“Not rewrite. Refine. You’ve got the meat in there. It just needs a little subtle, strategic horn tooting. If you don’t like what I do, you can go back to what you have.”

Sierra exhaled loudly, nodding. “Have at it. If you really want to try, I’m open to changes. I trust you.”

The way her eyes pierced into him with that statement felt suddenly personal. Too personal for comfort. He’d fought hard to become what she needed on the job since the day she’d hired him, had given it more effort than just about anything, because, as his history showed, he could fuck things up with the best of them, and he was loathe to let her down. He strived to be her go-to guy at work, but anything beyond that would be unwise on her part.

“I’ll make a copy,” Cole said.

He launched out of his chair and headed into the front room, where the copier was. He flipped the lights on as he entered, stuffed the packet of paper in the copier, set it to duplicate the whole bundle, and leaned against the wall to wait, relieved to have a couple of walls between them. Normally he enjoyed being with Sierra, working with her, solving problems at her side, but everything felt different today. Their normal had been shot to shit.

The copy machine was behind the desk, which was seldom used and more for show and storing their various promotional pieces. Sierra’s friend Hayden, who owned an interior design company, had helped her set up the rectangular room, originally a living room, to welcome customers and potential customers.

It was cooler in here due to an ancient HVAC system that didn’t distribute heat evenly. A relief today, between the air temperature of the office and the underlying tension between him and Sierra. She was itching to ask about his mom and probably his brothers too, he was sure, but he needed to keep it business as usual.

He let out a scoff, because his thoughts Saturday at the reception, his dreams last night, they were anything but business as usual. You’d think his mom’s health emergency would be enough to override his lust for his boss, but it seemed his lack of sleep and the resulting edginess had only made him more incapable of getting her out of his head.

Once the copier stopped, he took out the new pages, found a stapler in one of the desk drawers, and stapled the packet. He picked up the originals and headed back into the office.

“Anything else?” he asked. It was a little early to leave for the Draper site, but that’s exactly what he was going to do.

“Tell me about your mom. How’s she feeling? When are they moving her out of ICU?”