Oh, yes. Meeting. I absently looked at all the final chemistry reports, the results of which would win our company a billion dollar contract if we could secure the final round of funding for production. I could pay for it myself, but it was always a good idea to spread risk. My company had been working for years on a special film-like paper that could record the technological knowledge and code languages of the world without deteriorating. We’d gotten it to where it could survive extremes of heat and cold for, we believed, two thousand years in the event of cataclysm. Which, let’s face it, with the way we were treating the planet, was bound to happen sooner rather than later. Every government needed it. So did every corporation, to protect their knowledge and survive. But the reports on my desk weren’t my primary concern right now. “This situation with the new girl is not going to work. She can’t stay,” I said instead, leaning forward on my desk.

“I’m sorry. Excuse me?”

“The au pair,” I explained, picking up my pen and waving it dismissively. “Nanny, or whatever.”

Evan smirked.

“What is that?” I made a motion at his face.

“That’s me smiling at seeing you so ruffled.”

“Ruffled.” I stabbed the table with my pen and slid my fingers down to the point before flipping it on its end and doing the same again. Slide, flip, stick, slide, flip, stick.

“Wound up,” he elaborated.

I blinked at him. Slide. Flip. Stick.

He rolled his eyes. “You finally realized your male equipment might not be dead?”

The pen flew through the air, smacking him in the forehead. “I could fire you for that. Don’t think because I’ve known you practically my whole life that I wouldn’t.”

“Ow,” he grumbled, rubbing his forehead. “Wow. Pulling out the old firing you card, X? Things must really be hard.” He raised an eyebrow. “Pun intended.”

“Fuck you.” And he was the only one I let call me X, instead of Xavier or Monsieur Pascale. And only when it was the two of us.

“Sorry, that was crass.” He didn’t look sorry at all. “Anyway, here’s her contract and non-disclosure if you want to look at it before she signs. It just came through from the lawyer.”

I took the paperwork but stayed quiet since I was incriminating myself. I knew it was unfair to send the girl home just because I couldn’t stop the thrum that slid through my deepest core with one look at her. And now I’d admitted my weakness to Evan and confirmed all his assumptions.