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testosterone cologne he was wearing?
    Yeah, the good ones were always married. I allowed myself a brief glance at Jason Hampton. Brief because, as I said, he was married and I wasn’t trying to sin so early in the morning.
    I looked back at my computer. “Sure did. Looks great, as always. I appreciate your hard work.”
    â€œYou okay?” He leaned in, hovering over my computer.
    â€œYeah, I’m good. Why do you ask?” I looked up at him for a moment. Those eyes. Jesus, keep me near the cross. I quickly refocused my eyes on my computer screen.
    â€œI don’t know. You don’t quite seem yourself this morning.” He sat down in the chair across from my desk.
    Perhaps I wasn’t looking busy and focused enough. I opened up a file folder and leafed through some papers. I didn’t need him caring about how I was feeling right now.
    Jason was one of those ultra-nice, sensitive guys that was easy to talk to. He seemed to sense when I was having a bad day or was frustrated with something at work. He’d pop in my office, and I’d find myself spilling my guts about the latest office drama, programming issue, or production problem bothering me. We’d talk and strategize for a while, and next thing I knew, my problem was solved.
    No way was I about to open up about my personal issues. Especially guy issues. We had always kept things strictly and completely professional, and I planned to keep it that way.
    I looked up at him and gave a reassuring smile. “I’m good, Jason. Just a little tired from my weekend.”
    â€œOh, yeah. Happy birthday. How was it?” He crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair, obviously not planning to go anywhere anytime soon.
    â€œIt was great. Spent an awesome day with my girlfriends. They celebrated me extra special. I couldn’t have asked for a better day.” Except maybe to have had my husband and two daughters come into the room, bringing me breakfast in bed singing, “Happy birthday to you—” I cut off the little fantasy before it got to playing in my head good.
    â€œI’m surprised you didn’t spend it with that special someone. How did your girlfriends rank higher than him?”
    He clearly didn’t know there was enough residual estrogen running through my body to either make me burst into tears or rip him a new one with a sleight of my tongue. He had never crossed the line between personal and professional like that before.
    I looked at his dimply smile, its attraction fading at his blatant social violation in pointing out my lack of a man. He clasped his hands together and that’s when I noticed.
    His wedding ring was gone.
    â€œUm, Jason, please don’t take this as rude, but I cut out early on Friday to get ready for my birthday, and now I’m paying for it. I got a bunch of stuff to finish and can only hope to get out of here by eight tonight.”
    â€œAnything I can help with?” He leaned forward, flashing a perfect view of his pearly whites and almost anesthetizing me with his cologne.
    â€œNo, it’s all stuff I gotta do.” That was my last polite sentence. If he pushed me any further, he would get to see the ugly side of Michelle.
    â€œAll right then. Call me if you need me. You know where I’ll be.”
    â€œThanks, Jason.”
    He slowly rose as if he was waiting for me to change my mind and remember that there was something he could help with.
    I wheeled my chair around to the file cabinet behind my desk and pretended to look for a folder. When I turned back around, he was gone. What in the ... ?
    I tried to give Jason the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he’d taken off his ring over the weekend to complete some chore his wife had asked him to do. Maybe he had sent it out to be cleaned. Whatever the case, surely he wasn’t trying to cross any lines with me. He had been my editor for the last two years, and we were a great team. He had never