Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tommy leaned against the counter. There used to be a little half-door when this was a vet’s office, but it had long ago become Tommy’s leaning spot.

Joel was always exasperated when he came into the office and saw Tommy leaning against the wall, one ankle crossed over the other, scuffed workboots usually getting dust, concrete, or dripping mud everywhere , which is why she had had to institute a no-work-boots-past-the-counter rule.

Joel wasn’t usually exasperated about the mess. In fact, he was the top offender for the Work Boot-Counter Act of 2006. She thought Joel might be upset that Tommy flirted with her so openly, but honestly, it was her favorite way to start the day, and, even more honestly, she and Tommy both knew Tommy only did it to rile Joel up. Tommy would have put an empty skirt in this chair and flirted with it if she weren’t there , but she was (and not wearing a skirt, either, not with her ass in the sorry shape it was in from endless office work and the doughnuts Joel kept bringing in, and the sugary coffees she like d . It had become an actual problem over Christmas when everything Joel brought had chocolate in it, and she was determined this Christmas would be different).

“What’d you get the boss man for his birthday?”

“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes. She was a terrible gift giver. She wished it wasn’t so, but it was. Tommy laughed at her every year at Joel’s birthday and Christmas, and Joel was always politely perplexed. He did a good job of looking happy about whatever she gave him, but she knew it was usually just a box of confusion. “I just got him a gift card to the movies. Thought he could take Sarah however many times fifty bucks will get you, plus snacks.”

“That’s terrible. Remind me, what did he get you for your birthday last year?”

She blushed horribly and watched the computer screen. The worst part about being a terrible gift giver is that her boss was an amazing gift giver .

The first year she worked there , she mentione d once that she had seen Swan Lake as a kid, and had it in her head that she would be a ballerina one day. He found an actual Swan Lake headpiece that had been worn by a very famous Russian ballerina; she had googled her obsessively for months, and had made the most beautiful shadowbox frame for it so she could hang it on her wall. She didn’t tell him she hung it in her bedroom. She just liked waking up to it, it always made her smile. She also did not tell Tommy she had hung it in her bedroom. They were a pretty close work crew, she felt most of the time , but somehow they had never crossed the line into inviting each other to their home s . There was something too personal about it. Maybe because she was a woman and they weren’t, she didn’t know, and didn’t care. They were her work family. And as family…

She groaned. “What should I get him then? There’s still time!”

“No, there ain’t. Tommy, isn’t there a place downtown that needed your attention fifteen minutes ago?”

Tommy rolled his eyes at her , but he was smiling. He left his coffee cup on the counter and walked away.

Joel shouted, “Don’t make Nova pick up your dishes!” When both Tommy and she winced, Joel’s lips pulled into a grimace. “Too loud? Sorry. Just got back from the HEB site. I’m still half deaf. Tommy, clean your cup and don’t make me tell you to dry it and put it away, too.”

Tommy hooked a finger into the coffee mug handle and made a face at Nova as he walked away. She knew what the face meant, a certain tip of the head, a confidential kind of chin nod. She understood it perfectly well, and it was the only place where Tommy and she had friction.

“I’m really sorry. I got you a gift card.” She handed Joel a small bag, which almost looked absurd in his big hands. “You need to wash your hands and dry them thoroughly before you get on your new computer. I told you, the new keyboard can’t handle that much dust.”

“Oh, right, sorry. I’ll make sure I do. Oh, to the movies, huh? There’s this movie Sarah wants to see. It’s that weird one about the Beatles.”

“Oh, Across the Universe? It’s so pretty. Plus, you can’t say no to the Beatles.”

“I think I do say no.”

She tried to bite back a smile, but it happened anyway. She didn’t get to see Joel smile too often, and it kind of got her where she lived every time.

“Adios, amigos.”

Nova jumped and went back to the invoice she was typing as Joel took the opportunity to nag at Tommy more. Yep, she had got the date wrong.

“Anyway, I know it’s not great, but hopefully you enjoy it,” she told Joel, when she felt a little more the master of her own face and Tommy was gone.

“You don’t even have to get me anything. I do appreciate it, though.”

Nova smiled at him. “Okay. Hey, did you get the checks to the temp agency?”

“Oh, no.”

He looked so stricken. And they had just had such a nice moment about the birthday gifts. It’s not like she wanted to fight with her boss, but honestly -

The door opened, saving them from the inevitable fight that had been brewing like burnt coffee between them . Anything could set her off these days. Like when she had ripped him a new one because she had to buy him a new keyboard. They weren’t even that expensive, and she still didn’t know why she did it. Maybe because he had almost raised his voice to her over the HEB account. She ran those numbers three times, and he knew how careful she was , that it was the first mistake she had made in literal years, and still had had the fucking gall to call her careless. Yeah, maybe she was still a little bit carrying that around. It had really hurt her feelings. She cried in her car, which she generally didn’t do after work. This was the first job where she really felt like she was valued and appreciated, and having that in question, even for a moment, had been devastating. She had certainly cried after work before, but she had always been in service, so usually it was because someone had screamed at her about their mushroom allergy before she even had a chance to take their order, not because she wanted to do well so badly and was furious with herself , more furious than Joel would ever be.

Sarah walked in, Ellie trailing behind her, and Joel stood up from the chair beside Nova’s desk. It was a convenient spot for vendors to sit and wait for Joel, but people who worked there liked to sit there too. Especially Joel. Sometimes, he brought stuff out to Nova’s area and worked in that chair. Those were the times the keyboard, the dust, and the heat-of-the-moment misunderstandings seemed a thing of the past. She didn’t know why things had started to go sideways again, just that it was something about her and the way she felt in the office .

“What’s she doin’ with you?”

“Oh, my God, relax, Dad. She’s family? She’s allowed to be in the car with me. I told you to read that pamphlet, it’s literally three pages long. Hi, Nova, como estas?”

Nova smiled, answering in Spanish, and standing up to give her a hug. She squeezed Ellie’s shoulder instead of hugging her. She was skittish like a cat. Nova thought her being around Sarah was probably what was best for her.

“It is true,” Nova told Joel. “Since you’re Ellie’s guardian now, Sarah can drive her around. Hey, now Sarah, can you help you on the school run.”

“Ooh, yeah, Dad, I can help you! Did you ever think about that?”

Joel shook his head, smiling. “Jesus. Ellie, you gotta tell me if Sarah does anything stupid. You accept that responsibility?”

“Hm. No. I accept the responsibility of getting ice cream and crumbs on the floor, though!”

Nova laughed and went back to work. Joel figured out the details of Sarah and Ellie’s Saturday afternoon, and the two disappeared.

She and Joel watched through the glass door with their hearts in their mouths as Sarah backed up into traffic. She did fine, both of their shoulders slumping with relief when the car was out of sight and there weren’t any sirens or sounds of broken glass.

“It’s hard to think of Manny doing that one day,” she admitted.

“Yeah, you’d think you could worry about them less as they get older.”

“Don’t tell me that.”

“I got some calls to make. Don’t put anyone but Mendoza through.” He swatted her arm with the little bag that held his gift card. “Thanks again.”

“Happy birthday,” she said, wishing she could say something a little less stupid and meaning it anyway.

He nodded and walked away. If they could just not fight for the next six hours, they might actually be okay.

***

“I told you the city was an important call!”

“You said no one but Mendoza! How was I supposed to know that doesn’t include the water department?”

He could actually tear his hair out. All of a sudden, he felt like it was all loose, and he wondered if male pattern baldness could really just happen in a second like that.

All she needed to do was think . She was a smart woman, he had never had cause to double-check her work or micromanage her, and he hated that the water guys had called a week before he had thought they would get around to it. Government was always so slow, but that was precisely the reason why they would take precedence over almost anything else.

Tommy walked in, immediately sussing the situation as another fight, making Joel even angrier. He realized he was shouting at his secretary. Again. That this was maybe becoming an issue. He knew Tommy’s take on the situation. It made him feel like a lecherous old man just seeing his brother’s face. Tommy wasn’t right, definitely wasn’t right, so Joel needed to leave. It was the only way to make this awkward as hell situation stop.

“How was the motel? Mendoza show up?” He knew Mendoza hadn’t shown up. He’d been waiting for a call from him specifically to fire the guy. He was going to have to come in to get fired, though, because Joel wanted to hand him the check. He thought Mendoza had caught wind of his plan. When Tommy shook his head, Joel grabbed his jacket. “Better take me there, then, so I can figure out the damage.”

Nova didn’t even shout at him to put on his work boots as he left the office. If she was so steamed she couldn’t speak, he’d really fucked things up. He hoped she didn’t poison his coffee tomorrow.

“So, uh…”

“No. Don’t speak.”

He hauled himself up into Tommy’s truck, pulling his seatbelt on with a vengeance.

“Jesus, it’s new, for Chrissake. Let me run it in a little before you yank the whole thing apart.”

“Sorry.” He wasn’t sorry. Not to Tommy, anyway.

He looked out the passenger side window as they drove.

He remembered Nova when he had hired her. She had been exhausted, with bags under her eyes. He didn’t think she even knew she had dried spit-up on the shoulder of her blouse. Her clothes were nice but slightly out of date, like she hadn’t been able to buy new ones for a while. She wanted better hours so she could see her son, tired of waitress shifts, unable to get any other kind of work without a degree. She had also seemed genuinely well-qualified for the job, since he didn’t understand the job himself, and she was telling him his customer base and what he might reasonably do next with some administrative help. She had admitted to researching how construction was done and the bigger names in the area before the interview, so she would sound like she knew what she was talking about. She was smart, really smart, and he had not for one second regretted hiring her.

He didn’t yell at her because he really wanted to fuck her, which was Tommy’s useless theory. He just knew what Nova could do, and it always shocked him when she didn’t do it, like she had chosen it or something. He knew that didn’t make much sense, but it was like there was a switch inside him, one only Nova could set off.

She could make him angrier than a vendor showing up with a grin and apologies. Other times , she showed him a picture of her son, and there was so much love in her face that she cut right down to the heart of him, and he had to recover in his office for a second, a little done in by a mom who clearly loved her baby more than life itself. And she could make his day with just a smile.

He hated this tension between them. It had started around Christmas of last year. He had thought maybe something was going on with Nova’s ex-boyfriend, Manny’s useless father. In fairness, Manny Sr had been the cause of a lot of turmoil for Nova over the last three years.

He’d done his best to stay out of it, just giving her time off when the baby daddy failed to hire a sitter even though it was his week with the kid, or when the boy was sick and the dad was partying on Sixth Street or some shit, too busy drinking, trying to get some other girl pregnant, to take care of his own child. It would definitely be crossing a line to offer to push Manny into the lake, let him float to the bottom with all the other dead bodies. Didn’t mean he didn’t sometimes think about it, especially on the mornings when Nova showed up looking so tired her neck must hurt from keeping her head up. Yes, he bought her those sweet coffees she liked so much every time he left the office, but Christ, he’d been a single dad to a young kid once. He knew how hard it was just to keep afloat some days. A five-dollar coffee was a small price to pay for how happy it made her, and making sure she was happy was better for the business anyway.

I t really had nothing to do with any secret, guilty thoughts he had about her. And they were guilty. He felt terrible about it every time. Still, he figured, he was just a man, after all. It wasn’t like Tommy or most of the guys on the crew didn’t have the same thoughts from time to time. Nova was beautiful and bossy, and that combination had always really done it for him. He wasn’t aware of any man in the world who felt differently, except maybe gay men, but he bet they had their own version of it.

It was a relief to arrive at the work site. The pour had gone well, at least, and everyone else was working hard. There were a couple of temp guys he was going to offer full-time work to.

Tess Servopoulos showed up, pushing her sunglasses to the top of her head. “We’re getting complaints about the access road.”

“I know,” Joel said. “Now that the pour is done, we only need another day.”

Tess wasn’t so bad for a cop. They ran into each other from time to time, sometimes for work, sometimes she was on duty when Tommy required clean up.

“How’s your boy likin’ that PlayStation?”

Tess snorted. “I go in his room every hour to make sure he’s still alive.”

He smiled, happy that had worked out. Tess had had no idea what to get her twelve-year-old boy for his birthday, and it hadn’t taken Joel long to think of what he would have liked at that age.

“See you around.”

“Yep, take it easy.”

He and Tommy walked up to the work site and talked to Xavier, the foreman. Xavier spoke in Spanglish, but Joel had just enough Spanish he could understand him. He was irritated with his dad for not teaching them Spanish every time he talked to the guy, though.

“Sounds good. Thank you. And still no Mendoza, huh? Anyone hear from him?”

“No, sir.”

He nodded. “All right. Looks like you’re all doin’ a fine job without him anyway. Keep it up.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, you feel better now?”

“Not really. I’d like to be out there workin’.”

“Oh, it’s so hard bein’ the big boss.”

He bumped his shoulder hard into Tommy’s. “You know what I want now?”

“An overpriced coffee for your lady love?”

“Don’t call her that, Tommy.” They got into the truck. “You know, you brought that shit up in front of Sarah last night?”

Tommy grimaced. “Sorry. Had a few too many whiskeys last night. She mad?”

“No, she thought you were being stupid, as usual.”

“Yeah, well. Stupid, uncle Tommy. That’s kind of on brand for me, isn’t it?”

He kept his mouth shut. He didn’t want to fight with Tommy any more than he wanted to fight with Nova.

After he dropped off Tommy at the HEB site, he went back to the office and handed Nova a tall plastic cup, the condensation dripping down his fingers. Her dark eyes sparkled up at his, and her fingertips brushed his as she took the cup. “Thank you, that was very thoughtful.”

“You finish up those August invoices and get out of here. It’s the weekend.”

“Actually, Sierra is bringing Manny here. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“’Course I don’t mind.” She still wasn’t looking at him.

“We won’t be here long. She had a doctor’s appointment.”

“I don’t mind.” She darted a quick glance at his face and relaxed a little, to his relief.

The door opened behind him, and Manny came rocketing in.

“Mama!”

He watched Nova spin in her chair and hold out her arms as Manny threw himself at her. He buried his face in her stomach while Nova kissed the top of his head thirty or forty times.

“Thank God the boss is here,” Joel said, and Manny turned around, grinning up at him. “I can’t get anything done without you, man. Will you come into my office and look at somethin’ for me?”

“Oh, Joel, you don’t have to -”

Manny held up an imperious hand to his mother. “I’m the boss, Mama.”

“Yeah, Mama,” Joel said in a snarky voice, taking Manny’s hand when he held it up, and the two of them went into his tiny office. “I need to make a phone call, and you’re the only one I trust enough to do it.”

Manny looked perfectly serious as he climbed onto Joel’s lap. “What’s the number?” he asked, betraying himself with a little giggle.

Joel gave him Tommy’s cell phone number. “You gotta tell him he’s a big poopoo head.”

Manny giggled even more, wriggling with delight over the thought of calling Tommy names.

Joel told him the numbers slowly, watching Manny’s tiny finger hit each button carefully. It helped that the buttons were big. He didn’t like to mention to Nova that she had been right, that’s what he needed to stop accidentally calling extensions they didn’t have and causing the digital whatevers to go on the fritz.

The phone rang, and Tommy picked up.

Manny gasped and looked up at him, hoping Joel was laughing. Joel, already grinning like an idiot, said, “The boss has got somethin’ to say to you.”

“Ooh, noo,” Tommy said, convincing in his despair. Manny was laughing so hard that Joel was a little afraid he might pass out.

“You wanna say it?” Joel asked him.

Manny, his finger in his mouth, shook his head, grinning broadly.

“You want me to say it, boss?”

Manny nodded.

Joel assumed a very serious expression, and Manny kicked his feet, a funny tattoo against the bottom of his desk.

He didn’t know why, he hadn’t been looking anywhere in particular, but he caught the fact that Nova was watching through the open door. His heart skipped a beat, and he forgot what all exactly was happening. He looked at the phone, desperately trying to remember who was on the other end.

Thankfully, it came back quick.

“You’re a poopoo head,” he said to Tommy, and Manny screamed with laughter while Tommy wailed his despair and begged the boss man to just hear him out, please, he wasn’t really a poopoo head.

He looked at Nova again, relieved she was rolling her eyes, biting her bottom lip to keep back a smile.

Manny jumped off his lap when Joel put the phone back in its cradle and ran to Nova. “Did you hear what Joel said, Mama? He said Tommy was a…” There was an unbearable second as everyone wondered if Manny was going to say it, especially Manny. He whispered, “Poopoo head.”

Nova threw a hand up like she was fanning herself. “Manny, such language!”

Manny giggled some more and finished running at his mom, climbing into her lap.

She showed him what she was doing, essentially soothing him to sleep, twisting her chair slowly as she showed him spreadsheets and payroll and an explanation of benefits, which had to do with insurance… She looked at him when Manny was out a few minutes later.

Sorry , she mouthed.

He shook his head and went back to his computer, no idea what he was supposed to be working on, fucking alarmed to have just watched her like that. It must have been five minutes of just staring.

He didn’t think he’d ever seen it before, from the other side. Manny trusted Nova the same way Sarah had trusted him. And like Manny, Sarah had only had one trustworthy parent, one person who meant the whole world.

‘Course, Sarah could pretty much take him or leave him these days. He looked at her text again.

“Ew, dad, no, I don’t want to go to the movies with you, get a life, I beg you.”

On the one hand, he didn’t really think she meant it. On the other, he knew that she did. She wasn’t a kid anymore. Their relationship had a complexity to it now that baffled him, still. He’d thought as she left 13 and 14 behind that maybe they would enter a less rocky terrain, but, if anything, it had gotten rockier. Especially since Anna’s car accident. Sarah had loved Anna like a surrogate mom and had probably never thought about Joel dying, not really, and was faced with it every day when she saw Ellie in the bed across from her, pale and crying, without realizing it a lot.

E llie was more succinct, if, somehow, even more baffling.

She didn’t respond when he told her he didn’t know what that meant. He was pretty sure it was a no.

He got work done, and in between, he thought about how scared Nova was that he was going to get mad that she had a kid. He obviously couldn’t ever say so, but of course that was why he hired her. He hadn’t exactly wanted all the responsibility of freelance contracting work, had never thought that would be a business he would own one day, but it made enough that they could live on it, and he never had to explain why he needed afternoons off to drive Sarah to guitar practice and the skate park. It shouldn’t be so hard, and even though they were in such similar situations, he felt… No, he knew, that Nova faced much worse odds at being successful financially in Texas without a husband. It shouldn’t be that way, but he wasn’t blind to what was right in front of him. It was why he gave her a pay raise as often as he could too, more often than she would accept sometimes, even though he did know how payroll worked and understood what was going out and what was coming in. Maybe not down to the last fucking penny, like Nova, but he was generally right about the estimates. She could get caught up on things like how he didn’t know they paid for Wi-Fi. If the internet worked, what did he care what it was called?

He needed to stop thinking about her so much.

He chanced a look at her again. She was still running her fingers through Manny’s curly hair, twisting her chair idly as she typed like a demon and clicked and drank her coffee, graceful to his eyes.

Yep, he thought, looking at his dad’s watch. Almost five. He needed to stop thinking of her so much. That wasn’t good for business. But he’d done enough, he wouldn’t be embarrassed by himself in the morning, so he got up and put his shoes on, walking out to what he thought of as Nova’s chair, even though it wasn’t where she sat. It was near her desk, oddly personal in a way it wasn’t when he looked at her from the counter.

“He’s not gonna sleep tonight,” he said quietly, sitting with a groan as if he hadn’t just been sitting for the last three hours.

“No,” she said sadly, “He’s not.”

Something in his chest went tight. One thing he had not realized he was so lucky in was that Sarah’s mom just went away. It was a terrible thing to do, he’d never forgive her for it completely, but he had learned a parent could be so much worse.

“Well, my kids have got better things to do than hang out with their old man, and I got tickets to the movie theater for my birthday.”

She turned and smiled at him, and it was scary how quickly his mind went to sitting in a dark room with Nova right beside him, smelling that musky perfume she liked to use, and how maybe what he had just said was the stupidest thing a human had ever said.

“That’d be nice.”

Chapter Text

She couldn’t be upset when she said goodbye to him because it just upset Manny more. She had to pretend she wasn’t scared that his father would be senseless, that he would be so fucking selfish and screwed up he would thoughtlessly hurt their kid. She was his mother. She was supposed to protect him from all dangers, and she had to throw him into the jaws of the wolf because she hadn’t been able to prove that Manny had hit her and a judge was working through a large pile of paperwork and made a decision about her son and the trajectory of his life in between a big lunch and a bigger dinner.

She hugged him, and her son squeezed her hard. She couldn’t cry. Manny was getting impatient over her baby’s shoulder, and she knew she had to let go.

“I love you, my little man.”

“I wish I could stay with you, Mama.”

His dad scoffed. If she could hit him as many times as she wanted to, she wasn’t sure he would live.

“Me, too, baby. I’m going to think of you and love you every second you’re gone, did you know that?”

“Really, Mama?”

“Really really. Give Mama a big kiss and a hug because I’m going to miss you so much, and then go have fun with your dad, okay? Can you have fun for me, mi corazón?”

He nodded solemnly, his dark eyes, exactly the same shape as her own, looked up at her, and the separation seemed like it would stretch for eternity.

She smiled brightly at him. “Maybe Daddy will let you watch Ice Age.”

“You pay for the kid’s Netflix account?” he asked, as if she didn’t pay for every single thing about their son’s existence.

“I did,” she said, and waved at Manny every time he turned around to look at her on the short walk to the car.

She shouldn’t have forgotten that they were going to the movies. There was a knock on her door, and she sat up.

“Who is it?” she asked, hoping it wasn’t her neighbor who always tried to walk past her into her house. Nova thought she was just lonely, but it always unnerved her, like she wanted something and was upset with Nova for not handing it over, whether it was one of Nova’s snacks or a seat on her couch.

“It’s Joel. You okay?”

She wiped the tears off her face and ran for a tissue, wiping her nose furiously. “Um, I’m okay. What’s up?”

He was quiet for a second. “Uh, we were going to the movies, weren’t we? You didn’t show and, um… Well, could you open the door, maybe?”

It was almost funny, the perverseness of his timing. If anything could ever be funny again.

“I can,” she said, even though her feet didn’t take her to the door. “But you can’t ask me any questions.”

“You’re startin’ to scare me.”

She sighed. “No, don’t be scared.” She opened the door, hoping she didn’t look like a melted mascara mess and knowing that’s exactly what she looked like.

“Oh,” he said, his head jerking back. His eyes went wide, but she knew him well enough to know it wasn’t pity. It was recognition in his eyes. “Oh.”

“I’m sorry I forgot,” she said quietly, humiliation coming off of her like body odor. “I would have texted you.”

“Forget it. Can’t imagine you’re in the mood for it. Unless you want to watch a movie here? I can pick us up a pizza first.”

She sucked in a breath and then nodded. “That would be really nice.”

He nodded, looking around thoughtfully, but not like he was really seeing anything. “Is it a wine night, or a chocolate night?”

She giggled, she couldn’t help it. It was such a Joel question, and it had to be because he had a daughter. He couldn’t possibly offer Sarah wine, though, and she wondered what the teenage equivalent was in his mind. “Um, chocolate, I think.”

“Yeah. Okay.” He smiled at her and walked off her porch and down to his car. She walked back inside, shutting the door, grinning like an idiot for no reason she could understand.
She sobered quickly when she thought of Manny, but she just had to hope that Manny’s dad had enough latent mammal genes that he protected his kid.

It was going to be weird having her boss at her house. She rushed around, glad she had deep cleaned just that weekend, so she only had to do some surface pick-ups and toy dumping. She really, honestly, didn’t even buy him that many toys, and he still had two totes full. They were big totes.

She put away the dinner things she had washed earlier and put a nice blanket on the back of the couch instead of Manny’s well-loved baby blanket they both still liked to snuggle under. Her mom had made it, and it was the most cozy thing in the whole world and very obviously three years old.

She opened the door when Joel knocked again, having washed her face and reapplied enough makeup that she still felt professional. Not the way she would if a friend who wasn’t her boss came over, but not the same amount she would wear at work, since he had just seen her turn into a sobbing snot monster and wouldn’t buy fake lashes and lip liner.

“I realized I didn’t ask you what you liked, so I just got plain cheese.” He grimaced expectantly, obviously anticipating irritation.

She just smiled and took the box from him. “I like a vegetable to cross my plate once in a while, but I like cheese.”

“Oh, good. I think I’ve heard of these vegetables.”

“I’m surprised you don’t have a garden. Aren’t you about to retire?”

It was almost an old joke between them. She had honestly thought he was in his early thirties when she met him; he just didn’t look that much older than her. So when she had copied his driver’s license for something and realized he was twelve years older than her, she hadn’t reacted quietly or with a lot of tact. Thankfully, Joel had thought that was funny, flattered, she could tell, that he looked younger than he was. They were still really polite to each other in that first six months, and it had been the first time she had done anything remotely unprofessional, and the joke had stuck around.

He snorted. “Yeah, yeah.”

She put their plates and two water glasses on the table. “Iced tea?” she asked, and poured him a cup when he nodded, bringing her own over too.

“Thank you,” he said, and dug in.

She had seen Joel eat before. They had shared any number of lunches over her desk. She knew he had surprisingly good table manners for a single man, and she wondered again if he was raised that way or if it was an effort he had made for Sarah’s sake.

They talked about different laws being passed that would affect his business and home ownership in general, a comfortably worn-out topic that they both already knew they agreed on. Joel’s knee kept bumping into hers, and every time he pulled back and went a little red around the neck, so she knew he was uncomfortable, but they would get talking again, and he would turn toward her again, and then their knees bumped together. She wasn’t sure why she was so hyper aware of it every time it happened, like it was an intentional caress. 

When they were done, she got up to take care of their plates, completely on autopilot.

“Whoa, Mama.” Joel stood too and easily took the plates from her hand, grabbing their glasses too, keeping his fingers between them so they didn’t clink together. “I got it. You go pick out a movie.” He didn’t look at her as he took their dishes to the sink.

Her face was aflame as she looked through her DVDs. No one had ever done her dishes before.

She also didn’t have any movies that were likely to appeal to a guy, unless he wanted to get all nostalgic for when Sarah was younger and watch Shrek or Toy Story.

“You’ve got Two Weeks Notice?” Joel’s voice came over her shoulder. She tried not to jump. She hadn’t realized he had left the kitchen. “Put that one on.”

“Yeah? You a big Sandra Bullock fan?”

“Sarah is. Think we watched that and 28 Days more times’n I can count. I liked this one better. You know she owns a restaurant on Sixth Street.”

“I think I remember hearing that. Weird to think of Miss Congeniality owning a restaurant.”

Joel snorted before shoving a Dove chocolate in his mouth. She hurried up with the DVD so she could sit next to him and unwrap one for herself. Joel was fully capable of eating the whole bag himself, even while he protested he wasn’t much of a sweets person.

“Hang on a second,” he said when the main menu popped up. He came back with two glasses of white wine.

She smiled. “You really didn’t have to do that.”

He handed her a glass and shrugged, drinking from his own and sitting heavily beside her on the sofa. She had thought it would be weird for him to be here, but it was just like any other night they were working late, the only difference being Manny usually slept on a cot in the corner.

She pressed play and smiled at the opening credits.

“Who would you choose?” Joel asked, a grin playing with his lips. “Sandra Bullock or that redhead?”

She laughed. “The redhead! She drank beer and played strip chess.”

Joel gave a quiet laugh. He drank some more from his wine. “Sandra’s the one with an ass, though.”

She bit her bottom lip and ended up laughing anyway, feeling oddly embarrassed. She wasn’t sure why it was a relief that Joel liked a big ass. It was stupid to suddenly feel thrilled. Joel wouldn’t look at her in a million years.

She had sort of thought, in the beginning, that maybe he was looking at her, but he was polite and self-aware enough she never caught him at it. Mostly it was a glance that lasted a little too long, something in the slow way he met her eyes when they spoke. Then Tommy had started teasing him when she wasn’t around, and even the faintest hint of flirtation had disappeared.

She hadn’t minded at the time. The last thing she wanted was a boss who was attracted to her. She had already realized she really liked the job and was suited to it. The possibility of that minefield was too much.

Still, she understood the movie a little better than she ever had before. Joel became oddly quiet as the movie went on, too, though they both laughed in the same places. She laughed hardest at the family in the RV while Joel especially liked the part where Hugh Grant asked his sister-in-law for a Milk Dud.

Joel poured them another glass of wine, and she stopped eating the chocolate. Give herself an insane headache the next day if she ate that much sugar and drank two glasses of wine.

She realized when she sat back that either she or Joel had moved closer to the middle of the couch, and their bare arms brushed against each other.

She looked up at him to apologize and caught him looking at her with eyes that glittered in the soft lamp light, his mouth quirked in a very Joel-type smile. She looked at the TV, not seeing Sandra Bullock rip Hugh Grant a new one, only realizing belatedly that she hadn’t moved. Their arms were still touching. She could feel every nerve ending in her arm as she never had before, the heat rolling off Joel suddenly unbearable, even as she knew she didn’t want to stop feeling it.

Nova drank the rest of her wine, hoping it would cool her off. When she set her glass down and leaned back again, she thought Joel would have moved. She felt like he was actually a little closer. Their legs were touching now, too.

They barely breathed through the second half of the movie, though they shared another awkward smile when the two on screen kissed.

“That’s a fun one.”

“Yeah,” she said and burst into tears. She covered her face with both hands. “I’m sorry,” she said, embarrassment curdling in her stomach until she thought she might puke from it. “I’m sorry, I’m a lightweight and…” She breathed out a shaky breath full of tears. “Wine just gets me sometimes.”

“It’s all right. Jesus, Nova, I’m worried about him too.”

She couldn’t stop crying. Her head felt a little swimmy and stupid. A hand landed on her back, so strong and warm, it was hard to believe anything bad could happen to her under that hand. He rubbed her back, and she leaned into him.

“C’mon,” he said after a few seconds of her quiet sobbing. She wondered if maybe he was a lightweight, too, when he grabbed her under the arms and pulled her into his lap. Alarm bells rang in her head, but it was so nice she found she couldn’t move, mostly because she didn’t want to.

Joel’s arms were wrapped around her tightly, and she could put her head on his shoulder and breathe deeply of laundry soap and fresh air. “That’s all right, Mama, you go ahead,” he murmured, his voice rumbling in her ear and against her body.

“I just hate that...he’s so scared...when he leaves.” She kept her face buried in Joel’s shoulder even as the tears finally tapered off, not ready to face a world where she had just… God, she had just had a full-on breakdown on her boss’s lap after two glasses of wine -

Maybe sensing her pulling back, he tightened his arms around her again. “I know. You know, I’d help you with a lawyer if you wanted to try again. He’s old enough, the judge might say somethin’ different.”

She breathed out a shuddering breath and thought she felt Joel’s chest tense up.

“I’m sorry,” she said, sitting up and wiping her cheeks on her sleeve. “God, I feel like an idiot.” She was still sitting on his lap, though.

Joel stared at her, his head slightly tilted up. Her boss’s lap. On a Friday night. After two glasses of wine. When she didn’t have a fractious three-year-old fighting her for even just one more minute before he had to brush his teeth.

She didn’t know when it happened, but realized one of Joel’s big hands was wrapped around her waist, his thumb stroking back and forth, her silk blouse moving easily beneath.

He looked so good. She wasn’t blind, didn’t miss the way women looked at him, like they could eat him in one bite. She just tried not to think of it because he was her boss.

No matter what she told herself, she still noticed his surprisingly pouty lips surrounded by that dark scruff that made him look so handsome sometimes her heart beat faster just because he had walked by. His eyes were always warmer than a bonfire when he looked at her. They were staring at each other. And she thought maybe they were getting closer.

She closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his.

***

He sucked in a surprised breath through his nose and felt Nova’s lips with his, eyes closing on instinct. Her lips were warm and molded around his, pillow soft, a whisper against his skin. He breathed out slowly, happy to stay where he was all night if she let him.

Her whole house smelled like her. It was a stupid thing to think, but the realization had nearly bowled him over when he first walked into the apartment, along with an alarming rush of blood south, feeling as stupid and out of control around Nova as he had around his first girlfriend. He hadn’t thought he could feel more ashamed of his feelings for Nova, but he had found a new low, feeling that way despite the broken look on her face. Thankfully, that first animal thought was obliterated by the second, which came in with all the force of a train.

Make it better

Of course, she had figured out a better way than a movie and pizza. He stroked her waist again with his thumb, and she relaxed a little, her shoulders and chest tilting toward him until each breath in made her breasts brush against his chest.

This was stupid. He was being a fucking idiot. This was Nova, his secretary, probably the most important person at his company. He couldn’t fucking lose her.

But now she was pressing her whole body into him, slanting her lips over his as she wrapped her arms around his neck, and he licked her bottom lip. A little taste. Then another deeper one when she opened her lips, let him touch inside, all of her so warm and soft, and maybe he wasn’t thinking straight. Maybe that was really fucking hard when she turned her body, swinging her weight forward so she could slip her knees around him and straddle him.

She kept kissing him, slightly above him. Her hand drifted down as they kissed so deeply the whole world was a tunnel, and there was only Nova with him, breaths shared and broken only by their lips moving against each other. She rested her hand right over his heart. He knew it was thundering, dimly knew that was a little embarrassing, but Nova rolled her body against his, sinking a little lower, pushing forward on her knees.

She rolled her hips again, her body so close he knew she could feel how hard he was. He blushed, but it didn’t even matter because she was kissing him and kissing him, rolling her hips again, fucking pressure right where he wanted it until he groaned into her mouth.

His hands went from her waist to her hips, so close to her ass. He’d been dreaming about it for months, long nights where he felt stupid and useless and couldn’t even come unless he thought of her.

The thought took root, wiggling like a worm on a line. He felt guilty when he thought of her because he wasn’t supposed to.

She kissed him again, rolling against him one more time, and he squeezed her hips, pulling his head away slightly.

“You been drinkin’,” he said. And what a fucking sight she was, Jesus, that shouldn’t turn him on so much, something was fucking wrong with him. Mascara pooled around her eyes, and her lips were swollen and red, her cheeks and neck visibly flushed, even in the low lamp light.

“You’re my boss,” she said, like she was agreeing with him.

Neither of them moved. Joel didn’t even breathe. He was still horrifically hard, straining uncomfortably against the seam of his jeans.

Amazingly, she smiled at him, a wicked smile that set fire to his body before his brain even had a clue. He squeezed her hard beneath his hands in a bid to keep still. Nova moved her hips. Not on him. Almost reminiscent of what a stripper would do, short little circles with her hips, like she was trying to hypnotize him. It shouldn’t work, he should have been better than that.

“It’s still your birthday,” she said, and kissed him, a lingering kiss that had his blood at high boil. “I’m really not very good at giving gifts,” she said, rising, going away from him. He didn’t know what she was talking about, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her face. She started sinking to her knees, and his cock twitched before he figured out what she would say next, and then she was saying it, “But there is one thing I’m really good at.”

He opened his mouth, but she cut him off, keeping her palms flat on his thighs. Her brows were drawn, and her mouth was still soft, a concerned look, one that was so familiar and loved it was almost hurtful. “I swear, I’m not drunk. I’m emotional and tipsy, but I know what I’m doing. Do you?”

He nodded. “You still don’t have to do that, though, I’d be just as happy to -”

She smiled, tilting her head to the side, cutting him off by reaching for his belt. “You don’t want your cock in my mouth?” She licked her lips, which was fucking unfair, and she knew it.

His mouth opened, but nothing came out. He wanted his cock in her mouth. He was pretty sure he was dreaming. He was going to wake up hard as a rock in his own bed, leaking against his sheets like a fucking kid.

Nova undid his belt buckle and opened his jeans, getting her hand on him. He groaned, the sight of her hand wrapped around him, and then the greedy look on her face was too much. Whatever cognitive systems had been running had ground to a fucking halt, and all he could do was watch Nova lick her lips again.

She moved forward, making herself more comfortable on her knees, getting a little closer. Her eyes flew up to his, narrowed in calculation. She tilted her head again, and he tried not to sigh, but fuck, why did she have to get thoughtful right this second?

“You’re not going to be an enormous asshole to me after tonight, are you?”

He shook his head. He’d never understood why men did that, but maybe he was weak for being so fucking grateful a woman would want to touch him. It had been a long time with just him and his hand. And besides, it was Nova, and he had wanted this on some level since she walked into his office for an interview and his body and brain first went to war.

She smiled. “Okay.”

Then she bowed her head forward and licked the head of his cock, dragged her tongue from the bottom, slowly over the slit with the flat of her tongue, gentle, until she reached the top, swirling her tongue even as her lips closed around the head. She was fucking good at this, fuck. This might be humiliating. She sucked so gently on the head and then released him, something almost cruel about the cool air of the room wrapped around him, but then she was licking him again, getting the head wet, licking her lips again as she looked up at him. Her voice was husky. He couldn’t believe this was even fucking real as she said, “You taste good.”

His eyes fell closed as his head fell back, too much, it was too good. She closed her lips around him again, fitting more of him into the wet heat of her mouth, sucking him down so slowly he knew he would remember every moment of this for the rest of his pathetic life.

He let her take care of him for a few seconds, his arm over his face. He felt too exposed, hadn’t been with someone he cared much about in years, and he really fucking cared about Nova. It was too much, too fast, and it was exactly what he wanted.

She put as much of him in her mouth as she could, hitting the head of his cock against the back of her throat a few times until she choked. He pulled his hips back immediately, and she let him, pulling her head back as she sucked and sucked, moving her tongue against him and around him until just the head was in her mouth, and she sucked that too.

His hips were moving on their own now, though he was trying hard not to fuck into her mouth.

It felt so fucking good. Pressure built and built behind his cock until all the muscles were tight with it. His balls were full and high, and he really wasn’t going to be able to draw this out. He wanted it to last for a lot longer, wanted to memorize every dripping part of her mouth and tongue and lips, wanted to be inside her long enough to really lose it, but his orgasm was too close, it had just been too fucking long. His body was desperate to get inside of her.

“Nova.” His voice was wrecked, raspy, and too quiet, not conveying the urgency of the situation at all. Drifting open like blinds to sunlight, her eyes met his. She saw his face and reacted in surprise, pulling off of him, but her second reaction was clear and immediate. Her whole face went red, and she swallowed hard, her wide, dark eyes locked on his. She bit her lip, and he was fucking coming.

She breathed a sympathetic, “Ohh,” and put her hand on him, using his fucking come as lube, drawing it out to the point the last pulse was almost painful. She seemed to understand and took her hand off of him as soon as he stopped moving his hips and put her face on his knee. He was still in his jeans, of all the stupid things. He still had his fucking socks on. It was a completely incongruous thought, nothing to do with anything, but it was the most absurd truth in the universe at that moment.

He stroked her cheek with the back of his finger. She turned her head and kissed his knuckle. His eyes closed, and his head fell back. “Fuck.”

She picked up her head and kissed his knee before handing him a tissue and grabbing one for herself, both of them doing a pretty bad job of cleaning up. “Do you want to take a shower together? As the second part of your birthday gift?”

He breathed out slowly. “C’mere.”

She did, crawled right up in his lap as he zipped and buttoned and buckled, skin still sensitive enough he sucked his teeth. “I gotta get back to Sarah and Ellie, I’m sorry,” he said. He saw her face change and said fast before she could open her mouth, “So you gotta come right now.”

Her mouth fell open, and then she smiled and buried her face in his throat like she was embarrassed. “Jesus. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Mmh, but you want to, right? Come on my mouth?”

Her hand spasmed in his shirt, her hand in a fist over his ribs. Her hair near his face smelled like sweat and coconut shampoo.

“Not tonight,” she said, breaking his heart in two. He didn’t understand why she was trailing her hand down the inside of his wrist. She picked up his hand and sucked on his forefinger, pulling it almost all the way out of her mouth before giving the tip of his forefinger a sharp nip with her teeth, causing him to jump. “It doesn’t seem like a birthday present if it’s reciprocal.”

He touched her hip with his free hand, feeling the dip of her waist and then her ribs before going back down. “Reciprocal means I do the same thing to you that you did to me, right?”

She laughed, but that was okay. He was smiling ear to ear. She kissed his cheek. She dragged her lips to his ear, and if he had been 18, he would have been hard again and only thinking about taking her clothes off. Then she whispered in his ear, and his mind was wiped clean anyway.

“I want your hand on me.” She put his hand on the button of her jeans, and he was unbuttoning it as she kissed him slowly, her hips moving in those small circles again, thought far, far from his head. He got his hand against her, hot and wet, so fucking wet. That was from sucking him, maybe even from riding him before.

“That wet for me.”

She whined against his mouth and pressed the side of her face to his, her panting loud and hot in his ear. He wanted to say more, wanted her to make that fucking sound again, right in his ear so he didn’t miss a bit of it.

Pitching his voice low, trying to be quiet while he got his thumb nice and wet, so easy because she was slick, sliding against him while her hips kept moving, he spoke. “How’d you know that’s what I fuckin’ wanted?”

She moaned, honest to God moaned, and it danced like light fingers down his chest and pooled behind his cock. He didn’t think he’d get hard again for a while, he’d come too hard and too fast, but he probably wouldn’t be able to fall asleep at home without thinking of this one more time.

“I’ll be thinkin’ of this,” he said, swirling the pad of his thumb around and across her clit, his first two fingers sliding slowly against her entrance. She was hotter than he could have believed, and he had forgotten or he’d never really known before how good it fucking felt to make someone else feel that good, to be the one that brought it out, “Later tonight. Won’t be able to sleep unless I think of just this, fuck.” He moved his first two fingers into her, feeling the stretch, feeling how soaked she was all the way to the top.

She blew out a stuttering breath past her lips. Her hips snapped, but he wrapped his free hand around her hip and held her still. She started kissing his neck like she had to move something. He started rocking his hips slowly, and she mirrored him. His two fingers were still and buried inside of her. She pulsed her muscles twice experimentally. He took them out and rubbed her clit a little.

“I’ll tell you when to move, don’t you worry about it. You’re so good at listening to me.” She was. He really fucking liked it. Couldn’t think of anything, what the fuck had he been doing with his life if he wasn’t doing this? “I really fucking like it.” He let his head hang back so he could see her.

She immediately shut her eyes, it was too much, but that was okay, he could look at her cherry red lips hanging open, the makeup kissed and sweated off her face enough that he could see her nose and forehead were a little red too, and he wondered where all on her body she felt that blush.

“You got a fucking perfect pussy for me.”

“Joel, fuck, you can’t say stuff like that.” Her eyes flew open, stubborn even when he was slowly fucking her with his fingers.

“Why?” he asked, on tenterhooks he’d overstepped.

She moved her hips. He’d stopped moving his fingers. He slowly crooked his first finger, feeling for that spongy part until he found it. He didn’t move his finger anymore, just kept it where it was, and slowly moved his thumb, trying to be gentle. He wasn't kidding, her pussy felt like fucking heaven around his fingers, and he was kind of losing it. “Why can’t I say it?” he asked, recognizing that he was almost growling at her, ripping the words out.

“I don’t know.” She moved her hips, and he started stroking his fingers again, in and out.

“You’re so smart, baby. Yes, you fuckin’ do. Why can’t I say it? Perfect fucking pussy for me, fuuuck.” He breathed the last word, his head tipping back again. Nova’s muscles pulsed repeatedly around his fingers on their own, her gasps in his ear coming with a distinct whining sound.

He might get hard again if this kept going. That was not what he expected and not really what he wanted. As much as he liked this, as much as this night was probably going to torture him till he couldn’t get it up anymore and probably after, he had somewhere to be. Hated to fucking leave her, fucking hated it.

“I want you to tell me something.”

She shook her head. He crooked his finger against that spot and pressed harder into her clit with his thumb on each revolution. He couldn’t even really feel his thumb anymore, but Nova couldn’t be hotter and really couldn’t be more wet and swollen, and that was all that fucking mattered.

“You can do it. Smart girl like you, love explainin’ things to me, don’t you? Tell me.”

She shook her head. Then nodded.

“You gonna be honest?”

“Yeeess.”

He was sweating, and so was she. He dimly wondered how the fuck he would even look her in the eye on Monday. “Tell me you want to come right now.”

“I want -” She swallowed, her eyebrows screwed up like it hurt, her bottom lip snagged beneath her teeth momentarily. “I want to come.”

“Ah.” His head fell back again, his pleasure complete and real. “Say you want to be good and come for me.”

“Fuck, I can’t say that.”

“’Course you can. It’s my birthday.”

“Oh, fuck, please, I want to come for you.” She closed her eyes when she said the last two words, already coming, her pussy clamping repeatedly over his fingers.

He kept them moving inside her for a long time. When she had been done for a few seconds, she opened her eyes and looked at him. A slow smile spread across her face, blissed out, her eyes like fucking stars.

“Fuck,” he said, laughing a little.

“Yeah.” She giggled and kissed his cheek, hiding her face with his, and that was okay. Her hair smelled good, and the room smelled like sex and their sweat, and it all felt fucking inevitable, unstoppable. “I feel like Monday is going to be a little strange.”

He laughed, surprised, his laughter doubled because he hadn’t been expecting it.

She bit her bottom lip and smiled at him.

He caressed her hip again and the top of her butt as he spoke slowly. “Can I wash up a little before I say goodnight?”

“Yes, sir,” she said.

“Mm, you got some nice manners on you.”

Her face went red and her eyes screwed up with embarrassment, but she was smiling too. It was an oddly endearing expression, maybe because she was blushing and smiling, so he liked it no matter what. “Where’d you learn to talk like that? Here I was thinkin’ you were nice.”

He smiled, putting his hands around her ass and pulling her closer, heat still simmering low, building when he got her on him.

She gave him a helpless roll of the hips and kissed him. “I’m not saying this to make you feel bad,” she said, “But I really don’t want you to go.”

“Yeah. Gonna have to get creative to stay in bed together, I think.”

He hadn’t been trying to seduce her, he had been apologizing if anything, but she kissed him like he’d really impressed her and that was so nice he was thinking he could probably wash up in thirty or so minutes, maybe not have to be the one to put himself to sleep but then he felt his phone ding. He’d set an alarm for when Sarah and Ellie would be getting home, and he needed to leave.

“I gotta go.”

She kissed him and crawled all the way off, holding out a hand he took happily, pressing a kiss to her palm when he was standing.

He hurried in the bathroom, trying to get back to her quick. She was washing their wineglasses in the kitchen sink. He put his hands on her waist and kissed her neck. She turned her head, offering more of herself. He licked her soft skin, tortured with the idea of sucking and leaving a mark. 

"I'll see you Monday, huh?" 

She turned around and kissed him, sweet, just the faint pressure of lips together.

"See you Monday," she said. "Thanks for comin' over."

He smiled and kissed her one more time. "See you."

***

Manny was fine when she picked him up at six am on Monday morning, if cranky. It didn’t sound like he’d eaten a single thing that was good for him, he stank like mold and old cigarettes, but he was alive and well, and her heart sang because he was with her for two uninterrupted weeks. These were their favorite weeks, the easy days, and it was an unfortunate thing, but she could only survive one day at a time.

“I’m so hungry,” she said, testing the waters. “I want a bowl of fruit at IHOP, I think.”

Manny’s eyes got wide as he looked at her in the rearview mirror. “I want bacon,” he said, doing some testing himself.

“I’m so hungry, I could eat both,” she said, and Manny started jumping up and down in his booster seat, chanting IHOP until she thought her ears were going to bleed. He cheered one more time when she pulled into the parking lot and put the car in park.

He had already unbuckled himself when she opened the door. He wasn’t really a baby anymore. She remembered Mama saying, “You’ll always be my baby,” how mad that made her. She was going to have to call her mom and tell her she understood now.

She opened the restaurant door, and they were shown to a table. The air conditioning blasted from every corner and felt great.

Manny didn’t want to talk about his weekend, which ate at her heart. She thought longingly of Joel’s offer to help her with a lawyer. She couldn’t accept. In one year, she would have saved enough to pay a lawyer’s six-month retainer fee plus four more months. Joel was right. Manny was older now, and still young enough not to be too hurt by whatever happened to him. She hated the thought of anyone making him uncomfortable asking about his dad, but she didn’t think they would want to influence Manny one way or the other, meaning whoever was doing the questioning would have to be neutral.

Manny made her laugh by putting two straws in his nose, the game ending with him blushing furiously as the waitress came up to their table to clean up and offer the bill.

She dropped Manny off at the sitter’s with strict instructions that he take a nap and gave him a big hug, so relieved to have him in her arms again, it was an actual physical sensation, all her mom biology reaching out and relieved to find her baby near her.

She waved and went out to the car. It was one of those rare days she didn’t want to go to work.

Her heart thudded an almost sickly beat in her wrists and neck. Every time she thought of Joel, her breath caught, which was just embarrassing, even if she was the only one who knew of her own embarrassment. She thought with increasing desperation of Tommy. He had been right about Joel being attracted to her. She wasn’t cool enough to hide it. Every thought she had ever had showed on her face, it had always been that way. Which probably was how Tommy knew she liked Joel even before she did, now she thought about it, and even though she was the only one in the car, she blushed.

She was the first one to arrive. Joel usually showed up in Tommy’s truck. She thought it was sweet that the brothers carpooled. They didn’t like to be reminded of how they took care of each other.

She booted up the computer and made a pot of coffee while the computer slowly turned on, whirring like it was going to take off. She was going to need a new one soon, but if she could just make this one limp along a little longer, till the HEB expansion money came in, she might be able to make the case to Joel that they should switch to Macs.

She was pouring herself coffee when Joel came in, thirty minutes before he and Tommy usually arrived. She smiled at him, and he stopped in his tracks, the door catching his heels so he stumbled a little bit.

“Goddamn door hinge,” he started muttering, and she turned around, pouring herself some flavored coffee creamer and letting Joel get a hold of himself.

She had just finished washing and drying the spoon she had used when she felt a warm presence just behind her. She sucked in a deep breath, one hand on the edge of the sink for support.

“Haven’t stopped thinkin’ of you even once,” Joel said and pressed his lips to her neck.

She hadn’t stopped thinking of him either. She had had to break out the vibrator before she could fall asleep, thinking of his big hands, how safe they made her feel, and how thrilling it felt to have them on her.

She let herself lean her head back, Joel’s hands gripping her hips. He was already getting hard behind her, and she was hardly going to be presentable for work in a minute. She needed to pull away, take his hands off of her, but he smelled so fucking good, like wood shavings and cologne she didn’t smell on him too often.

Nova swallowed hard. “I can’t do this here,” she said, thinking of any of the crew who could walk in here any moment, but especially Tommy.

“Mm.” He nuzzled her neck but pulled away, leaning against the counter right beside her, still so close she couldn’t help but smile. Him looking intently at her from two inches away with big moon eyes wasn’t much better than him pressed up against her from behind. “Wanna do it in my office?”

She blushed even as she laughed. “You still have to take those checks to the temp agency.”

Joel groaned, but it was ruined by his smile. “All right,” he said, smiling at her with eyes so soft she felt like she stood on quicksand. “Bossy.”

She licked her bottom lip, testing the waters again, though she didn’t know why. She was gratified when Joel's eyes went wide and his neck started going red.

“Jesus,” he muttered and stood up straight, putting a respectable distance between them even though he was visibly hard. He rolled his shoulder a few times.

“You should get a massage,” she said, worried about his old rotator cuff injury. Joel was never a morning person, but Joel groggy on pain pills and little sleep and chained to his desk was fucking unmanageable.

To her shock, he reached out and squeezed her ass, his fingers digging into her through her slacks. “And I know just who should give it to me.”

She kissed his cheek and left him at the sink, carrying her coffee to her desk, hoping the steam from the cup might cover up why her cheeks were really so hot.

Two minutes later, Joel was leaning against the counter with his own coffee. He openly watched her, drinking her in, and it was very difficult to concentrate. She made a lot of typos.

“How was Manny this morning?”

She smiled at him, happy he had asked. “He seemed tired, but he was fine.” He stank like no one had been taking care of him and he had eaten so fast at IHOP she had to make him stop so he didn't throw it all up.

“Okay, what’s your real answer, Mama?”

She bit the tip of her tongue. She really liked it when Joel called her that, even if he was an HR nightmare. “I can’t really talk about it. I’m still too upset. But he really is okay, and these are our two weeks together.”

“Got it. All right, I’ll head over to the -”

The door opened behind him. Tommy was almost early, and all three of them were surprised. Tommy looked from Nova to his brother, leaning in his spot, a travel mug in his hands. “Mhm,” Tommy said, like he had been able to verify something just by looking at the two of them. “Fuckin’ finally.”