It'd been a week since Joe had stopped by her desk to harass her.
Biting her lip, Em looked down the hall at his office. He knew. Somehow, he knew she'd gone out with Ben and washed his hands of her.
Her throat closed with the acrid taste of regret. Leaning over, she reached into her bottom drawer and pulled out her collage, spreading it on her desk.
The last time she'd had it out, she'd realized the man she'd pinned to it looked like Joe. She hadn't looked at it since. She hadn't replaced the man with a picture of someone who looked like Ben, either.
And she wasn't going to.
A week wasn't very long, but it'd never taken her very long to make life decisions. Some things were evident, like the fact that she'd royally bollocksed things with Joe.
Was it too late to fix things?
She looked down the hall and then back at her collage. Turning to her computer, she opened up the company website, printed the picture of Joe from the roster, and cut it out in the shape of a heart. She glued it to the top, and then she stapled it for good measure.
There. She studied her handiwork, already feeling better. Now she just had to do something to get him back.
She knew what that was, too.
Determined, she went to Summer's office. Her friend was turned around, staring out the window. Em knocked on the open door. "Summer? Are you busy?"
She whirled around in her chair. "Of course not. Come in."
Em stepped inside and closed the door. She frowned as she really looked at the other woman. "You look different."
"At least you didn't say I look awful." Summer put a hand on the colorful scarf she'd been wearing all the time lately. "I just have a lot on my mind."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I don't even want to think about any of it. I've been doing too much of that, and it's making me tired." She smiled wryly. Then she gestured to her. "You look like you're on a mission. Have you come to your senses about Joe?"
She winced. "Was it that obvious?"
"Only if you have eyes."
"Point made." Em nodded. "So are you willing to help? I need to go shopping."
"Shopping?" Her friend perked up. "What sort of shopping?"
"Lingerie." She pursed her lips. "And I need cake. Something utterly decadent and irresistible."
Summer lifted her purse from the floor. "I like the way you think."
"Hopefully Joe will, too." She felt a moment of uncertainty and fear.
"Lingerie, cake, and you? If he doesn't think that's a trifecta of happiness, he's not the right one for you."
"He's the right one," she said, positive about that one thing.
Summer slipped her arms through hers. "Then let's bring him to his knees."
Em armed herself to the teeth.
She shifted in her seat at the reception, pulling her sweater up to her chin, as though the people leaving work could see what she had on underneath. They couldn't-she knew this-but it didn't stop her from feeling wicked.
Sexy.
Powerful.
Summer stopped at her desk, bundled up and ready to go home. "Ready for this, Em?"
