“I’ll help you set it up. Just let me go put this file away and take care of a couple of things. I’ll be back in a few.”

I smoothed down my skirt and picked up my abandoned paperwork from the table where Adam had placed it. Then, I headed toward my office, looking out the windows along the way at the view of Center City Philadelphia that I loved, and had often painted. It was a gorgeous day in May and I would have rather been outside.

When I reached my door, I couldn’t help smiling a little as usual. Even after three months, I still felt a surge of pride whenever I saw the gold plaque, “Beth Pierce, Director of Development.” It sounded very impressive but then, I was capable of handling the job. My degree may have been in Art History, but my dad was a U.S. Senator, and my mom had always supported lots of charities; so I had grown up attending fundraisers.

I went in and closed the door behind me, leaning against it for a moment to compose myself and calm my racing thoughts. Then, I crossed my office, tossed the file on my desk, and my eyes traveled automatically to a photo hanging on my wall. It was of the three of them, back when they had been roommates in law school at Georgetown.

Braden was leaning against a building, cool and confident. Adam stood beside him, smirking of course. And there on Adam’s left, stood Mark, with that sexy smile of his that made him look like he had just been caught doing something naughty. He was gorgeous, with his thick brown hair and those smoky gray eyes.

A knock on my door startled me out of my reverie. “Come in,” I called out, turning around. A warm smile greeted me as my friend, Lily entered. She wrote books in her off-hours and I painted. Our common creative streak made us particularly close.

“Hey, what’s this I heard about you and Mark rolling around together on the library floor?” She walked over to where I was standing.

“News travels fast in this place.”

“It’s a small office, and Brucie Dearest has a big mouth.”

“What is he, the town crier?” I asked and sat down in my desk chair.

“I love this picture,” she said, looking at Adam in much the same way I had just been looking at Mark. It wasn’t hard to tell that they were newlyweds.

“Me too,” I replied. My friends definitely knew about my infatuation, even though we hadn’t really discussed it much.

“Do you remember Adam and Mark back when they were in law school?” she asked, settling into an orange armchair across from me.

“Yeah, they visited Braden at our parents’ place over breaks a few times when I was home from college.”

“Did you drool over them because they were your big brother’s hot friends?”

“I definitely noticed them. They’re only two years-older than me though.” I shuffled some papers on my desk.

“And did you happen to notice Mark, in particular?”

“You’re such a lawyer!” I laughed, looking up at her. “I happened to like his style. How many law students wear leather jackets and Doc Martens?”

“Well, I’m sure he ‘noticed’ you too. It’s hard for most guys to miss gorgeous blondes with mile long legs,” Lily said.

“I’m not sure, but I think that I might have caught him checking me out a few times,” I admitted, a little sheepishly. It’s not like guys never found me attractive, but I got such mixed signals from him that I almost felt conceited assuming that he was interested.

“Well, I’m sure he was. It’s not exactly hard for anyone else to tell that the two of you are attracted to each other, especially since you started working together every day. I wonder why he doesn’t do anything about it,” she said, knitting her brows.

“Probably because he’s Braden’s friend, and I’m Braden’s little sister.” I sighed and gazed out my window wistfully.

“Who cares?”

“Obviously, he does, and like you said, we work together. It could get awkward if we suddenly started sleeping together too,” I noted with a light-hearted tone, even though it had been weighing on my mind.

“Beth, you and Mark are among the only people in this office not sleeping together, and I think there’s more there than just physical attraction. You two seem different with each other than with other people.”

“Yeah, I’m different with him all right. I’ve never had coordination problems, or episodes of unbearable awkwardness before, but around him, I’m a nervous, lusty, filthy-minded, mess,” I joked.

“Speaking of lusty, filthy-minded messes, how was the gala Saturday night?”

“Well, I made some good contacts. I met the Director of the Disability Law Center. She was very nice. We might be able do some joint projects with them. I also got a chance to talk to the lead attorney at the Philadelphia chapter of the ACLU.”

“No creepers?”

“I didn’t say that. I ran into a local businessman who seemed to have forgotten about his wife, and a guy from the city government who seemed to have forgotten that he was an asshole. He copped a feel and tried to pretend it was an accident.”

“Ew.”

“Tell me about it.” I glanced at my watch. “Oh, I promised Bruce I would help him set up his computer.”

“Well, God forbid you keep The Diva waiting. See you later.”

11:00 AM

“That black wire doesn’t seem to fit anywhere,” Bruce said. We were both on our hands and knees, side-by-side, under a desk trying to assemble a computer that was probably more advanced technology-wise than NORAD.