Jake doesn't matter. What about Andrew?

Snow fell heavily outside. The commercially-designed building did its best to conceal the howling wind outside, but it could only do so much. Andy Cowall sat nervously at his desk. His phone was laying on his desk face up so he could see any notifications or calls, but the screen was black. Katie's navy blue cat ear headband lay beside it. She had led it in his hotel room when she...

He tapped on his phone, telling himself that he wanted to know the time, but he really wanted to see if there was a text or missed call. It was 9:03 in the morning, only one minute since he had last checked, and there were no new notifications either.

He let out an anxious sigh and tried to busy his mind with work. His email inbox was open on his workstation computer. There were dozens of unread emails that he needed to get through, but he just couldn't focus. His messages had built up over the last week because he had found himself so fixated on... other things, but he had set up an automated reply informing anyone who tried to reach him that he'd be out of the office for the week. So he had at least until Monday or Tuesday to respond before anyone got too upset. No one would expect him to reply on a Saturday. Hell, no one would probably see his responses until Monday anyway. It removed any potential urgency from the task, making it nearly impossible to focus on.

He tapped his phone again: 9:05, no notifications. He looked past his monitor at Katie's desk. It was vacant, haunting, with everything neat and tidy in its place, exactly how she left it before their trip.

Before he had gone too far and fucked everything up.

He missed her. He was starting to think that he even loved her. What had started as a plot to gain some sexy, fuckable eye-candy at the office had quickly mutated into finding himself a Carmella of his own.

Even though it had been less than two days since he last saw her, since their mind-blowing lovemaking in his hotel room, the thought of losing her made him sick. He couldn't sleep, he couldn't eat, he couldn't enjoy himself... He didn't even understand how it happened. How had she gone from calling out his name in ecstasy to ghosting him in a matter of hours? Had she figured it out? Had Martin messed up the last video?

Questions like that had plagued his mind for the entirety of the flight back. He had half expected to see a lineup of officers waiting to arrest him when he deplaned. That wasn't entirely unheard of amongst the patrons of the conference, but he and Martin had been so careful. They covered their tracks, they put in fail-safes and security measures. Even if Katie had an inkling that something was wrong, there'd be no proof. There'd be nothing to tie him to what they had done, nothing except for the mad ramblings of an adulterous slut — or at least that's how she would be perceived.

He picked up her headband and looked at it longingly. If she was an adulterous slut, it was because of his meddling, but she was more than that. She was better than that.

Martin couldn't give any explanation either. Andy asked him a million times if something strange happened during the last video, if Katie got interrupted watching the video, but Martin just said everything went without a hitch. Carmella brought her to the speakeasy after the salon, and Martin showed her the video there. No distractions, no interruptions. He didn't have any reason to lie, right?

Andy sighed in a futile attempt to regulate his emotions. He looked at his phone again. 9:08. Where was she? It wasn't like her to be late. Andy couldn't help but feel like he had been set up, like any moment a group of police officers would walk through the door, or a well-dressed man with a camera and a microphone would come in to interview him like an episode of Dateline. But still, he held out hope.

Should he text her? He opened up his phone and looked at their conversation. It was full of messages that he had sent Thursday night, the night that she had vanished. The last few were a different color, indicating that they hadn't gone through, and for that, he was happy. He had written them later in the night when the **** had loosened his senses and he said some really embarrassing things. He didn't want to be reminded of what he said and instead his eyes rested on the message she had sent last night.

"Can we talk? Maybe at the office? Tmrw 9AM?"

Andy hadn't been expecting a text from her, but he couldn't deny that his heart fluttered when her name popped up on his screen.

Despite all the emotions and questions tumbling around his head, Andy kept his reply stoic and succinct, "Of course."

So there he was, in the office on a weekend, waiting for... well, he wasn't quite sure. He had some hope, but he also couldn't quell the cynical side of his psyche. Why was she so late? Was she just toying with him now? Was he going to leave the office in a set of handcuffs? He didn't know, but he didn't want to wait for nothing. He began typing out a message to see where she was, but he halted at the sound of the office front door opening.

Cold winter air rushed into the office like it was seeking refuge from the very weather that birthed it. Andy looked up to see who came in with it and his heart skipped when he saw her. And despite the fact she was completely covered by her figure-hugging parka, her leggings, and her knee-high boots, despite the fact her long brown hair was a mess and littered with large white snowflakes, despite the fact that he still didn't know her intentions, the sight of her convinced Andy of divinity on earth.

"Hi boss," she said meekly and punctuated it with a small sniffle, no doubt a result of the frigid cold weather.

"Hi," Andy replied softly. He didn't know what to say. Since she texted him, he had run the scenario through his mind many times and he had come up with a plethora of options (most of which started with "Don't you agree"), but now that the moment was here, he was at a loss for words. He tried reading her face, searching for any emotion — anger, happiness... arousal — but he could only glean that she looked uncomfortable about the situation. He completely missed the two coffee cups she was holding until she set them down on the little table by the door so she could take off her boots and jacket, but he felt a glimmer of hope rise within his chest when he finally noticed them. Whether she brought them because of her conditioning or as a symbolic olive branch (or even both), Andy knew it meant good things for him.

When Katie removed her jacket, he noticed another feeling rise within him, but this one primarily affected his cock. He could feel himself stiffen and strain against the confines of his pants as he ogled her in her outfit of choice. He had seen her wear less, and he had even seen her in something significantly sluttier, but it was the symbolic nature of this outfit that really did him in - whether or not she was aware of the symbolism.

Before their trip to the convention where she hung on his arm dressed like a sexed-up tart, before he had compelled her to wear sexy outfits at the office, and before he had convinced her that it was OK to let him appreciate how sexy she was, Katie occasionally wore a blouse that he absolutely hated. It was light blue and so horribly baggy that it hid any of her qualities that got her hired in the first place. It fit so badly that at first he thought it was a men's shirt, but upon further inspection (during the many days he had loathingly stared at her blue body armor), he realized it really was a women's blouse, just horribly sized. She didn't wear it often, in fact she really only wore it immediately after he was caught unabashedly leering at her, like it was some way of punishing him for admiring her beauty, and that made it even worse.

Andy had thought that blouse was a thing of the past. He imagined it hanging solemnly in her closet or sitting unceremoniously in a waste basket. And when he first spied the hint of light blue emerge from under her jacket, he briefly panicked. He momentarily forgot about the two coffees she brought.

Sure enough, when the jacket came off completely, he recognized it. She was wearing the blouse, that God-forsaken garment, but instead of hiding her exquisite rack behind the buttons, she had tied it at the front, allowing it to pillow and expose her exquisite assets. Her lacey black bra was the only thing maintaining her chest's decency, even though it did as much to display her tits as it did to conceal them. The knot of her blouse swayed to and fro as she moved, revealing the slight musculature of her tummy above the high waistline of her black athletic leggings. All together, the outfit looked like it was hastily pieced together, but still ended up showing off exactly how sexy Katie was.

She had transformed the shirt from something that covered and hid her femininity into an excuse to show off her magnificent rack.

She looked his way as she hung up her jacket and caught him gawking. A sly smile formed on her lips, giving Andy yet another surge of hope. She picked up the two coffee cups, bending at the waist as she did and providing Andy a generous view of her delectable ass.

As she turned back to him, she dropped her smile and adopted an expression of penance. "I'm sorry I'm late," she said as she padded towards him in socked feet. "It took me longer to get here from the..." She stopped, seemingly biting her tongue before reaching forward with one of the cups. "And, well, I wanted to get you this."

Andy took the cup from her hand. His eyes were locked on hers, still trying to figure out exactly what her intentions were. "Thanks," he said hesitantly. The pain of being abandoned just before the gala was still a fresh wound and his guard remained vigilant.

Katie clasped both hands around her own coffee cup. She tore her gaze away from Andy and looked down at her coffee, using her fake white nails to nervously play with the lid. "I'm also sorry that I abandoned you at the convention, and right before the gala. That I wasn't a good... employee for you."

He set his coffee down on his desk. It smelled amazing, but he wasn't sure how his body would react to caffeine at that point. "What happened?" he asked.

Katie shook her head slightly, her gaze remained fixed on her cup. "I felt so guilty about what we had done. So selfish. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to Jake, it wasn't fair to you. I didn't know what to do and I couldn't trust myself not to... Well... I decided it would be best if I just removed myself from temptation and then came clean to Jake." Once again, her speech was punctuated by a sniffle, but this time he could tell it was because she was crying.

Despite the hope radiating within him, Andy couldn't help but be cynical. "So what happened? Let me guess, he dumped you, kicked you out, and with nowhere else to go, you've come running back to me." It was hard. He could tell she was hurting, but he hurt too and he wasn't ready to let down his guard just yet.

Katie shook her head. Her eyes still downcast. "No," she choked out, "I walked in on him cheating on me with some blonde stick from work." Andy's eyes went wide, but Katie missed it. That was entirely unexpected. "I was shocked," Katie continued, "I felt irate, I felt betrayed, I know that's ironic, but I also felt... relief." With that, she looked up from her cup and deep into Andy's eyes. Mascara-stained tears ran down her face, but she didn't look sad or upset. She looked happy.

"Relief?" Andy echoed.

Katie smiled and nodded. She sniffed again. "Yes, because I realized that I didn't care. I didn't care that he was fucking someone else, and that's something you want to care about when it comes to your partner." She set her coffee cup down on Andy's desk and approached him slowly. "And, well, Andrew... I'd care if it was you." She was right in front of him, her legs nearly straddling his as she looked down on him in his seated position. Their eyes were locked. Andy couldn't believe this was happening. He had come into this prepared for a million different scenarios with lines to say, compulsions to give, but she was here, choosing him of her own volition.

"So I'm here, begging for your forgiveness, and wondering if we could ever be more than just a boss and his employee."

Andy stammered, "You mean you want to be my girlfriend?"

Katie's smile widened. She turned away briefly to grab her cat ear headband from the desk, and placed it on her head. "We can decide on a title later," she said. She reached her manicured hand out to grab his tie and gave it a soft tug to prompt him to stand up. Once he did, she wrapped her arms around his waist, looked up at him and said, "But I think we both would be happier if that was the case.

"Don't you agree?"

The End

**

From the authour:

Hey,

Thanks for reading and sticking through this. I'm sorry the ending isn't particularly sexy, but I can only think of writing a sex scene here to make that happen, and I'm not really a fan of writing those and it wouldn't change anything.

I have a small epilogue in the works that will hopefully be out within a week, and I might add some other scenes here and there, but keep your expectations low.

My plan with this story is to go through the whole thing and polish it, add scenes, change things that become inconsistent later on, and eventually post it on other sites.

There will be an AMA after this. Just post your questions in the comments of that page and I'll respond in kind.

Thanks again!

Checker Splash