forth between the two of us and crooked an eyebrow. I decided the view from his window was impressive enough for another look, and Tasha refused to look up from her neat numbers.