Page 43 of Take It Offline

But what if there is a way to break through the dam by sleeping with someone whose pleasure I’m not invested in?

Someone I don’t particularly care about?

Someone that I might not evenlike?

Every Thursday at two p.m., there is an hour blocked off in my calendar titledupdate weekly report. It’s Ivy’s idea. There’s no report. It’s our go-to code for “I need you.”

Right now, I’m using it to show her my list of pros and cons.

“Think of it this way,” I tell her. “He’s already screwed me over once. He might as well finish the job.”

Ivy looks like all her birthdays have come at once. Eyes bright, an impossible-to-stifle smile. “I don’t know, Em. The way you talk about him?—”

I know that look. “Whatever you’re thinking?—”

“It sounds an awful lot like when you had a crush on Dominic.”

Heat creeps into my cheeks. “It’s nothing like that. I hate Charlie.”

Ivy nods, still smiling, clearly not believing me.

I amend my previous statement. “Wehate Charlie.”

She raises her hands in surrender. “Okay, we hate him. He fucked you over, and I have your back no matter what. Just give me a heads-up before there’s a body to dispose of, and don’t search poisons on a work computer.”

“No promises on that last one.”

Ivy is sitting on my desk, feet swinging, the distressed cuffs of her jeans hanging over her sneakers. Her attitude toward work attire has always been “my brain works the same in jeans as it does in a pencil skirt, but only one of those options is comfortable.”

She’s a wondrous, sassy prism of light, and I love her.

“If you hate him so much, why even ask him?” she asks.

Because as much as I hate to admit it, I’m curious. And I can’t stop thinking about him. The kiss we shared replays in my fantasies often enough to prove that. “It’s a gut feeling, I guess. I think he can help me fix it.”

Her feet still, and she tilts her head, homing in on me. “You’re not broken, Em.”

“I know,” I lie. It’s so much easier to say than believe. “It was a bad choice of words. But I’ve tried just about everything, and I miss sex. Right now, all I have are my vibrators, and last night, two of them died on me before I could finish. I’m all for edging, but that’s just ridiculous.”

Ivy throws her head back with a laugh, gripping the edge of the desk.

“It’s not funny,” I say, but I’m already giggling.

A throat clears, loud and exaggerated, and my heart spikes with panic.Shit. Please, please don’t be Roberts.

It’s not.

It’s infinitely worse.

When I can muster the courage to look at Charlie, I stuff my embarrassment all the way down to my So Kates and fight to keep my voice even. “Is there a problem?”

“You tell me.” He’s smiling gleefully. I imagine this is how the Coyote would have looked had he ever caught Road Runner. “Do I need to inform Pam to keep an eye on the stationery cupboard? The batteries are for office use only.”

“Oh, would you look at that.” Ivy hops off the desk. “It’s time for me to get back to work.” As she strides off, she blows me a kiss.

It’s deathly silent after she’s left. I still haven’t responded to Charlie’s comment, but if he’s bothered by it, it doesn’t show. Sometimes, I think he just likes trying to get a reaction out of me.

“You know,” he adds as he saunters back to his desk. He removed his jacket about an hour ago, but he hasn’t yet rolled his cuffs. The pale blue of his shirt makes his eyes ethereally bright. “There are other options, if you’re interested. For example, I never run out.”

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