Decline, but aim to meet Ruby afterwards

You thank her. The words come out quieter than you intended.

“Appreciate it, Ruby. Really. I will handle the meeting. But the drink after sounds good either way.”

She gives you a small, knowing smile, the kind that says she sees more than you are saying, then pushes up from the chair and heads back toward the HR side of the floor. Her cycling-toned frame disappears around the corner and the space feels emptier for it.

You turn back to the folder Cheryl left, but the numbers blur. The hard-on you have been carrying since Natasha turned away from you this morning has not eased. If anything the brief exchange with Cheryl, the memory of her lean body and that smug little challenge, has only made it worse. You shift in the chair, try to adjust without being obvious, and fail. The thick length of you presses insistently against the front of your trousers, a constant, frustrating reminder that the day has barely started and you are already wound tight.