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really. I just want to get this over with.”
    “I can handle the mouse. You can direct from there,” I reply and push him back hard in his chair so his arm isn’t touching mine.
    He laughs, and the transformation in his face is remarkable. It is a real laugh, not a smirk or scoff. His cheeks turn into rosy, little apples and his eyes sparkle. It’s fleeting, however his smile is quite a thing of beauty, and I can’t stop staring at him. When his laughter subsides, he looks at me for an extra beat, and a blush heats my face.
    I turn back to the computer, and for the next couple of hours, we both manage to talk without actually looking at one another. The computer screen and all the charts and spreadsheets make the perfect buffer, so I don’t have to face him even though the warmth from his presence and the mild scent of his soap and deodorant is a little too exhilarating.

 
     
     
    Three
    Dylan
     
    I really could leave her on her own with the accounts. All of these spreadsheets are familiar to her, and she doesn’t need me to read the vendor files since the sales numbers speak for themselves. I don’t move away, though. I keep myself jammed in behind her desk with my right arm across the back of her chair as she scrolls down the computer monitor, so I can take in her shiny, wavy dark mane of hair against her creamy skin.
    Processing these absurd thoughts makes me want to laugh. Then again, I really wouldn’t mind catching another close-up of her big, brown eyes, either. However, she seems pretty determined to keep them averted from me and on the task at hand.
    Great, she has me thinking about sex again. If I’ve thought my senses were numb and dull before, they sure as hell aren’t now. From the minute I saw her standing behind the reception counter, a brick of lead surged from my stomach to my throat, leaving me mute. I meet a lot of ambitious, smart, attractive women in this business, but I wasn’t prepared for Emma. I could barely say hello to her when we were introduced. I’m certain that I came off like an oaf.
    Daisy was right, we did talk about filling this position at the last company meeting, and while I was in California on business, Carson mentioned that he was interviewing one of Lauren’s friends. It was a brief conversation in which Carson explained the need for this woman to get out from under her father’s business. Fair enough. I knew a bit about the interview, but I didn’t know she’s already been hired, and I didn’t know she looked like… this.
    The last woman I was with was from the catering staff at Carson’s holiday party before I went off to my “special” therapy program as Lauren puts it, like I am some kind of wayward boy. Although I agreed to see Dr. Wang and prepare in advance for moving to the treatment center, I had other priorities on my agenda. Getting laid seemed critical at the time, it didn’t matter who the woman was—it felt like it would be my last feast. The woman I was with, well, we were on the same page about that, and I can’t even recall her name.
    Unfortunately, the catering server and other women have come back to haunt me. As I went through my various group sessions in the treatment center, I started to conclude that women were a bad vice for me. I listened to the other guys in group talk about their depression and mood swings, and how it coincided with extreme promiscuity, alcohol abuse, or drug use. Some of them had multiple addictions, and it made me wonder if I had the same problem with women and alcohol. My doctors at Willow Haven said I never fit the profile of a sex addict or alcoholic, however I was so unsure at the time that I decided to give everything up; women, booze, and anything that resembled fun. Whatever it would take to show Carson that I could beat the destructive alter ego I have had living inside me for years.
    But, fuck . I’ve known this woman for only a few hours, and all I can think about is what her soft, plump lips would