“Unplug me,” I said. “And plug me back in... You know what gets me?” I spun my chair so we were facing and, carefully, removed Bo’s glasses. It was stuff like this that made people confuse us, early on, for a couple. There had been a night on the trail, with red wine and long conversation, hotel room, barefoot possibilities, when I briefly considered him. He was wholesome and unfussy and kind and there. But he wasn’t Atlas. And, despite the copious amount of wine we’d consumed, I could tell he wasn’t thinking of me when he spoke about wanting love in spite of—because of?—our eighty-hour workweeks. “There are so many single men in this town.” I used the edge of my cardigan to wipe the smudges from his lenses. Satisfied with my work, I handed them back to him. “And Wallis finds herself Blake Darley. I can’t fathom the odds.”

He adjusted his newly clean glasses on his nose. “It’s so...” he said, gaze drifting to the awful popcorn ceiling.

“Inconvenient!” I finished for him, laughing, because it was either that or cry.

Bo folded his hands neatly on the conference table, frowned at them. “For me, too.”

He was right. He’d be doing my job—and his—for the next two weeks, without an increase in pay. This was not just an inconvenience. It was an imposition. “I’ll be back in fourteen days,” I promised, nudging him with my shoulder. “I just have to figure out what in the world I am going to do in the meantime.”

“I think I have an idea. Well, I’ll borrow an idea from Wilde.” Then he straightened, and recited one of his favorites:

“‘Nay, let us walk from fire unto fire,

From passionate pain to deadlier delight,—

I am too young to live without desire,

Too young art thou to waste this summer night...’”

When he finished, I gave him a little applause, and he bowed in his swivel chair. “Are you suggesting that I go snag myself a boyfriend?”

He chuckled. “Wilde is reminding you to have some fun. In other words, he and I both think you need to get out of DC.”

“I almost was fired a minute ago. And you’re asking me to plan a vacation?”

“Fair enough.” Bo sighed. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m considering a visit back to Charleston.”

“When was the last time you were home?” I asked.