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of all the people in this office, she was probably one of the few who would even know what the phrase meant. I hadn’t expected her to have the intelligence that matched her beauty. It made it that much harder to forget about her. And I wanted to forget about her. I tried to forget about her.
    I couldn’t forget about her. Her beauty, wit, and charm wormed its way into me like a virus.
    Late the following morning, my office line lit up, indicating an incoming call. The caller ID revealed it was Jillian. Hesitant to pick up, I let it go to voicemail. As soon as my phone blinked red, indicating I had a message, I quickly snatched up the headset and listened to the message. Twice.
    “Um, hi. Grant? Did I call the right extension? God, I hope I’m not accidentally calling the CEO or something. Anyway, this is Jillian, the new girl you helped yesterday? I seemed to have screwed something up and was hoping you could come over for a few minutes and take a look at it. Unless this is the CEO, in which case this is Temperance. Um, yeah. Okay. I’m hanging up now.”
    I don’t think I ever made the conscious decision to move, but I found myself standing beside her cubicle within five minutes of her voicemail, excited for the chance to talk to her again. I needed to punch myself in the face.
    “Hi there,” I greeted.
    Jillian hadn’t heard me approach. She sat chewing on a pen cap, obviously daydreaming. A blush crept up her face when she turned to talk to me. Now what was that thought , I wondered. Was she thinking about me?
    “Hi, yourself. I guess you got my voicemail.” She bit the hangnail on the side of her thumb again. I wanted to rip that thumb out of her mouth and suck on it myself. Watch her pupils dilate as I bit down a little.
    I am so screwed.
    “I did. How can I satisfy your needs today?” She drew a shaky breath at my double entendre, and my smile deepened.
    “I, um, well,” she stumbled, before pausing and taking a deep breath. I knelt, dropping my desktop repair kit on the floor and getting out a few tools. I doubted I’d need them, but it gave me a chance to move closer to her for a second. She smelled like the beach, coconut and salt air. I breathed in deep, holding it in my lungs for a long minute. I wondered if it was some sort of lotion or shampoo. It didn’t matter; either way I wanted to rub her up and down with that scent.
    She slowly removed her headset and swiveled her chair toward me, causing her legs to brush up against my own. I could have sworn I heard her mumbling “boyfriend” a few times under her breath, but couldn’t be sure.
    “It froze. The computer. I tried restarting, but nothing happened.”
    I stood, much closer to her than was necessary, but my body didn’t seem to want to move away. “I see. Let me take a look.”
    I found the problem easily, but delayed telling her in order to talk to her for a bit longer.
    “How do you like Allegro Corp so far, Jillian? I heard you had the pleasure of training with Temperance.”
    She tried not to choke on her coffee and rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m ‘hanging in there.’ It was a ‘purr-fect’ day.”
    I laughed. “I’m so glad you’re making new friends. I’d hate for you to miss out on all the seat cozy knitting parties and what not.”
    “I hear it’ll be the hottest event of the summer. Who would miss that?” She nudged my shoulder with hers playfully.
    “I’m sure it’ll be toute la ville en parle.”
    She looked up, shocked. “You speak French?”
    “Je parle un peu.”
    “Well, that sounds like more than a little to me. Now I’m the one who’s impressed.”
    Her eyes lit up, and I wanted to keep speaking French to keep them that way, but I couldn’t remember much more.
    “Don’t be. I have two years of high school French under my belt, and I visited Lyon to see my grandparents last year. It’s where they retired. I honestly know only a few phrases.”
    “It’s still more than most people in Georgia. God,