“I’m glad you could make it,” Emory said.

“Are you kidding? And miss the chance to see the empire you spend day and night constructing?”

Once inside, Sarah was surprised to see that the posh elegance of the lobby was reserved for essentially that, the lobby. The inner office of the company looked more like a working newsroom with few frills.

A series of several dozen workstations dotted the large open space with private offices flanking its perimeter. “These are the editors,” Emory said, gesturing to the rather bookish looking individuals at the workstations. They stared, entranced, at a series of codes on their computer screens. “Once a press release has been sent to us with instructions on who’s to receive it, the editors code the transmission before sending it over the wire through our satellite links. The codes tell the press release where to go. It’s also up to the editors to proof the release. If it’s transmitted with an error, we have to issue a correction, which is a huge strike against us in the industry. We try to avoid it at all costs. This office is currently error free. I can’t say the same for the Dallas office, however.”

“What happened in Dallas?” Sarah was incredibly intrigued by the process.

“Five errors in six months. I’m travelling down there next week to implement a new training program with one of my editorial managers. I’ll be letting two of the editors go while I’m there.”

“Wow. Doesn’t that upset you to have to tell them they no longer have a job?”

“It’s just business, and a necessary part of running a company. Haven’t you ever had to fire anyone from Immaculate Home?”

“Once for stealing, but that seemed unavoidable. When someone underperforms, we always try to make them better.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

Sarah considered this. “We find ways to compensate for the weak link, I guess. I just can’t shake the knowledge that they have families to support and kids to put through college.”

“I can’t consider those kinds of things. In fact, I never have.”

“I guess I’m a softie then. Now show me your office so I can ooh and ah at how important you are.”

“I like the sound of that. Right this way.” They strolled down the hallway to Emory’s corner office and paused outside next to the desk of a very serious looking young man with flaming red hair. “This is my assistant, Trevor. I think you’ve spoken to him on the phone once or twice.” Trevor stood and extended his hand politely. “Trevor, this is Sarah, my girlfriend.”

Trevor’s eyes widened in delight. “Well, in that case.” He reached out and pulled Sarah into a warm hug.

“All right, all right, that’s enough. Let the girl go.”

“It was nice to meet you, Trevor.” Sarah laughed, following Emory into the office. Once inside, she took only a brief moment to scan the spacious room before turning back to face Emory. “Do you think we could close the door for a minute?”

“Okay.” Sarah had an indiscernible look on her face that made Emory uneasy. “Is everything all right?”

Once the door clicked into place, Sarah closed the distance between them until she stood in front of Emory. “You just called me your girlfriend.”

It had seemed second nature to Emory and she realized now that it shouldn’t have. “Oh, I’m sorry. I guess I should have asked if it was okay. I just figured because you didn’t know Trevor—”

“Shhh.” Sarah placed a finger across Emory’s lips. “I loved it.”

“You did?”

“I did. Do you know what I also love? You in this business suit.” She slipped her hand inside the jacket and ran her palm from the center of Emory’s chest up along the side of her collarbone. “You were wearing something similar the day we met, remember?”

“And did you like it then?”

Sarah considered the question. “No, I found it intimidating. But now that I know the woman inside it, it’s just plain hot.”

Emory grabbed Sarah by the hips and pulled her closer, kissing her soundly. Sarah reciprocated hungrily, sliding her arms up and around Emory’s neck. Then a thought hit and she pulled back just enough to meet Emory’s eyes. “Are you sure we should be kissing at the office? You are at work, after all.”

Emory inclined her head. “The door is closed. We can do anything we want. No one will come in without knocking. One of the perks of being in charge.”

“Okay then, maybe just a little more of the sexy kissing.” Sarah grinned and dipped her head.

Emory loved kissing Sarah. She felt it all the way down to her toes and it left her in the most wonderful fog. Somewhere in the back of her consciousness, she registered that hands were tugging vaguely on shirts, moving down arms, shifting all the while closer, and she could vaguely hear the humming sounds people made while making out. It was like hovering just above heaven for her.

“Hey, Em, will you take a look—holy shit. Sorry. Oh my God.”

At Lucy’s highly unexpected entrance, they froze. No one spoke for several seconds, ratcheting up the awkward factor several notches. It was Emory who laughed first, followed shortly by Lucy. Sarah smiled until the tension seemed to evaporate from the room.

Once under control again, Emory turned to Sarah wryly. “I should amend that earlier statement to ‘no one will come in if the door is closed except for Lucy, who does whatever the hell she wants.’”

“Wow. Again, so sorry.” Lucy gestured at the door. “Sometimes I’m oblivious. What can I say? But please don’t kick me out for more kissing. I’m here now, so can I please meet Sarah?” The cartoonish hope in Lucy’s eyes made Sarah smile. She liked this woman already.

Emory sighed playfully. “Why not? Lucy Danaher, meet Sarah Matamoros.” And then meeting Sarah’s eyes and smiling, “My girlfriend.”

“A pleasure.” Lucy extended her hand. “And I do mean that. I’ve been waiting ever so patiently to make your acquaintance and I do emphasize patiently.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Lucy. Emory’s told me an awful lot about you.”

“Well, she lies, so discriminate accordingly.”

Sarah laughed. “Will do.” She checked her watch. “I don’t mean to run out on you two, but I have a four o’clock consultation across town, and if I don’t leave now, traffic will triumph. The office is amazing,” she said, turning to Emory. “Thank you for the brief tour.”

“Yeah, sorry it got cut short with all that smooching,” Lucy interjected.

Emory crossed her arms and gave Lucy the full power of the Arctic stare before focusing her attention on Sarah. “I’ll call you later and we can make plans for the zoo on Saturday.”

Sarah nodded, met her eyes knowingly, and then turned. “Good-bye, Lucy. I hope we see each other again soon.”

“Count on it. If we both work on her, she’ll actually let us be friends.”

“Deal.” Sarah waved and rounded the corner smiling.

Lucy shook her head in mock disapproval. “You are such a dog,” she muttered to Emory. “At the office, really?”

“Shut up.”

*

The weather was wonderful on Saturday, and in Emory’s opinion, the zoo was the perfect place to spend the afternoon.

If only she had gotten to go.

“We can wait, push the trip back until late afternoon so you can make it,” Sarah had said over the phone, several hours earlier.

“I don’t know how long this will take. I’m really sorry, but I think you should go ahead without me.”

Silence. Emory could sense the disappointment emanating through the phone, but she was at a loss for how to fix the situation. She felt horrible about having to bow out of what would have been a great time with Sarah and Grace, but truth be told, she saw no other way. An hour before they were supposed to head out for their zoo trip, she’d been sideswiped with a call from the IT department that three separate offices were offline. Dead in the water. While there weren’t many releases scheduled to go out on a weekend, there were a few key clients that would be upset at the drop. She’d have to spend the afternoon smoothing things over personally if they were to have any hope of holding on to the accounts.