still Monday morning, back in the office

Berry and Otto were standing at Margot's desk. Her deep brown eyes moved over Berry's face, trying to absorb what he was asking. Normally, he would have found her attention overwhelming, but he supposed he had enough on his plate between fake accounting schemes and a secret kiss with his boss' boss to keep under wraps. He was delighted to find himself able to avoid stumbling over his words or otherwise behaving like a lovesick teenager.

"The only thing is, can we keep it between us?" Berry suggested. "I don't want David telling Niall that I'm using Atrabax hours on Diapers. It's complicated."

Margot bit her bottom lip in worry. Berry remained unaffected. This really was impressive.

"But, how am I supposed to work on Otto's account without David noticing?" she asked.

Berry scanned the creative room. Martin was at the next desk, but his eyes were closed, and music spilled out of his earbuds. He doubted the kid was awake. Still, Berry lowered his voice to a whisper.

"Could you do it after-hours?"

She considered that. It's not like she had anything going on in her personal life. It wouldn't hurt to make a little extra money. Her eyes flicked toward David's empty desk. He was upstairs bootlicking Niall's ego as usual. If they could make sure he didn't find out, she supposed it would be possible.

"How would you pay me?"

Otto stepped in with a (baseless) reassurance. "We'll figure it out. Don't worry about that. How's this, I'll buy you lunch and tell you what I need so you can get started tonight."

She looked at Berry for confirmation, but his phone had pinged, and he was gazing at it, a red flush creeping up out of his shirt collar.

"I need to..." he trailed off and left the room.

***

Back at his desk, Berry's index finger hesitated over the phone screen, unsure how to answer Allegra's email.

He hadn't wanted to tell Otto everything, so he'd understated the story dramatically. What had really happened was:

Berry had been high on adrenaline and feeling good about himself after his successful speech. When Allegra had led him into the stairwell and up to her office, he'd felt a curious absence of his usual anxiety. In fact, he'd felt an unfamiliar calm. He'd felt -- he could only explain it to himself in these terms -- sure of his power.

This was an unusual feeling for Berry. He almost never felt sure of anything. Certainly not of his own, clear, simple, virile masculinity. This sense of calm surety had hardened as Allegra closed her office door and stalked toward him. She was speaking about budgets, but her pupils were dilated, and her fingers were pulling pins from her hair so that it fell around her shoulders. She made the letters SOW sound and feel like SEX.

He didn't think Berenice had ever looked at him like that. Openly hungry. This woman was powerful and needy at the same time. It was a heady combination.

After that, he didn't think at all.

By the time she'd moved directly in front of him, looked up at him, her lips parted and shiny, he'd already given in. To her. To himself. To the ill-advised stupidity of the situation. In the back of his mind, he knew he was inviting fate -- that this wouldn't be a clean and simple thing. But he'd felt powerless to prevent it. And so he hadn't.

Now, he had a decision to make (he thought). Allegra wanted to see him for lunch, which he assumed might mean sex. And this was the fork in the road:

A. Choose sex -- she was an attractive, powerful person who, let's face it, held his career in her hands. As long as he kept her happy, it was reasonable to think he might get both his career and some physical needs met.

B. Choose virtue -- he could decline her invitation, avoid her, and hope she wasn't the type to get vindictive. Go back to normal. Of course, there was his marriage to think of, but virtue having already been sullied somewhat, was there any point not risking it further?

Berry sat back in his chair, hopelessly torn. There was also his creative accounting project to consider. While he worked to get the legitimate documentation from Atrabax, it would be helpful to keep Allegra distracted.

He nodded to himself and replied:

Okay.