“I wasn’t flirting with Shane.”

“But if you were, it would be alright. I know you two have a history. And it’s not against any rules to date him if you wanted to.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You don’t?” My heart thuds extra hard in my chest. I try to tell it to calm down, but it doesn’t listen.

She shakes her head. “No.”

“Well…alright then. What about Bill?”

“I don’t want to date him either.”

“Oh.”

Oh. She doesn’t want to date Shane or Bill. I mean, Bill, I get, but every woman wants to date Shane.

We’re both quiet for a stretch of time. I get the sense that she’s waiting on me to process everything, and I’m grateful for it, but I’m not sure exactly how. What is she saying? Is there some sort of subtext I’m not getting here?

I clear my throat. “Well, you’re free to date anyone in the office, just so you know.” Why am I still talking about this? And why is my mouth saying words I absolutely don’t mean? I don’t want her to date anyone at the office. Not unless it’s…

Not unless it’s who?

I can’t answer my own question. I’m gripping the arm of my chair so hard, it’s probably going to give the thing stress fractures, so I release it and fold my hands together. She tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. She’s focusing on her career, I remind myself. Building up her resume. She wants a full-time job, not a relationship. And why wouldn’t she? She’s proven how capable she is time and time again.

These thoughts twist through me, distracting me so much that I almost don’t notice when she starts reaching across me to something on the other side of my desk. I don’t know what she’s doing, but suddenly, I don’t care, because she’s in my personal space and she smells amazing. But then she retreats, and I realize what she was doing. My coffee cup is in her hand. My old coffee cup. The one she brought me this morning like she does every morning. And it’s still full of the coffee I never drank.

Usually, I sneakily dump it down the drain in the breakroom so no one knows, but today, I’d been so distracted that I forgot.

Junie swirls the liquid around in the cup, a thoughtful expression on her face. “Hmm, this is still full.”

Heat erupts up my neck. “Well, it’s not. I drank it, then refilled it with coffee from the breakroom.” I’m such a liar.

She gives me a look. “You know I can see you in your office basically all day, don’t you?”

I don’t say a word. Silence is obviously the only response I can make here.

“Is there something wrong with the coffee I’ve been bringing you? Do you want to change your order?”

She’s on to me. She’s going to figure out that I hadn’t continued coming to Pete’s for the coffee.

“Um, no, nothing’s wrong with it. I sometimes forget it’s there. I always finish it at the end of the day though.”

“Is that so?” She bunches her raspberry red lips together, and then she turns around and does something no woman has ever done before. She sits on my desk.

I have a strict “no sitting on my desk” policy for anyone I work with, be they male or female. It sends the wrong message. But for some reason, I can’t force myself to tell her about this rule. There’s barely any room for her up there with my computer and the rest of my things, so I’m not quite sure how she’s managing it, but she’s there, and it’s all I can do to keep my eyes above her collar bones.

I have to regain control of this situation. I clear my throat. “Miss Cousins, I think you’re the one who needs to answer a few questions.”

“Oh? And what would they be?”

“W-well, for starters, what does Mr. TDC stand for, and why do you write it on my cup every day?”

That’s not what I actually meant to say, but it’s what ends up coming out. It’s a question I’ve been curious about ever since she first wrote it. I thought it might stop after she started working for me, but she still brings me my coffee with those letters written in her handwriting every morning.

Junie looks at me like she knows exactly what I’m doing, and she isn’t going to play along.

“Tell you what,” she says, looking down at me from her perch. “If you answer a question for me, I’ll answer that question for you.”