Zack nearly tripped on the landing. “What?”

“I had a feeling you weren’t checking the boards. Now that you’re such a rock star, you should start. John’s called you almost every single night this week, on top of your usual clientele. Even the seasoned vets don’t talk to their regulars every day. Ergo, you’re in the lead.”

“Huh. I guess that’s true.”

“Keep it up, and you’ll get a bonus at the end of the month.”

“Oh, right, I forgot about that.”

“Yeah, because you’ve never come close to the top before.”

They reached their floor and entered Murmur Inc.’s office, splitting off to their separate cubicles. When Zack passed the doorway to the break room, he peeked in and saw a whiteboard with all the employees’ names listed by rank. He scanned the numbers, and sure enough, his name was right at the top. He’d never been number one at anything before, except maybe most absences when he was in high school.

Zack swaggered away as pride kindled within him. Several of his colleagues glanced at him as he passed and then did double takes. Zack had expected to feel self-conscious—he’d never dressed up for work before—but he quickly realized the looks were far from ridiculing. One young woman he’d never spoken to flushed when she spotted him and then pretended to dig through her purse until he passed by. He glanced back and caught her checking out his ass. He winked, and she scurried away with her head down.

By the time he reached his cubicle, he was almost vibrating with anticipation. The thought of talking to John always excited him, but dressing for the job had done wonders for putting him in the mood. Even with the confidence boost, however, his nerves were tattered. This was going to be his first professional conversation with John since they’d agreed to act like everything was normal. Much as he was looking forward to it, he couldn’t help but feel anxious. John had a way of crawling under his skin and lighting fires. Now that Zack knew what John looked like, he didn’t stand a chance. He had to play it cool.

He took a seat at his desk. His trousers hugged him like a second skin, stretching tightly over his groin. He might as well have been wrapped in cellophane.

“So much for leaving something to the imagination,” he muttered.

He logged in to the computer system and checked his queue. As he’d thought, he had a request waiting from John. Just reading his name was enough to make Zack’s pulse quicken.

He checked the time. It was fifteen minutes before he was supposed to call. He shrugged and dialed the provided number. It would take the switchboard a minute to connect him anyway. Hopefully, John wouldn’t care if he was early.