“No, don’t.” He turned off his computer, and his expression shifted from annoyed to concerned. “You’re not bothering me. Congratulations on your first real date.”

  “Thank you.” I stopped pacing the floor. “Do you think I’ll make a fool out of myself?”

  “Not at all. Kissing is easy, and I’m sure he might be just as nervous as you.”

  “How? He’s a senior.”

  “He’s also on the chess team.” He smiled. “I doubt he has that much more experience than you.”

  I tried not to laugh, but I couldn’t help it. “Okay, okay, fine. Maybe I’m blowing this out of proportion.”

  “Just a bit.” He smiled again. “Did you tell Jonathan about the prom yet?”

  I gave him a “You’ve got to be shitting me” look, and he laughed.

  “Stupid question.” He held up his hands in a playful surrender. “You’ll be fine, though. Trust me.”

  “Can you show me how?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.” I looked right into his eyes. “Can you show me how to kiss?”

  “Absolutely not. Jonathan would have me murdered.”

  “Jonathan isn’t here right now.” I walked over to his door and locked it, watching his eyes widen as I stepped closer to him. “You said I could always ask you for anything, no matter what. You promised.”

  “I should’ve added fine print.” He stood up from his chair and started to walk away from me, but then he sighed. “Okay, fine, but this never happened. Are we clear?”

  I nodded.

  He remained silent for a little while longer, and then he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

  “The first thing you’re supposed to do is shut your eyes.”

  “If I shut my eyes, you’ll leave the room.”

  “I honestly wish I’d thought of that first.” He smiled. “I won’t, though. Close your eyes, Hales.”

  I squinted, not trusting him.

  “All the way,” he said, waiting for me to oblige.

  “Okay.” He placed his hands on my waist and pressed his forehead against mine. “He’ll probably pull you close like this. And then he’ll try to position your head, so it lines up with his.”

  I felt him tilting my chin up with his fingertips.

  “Then he’ll press his lips against yours, and depending on how good of a kisser he is...” His voice trailed off and the next thing I knew, his mouth was pressed against mine, and he was kissing me.

  And I didn’t want him to stop.

  He tightened his grip on my waist and slid his tongue against mine, silently directing me to follow his lead. I wasn’t sure why my heart was racing uncontrollably, but I kept my eyes shut as he kissed me even harder.

  Just when I thought I was getting the hang of it, there was a knock at the door.

  “Corey? Hayley?” It was Jonathan.

  We immediately tore away from each other.

  “Yeah?” Corey walked over to the door and opened it. “What’s up?”

  “The door was locked,” Jonathan said, holding up a fork. “I ordered Chinese. Want any?”

  “Be right there.”

  “Hayley?” Jonathan looked over at me. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” I smiled, immediately changing the subject. “Did you get Chinese for me, too?”

  “You don’t like Chinese, so I got you a salad.” He smiled back. “Are you sure you’re okay? Your cheeks are red as hell.”

  “I’m more than okay. I promise.”

  A FEW WEEKS LATER, I stood on my doorstep and kissed Bryan Landon, wishing like hell we’d just ended this night after the dance. It was the rotten cherry on top of a sour night, and the last thing I wanted to do was kiss him, but I stood there under the moonlight, keeping my eyes shut as his mouth moved lazily over mine.

  “Are you going to invite me inside?” he whispered.

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “This is my brother’s place...” And you’ve been an asshole to me tonight.

  “So?” He smiled. “We can be quiet.”

  “I don’t think so.” I forced a smile. “Thank you for a good night. I had a good time.”

  “Well, how about we make it a great night, and you come back to my place?”

  I tried not to roll my eyes. “No, that’s okay.”

  “Ugh. Really?” He stepped back. “What a waste of time. I should’ve known better than to take a sophomore to prom.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means I expected something in return for allowing you to go the prom before your time.” He had the audacity to look like he was hurt. “You should at least suck my cock to show you’re grateful.”

  I didn’t bother responding to that. I walked into the house and slammed the door, heading straight to my suite, halfway hoping Jonathan had broken his promise not to wait up for me.

  He didn’t.

  He never knocked on my door.

  I collapsed onto my bed, still in my bright purple dress, wiping away tears every few seconds.

  I should’ve known. Why didn’t I see this before?

  Rolling over on my side, I pulled out my phone and noticed Bryan had sent me two texts.

  Bryan: Was that a no to showing me you’re grateful?

  Bryan: How much longer do I need to sit in the limo and wait for you?

  I sighed and started to type a response, but a text from Corey appeared on my screen.

  Corey: How was your date?

  I saved my “You’re such an asshole” text to Bryan as a draft and texted Corey instead.

  Me: Awful.

  Corey: I don’t believe that. Tell me the truth.

  Me: It. Was. Awful. (That’s the honest truth.)

  Corey: What went wrong?

  Me: Everything...Too much to text.

  Corey: Then open your door.

  I stared at the words on my screen for a few seconds before letting them register in my mind. Then I slid out of bed and looked at myself in the mirror before cracking open the door.

  Corey was standing in the hallway with a cupcake in his hand, holding it out for me. “Jonathan told me to wait up for you since you made him promise not to. He’s downtown waiting for me to tell him you made it home okay.”

  “You can tell him I’m okay.” I opened the door, and he came in, taking a seat at my desk.

  He took out his phone and sent Jonathan a short text. Then he looked up at me. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No...” I wiped a few stray tears away as I climbed into bed again. “Not really.”

  “Okay. We won’t talk about it.”

  He started to ask me about other things, and before I knew it I was laughing, and he ended up in bed next to me. I thought he was going to kiss me again, but he pulled the covers over me and told me goodnight.

  Still, his kiss from weeks before had already stamped itself into my memories for years to come. I'd promised myself I would hold him a little tighter, kiss his lips a little harder, if he ever wanted to kiss me again, but he never let himself get that close to me after that.

  COREY: YESTERDAY

  (The Past)

  Cambridge, Massachusetts

  I ROLLED OVER IN BED and looked at the time. Four o'clock in the afternoon.

  Shaking my head, I sat up and picked up the empty strawberry cartons Hayley left on my floor the night before. She'd tricked me into another seven-long hour conversation about absolutely nothing, and while the new guys on our tech team wanted me to keep her and her raspy laughter out of the room while they worked, I couldn't do it.

  Ever since she'd moved in, I'd made it a point to talk to her for as long she wanted at least twice a week. I'd noticed she often mentioned not having any female friends ("My mom never taught me how to make any..."), and I didn't want her to think she was losing me as a friend just because I was working on a startup with her brother.

  Pulling on a T-shirt, I grabbed my laptop and spotted a booklet wrapped in ribbon on my desk. It was addressed to me, from Jonathan. And a gift from Jonathan was never really just a gift.

  I picked it up and carried it to the kitchen.

  "What the hell is this Jonathan?" I held it up as his eyes met mine. "What reverse psychology experiment are you trying to play today?"

  "I'm not running my next experiment until tomorrow," he said, "But good guess."

  "So, this is a genuine gift?"

  "No, it's a Zen Journal. It's supposed to help you with peace and gratefulness."

  "Okay. And you're giving this to me, because why?"

  "Because I think whenever we get bigger as Statham Industries, I'll encourage every employee to keep one. You know, create a positive, open company culture and make everyone feel like I care about their thoughts and feelings."

  I stared at him. As brilliant as his mind was, sometimes he came up with the stupidest shit.

  "Hayley liked the idea."

  "Hayley likes everything you do." I rolled my eyes. "Did you present it to any of the other guys on the team? You know, the people who will actually be working with us?"

  "See? This is exactly why you need to write in that journal, Corey." He held back a laugh. "Your negative aura is affecting me, and I've lost my appetite."

  I tossed the booklet at him. "You have plenty of time to come up with a corporate culture. If you never think of anything else, fine. But I hope you will."

  He laughed. "Fine. Will you do me a favor today?"

  "No."

  He tossed his car keys at me anyway. "Will you take Hayley to the bookstore?"

  "Why can't you do it?"

  "Because he scares off all of the guys who want to talk to me," Hayley said, stepping into the room. "That, and he's impatient."

  "I just don't understand why you need to sit in the bookstore and read twenty pages of a book before deciding if you want to buy it. And you’re too young to date, anyway. You can start when you turn thirty."

  "Okay." I shook my head. "I'll take you, Hayley. Give me twenty minutes."

  "I'll be in the car!"

  I went to my bedroom and grabbed my jacket. I looked around the room for my wallet, pushing away clothes and picking up books.

  I was about to ask Hayley and Jonathan if they'd seen it anywhere, but I spotted it next to my trashcan. It was on top of a crumpled pink note I didn't recall writing.

  I unfolded it, recognized Hayley's loopy handwriting, but she suddenly snatched it from my hands.

  "What the—" I looked at her. "What are you doing?"

  "I didn't mean to throw that away in your room. It's pretty personal."

  "Since when can't you tell me something pretty personal?"

  Her cheeks turned bright red. "This is super personal. It's different."

  "How so?"

  "It just is." She stuffed the note into her back pocket. "Bookstore?"

  "Fine." I hit the lights, and we went out to the car.

  We rode in silence for most of the trip, not speaking until we were about five miles away from the store.

  "Corey, can I ask you something?"

  "Of course."

  "Have you made love before?"

  "What?" I looked over at her. "What did you say?"

  "Have you made love before?"

  "No." I rolled my eyes. "If that's the super personal stuff on the note you've written, you were right to keep it to yourself."

  She laughed. "It isn't. Every girl in my class is talking about how amazing their boyfriends are in bed, so I just wanted to know if you'd ever done it."

  "I've done it," I said, remembering that she'd asked me about sex recently before and I'd definitely told her about it. "But it was just sex. It wasn't making love."

  "There's a difference?"

  "So, they say." I shrugged. "If it ever happens to me, I'll let you know."

  "Can I ask you something else?"

  "As long as it's a different topic."

  "It is." She smiled. "I'm doing a five-paragraph essay on friendships—not by choice, and I need you to give me your thoughts since I suck in that area."

  You don't suck in that area. "Okay, what do you need?"

  "Well, for starters, I defined the word friendship, then friend. But I think if you could tell me more about the things that make you and Jonathan so close, I could use that as my real-world example."

  "Okay." I parked the car in front of the bookstore. "That's easy."

  I told her about how Jonathan and I had the same sense of humor, same professional interests in life, but our differences were what made us better friends. He had a temper, and I was a bit more restrained. He was a guy of "I want what I want, whenever I want," and I was willing to wait to make sure it was worthwhile. Oh, and he was one of few people I trusted with everything, and vice-versa.

  "Thanks." She smiled, jotting words down on her notepad. "So, I can quote you as saying that he's the best friend you've ever had?"

  No, that would be you. "Absolutely."

  HAYLEY: TODAY

  (Present Day)

  San Francisco, California

  PLEASE DON’T ASK ME why I was late today. Please don’t ask me why I was late today.

  As I sat in front of my brother’s desk, I tried not to think about this morning’s three-hour kissing session in Corey’s car—tried not to think about the fact that his mouth was made for being attached to mine and no man had ever come close to kissing me the way he did.

  I really hope he disabled the security cameras like he said.

  I watched as Jonathan looked over the confirmation files for his honeymoon trip, double checking each flight’s time and each pilot’s flight history. Since Claire had a fear of flying, he was adamant about making me double-check every pilot’s safety record before presenting any new trip ideas to her. Hell, now that I was here, he was adamant about making me check everything he had planned regarding Claire.

  I honestly preferred working on things like this for him than forcing myself to read through endless tax and real estate documents, but I knew he’d never allow me to be his executive assistant. He claimed I “wouldn’t love him anymore” if I was exposed to everything that went into that position.

  “Okay, everything looks great.” He nodded at me. “Thank you very much. Make sure Claire gets a copy of these pilot records in the next few weeks.”

  “Will do, and you’re welcome.” I took the papers and placed them into my folder. Then I noticed I had a new text from Corey.

  COREY: I’m taking a lunch break in ten minutes. You should come sit on my face.

  HAYLEY: How romantic, Corey.

  COREY: Is that a no?

  HAYLEY: It’s an, I’ll be there in five minutes.

  I felt my cheeks reddening and noticed Jonathan was looking at me intently. He was a master at reading people’s expressions, so I knew I had to get him to put me out of his office before he could ask me why I was blushing.

  “You know,” I said, standing to my feet. “I honestly never thought that you would get married, Jonathan.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, I did come live with you once you started building this company, remember? Before I got smart and went away to college. There were a lot of women in and out of that condo back then.”

  “No, there weren’t.” He sighed, his intent gaze over. “I never brought any woman near you, and you know that.”

  “I didn’t see them, but I found all their panties underneath the couch cushions—the little mementos they left behind so you could remember how amazing the night was. They even left little notes on the inside tags—‘Last night was the best night of my life,’ ‘You’re the best lay I’ve ever had,’ and my personal favorite—Oohhh call me anytime, Jonathan. I’ll drop whatever I’m doing if it means I get to fuck you again.”

  “Get out of my office, Hayley.”

  I laughed and walked to the door. “By the way, you need to make sure you have that buyout file for your international call in a few hours.”

  “Angela briefed me on that hours ago because you weren’t here on time today. For the fourth day in a row. Care to explain why?”

  Shit. “I can be late.”

  “You can be unemployed.”

  I crossed my arms. “Are you going to be this strict with your new stepdaughters, Ashley and Caroline? Are they going to get the overprotective treatment too?”

  “You’re avoiding my question.”

  “I am.” I flipped my hair over my shoulder. “I’m also thinking about putting in a complaint to Human Resources about the CEO being excessively hard on me, so watch it.”

  “Can you at least make sure you’re on time for your dress fitting? Claire will stress out about anything wedding-related if it’s more than a second late.”

  “I’ll be there early,” I said. “I am so honored to give you and your craziness away to someone else. Have you shown her your true colors when it comes to how angry you can get, or are you saving them for later?”

  “Hayley...” He was definitely frustrated with something other than me.

  Great!

  “Mr. Statham?” Angela’s voice came over the intercom.

  “Yes?”

  “One of your security advisors is here sir. He says it’s urgent. Should I tell him to wait until you’re done speaking with Hayley?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “We’re more than done here. Send him in, please. Oh, and Angela?”

  “Yes, Mr. Statham?”

  “On little Miss Statham’s way out, could you hand her the employee policy on tardiness and order her a Cartier watch—with the biggest numbers available? Have it shipped overnight.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “You are the worst.”

  “I love you, too.”

  I stepped out of his office and let out a breath.

  He definitely doesn’t know anything.

  COREY: TODAY

  (Present Day)