Throughout the rest of the week, the flirting continued.

As flirtatious as Marnie could be.

Jordan would compliment her outfits and she would grunt an indifferent thanks.

Progress was made though. On Thursday when he came to work in an almost purple black shirt with no tie on and a new haircut, Marnie said, "I'd break office policy for you in the backroom."

On Friday, they arrived at work together.

He walked her into our cubicle and watched her with affection. Seriously. This man was head over heels. It was all over his face.

He leaned down to give her a kiss but before he could make contact, she turned around, flicking him in the face with her hair. "Not at work," she said.

His lips pulled into a thin line, mild embarrassment, as he nodded and scurried off to his office.

Marnie sat down in her chair and thanked me for the coffee I'd left on her desk. Her glasses fogged over as she took a sip and when they cleared, I noted she was watching me.

"What?" She snapped.

"Oh," I realised I'd been staring at her. "Nothing. You just seem. . . different."

She shrugged and turned on her computer. She did seem different. Her bangs weren't as blunt. Her face was more exposed, like she'd had them thinned out and her make up was lighter.

As she watched her computer screen, lips pursed with boredom, her stare slowly moved towards me again. Her shoulders slumped and she shook her head with puzzlement.

"Max? Alright. Yeah I slept over at his place last night. He's not as disappointing as he behaves. The man should have more confidence."

I waved my hands back and forth. "I'm good. I don't— don't tell me. Glad you're happy. That's— yep."

She shrugged and we proceeded to work with less sharing. Marnie and Lucas would be good friends. Milly too. There's that shared need to discuss things that I valued as private.

I'm a man. I enjoy sex - albeit it's been a while since I had it - but still. I masturbate. I'm a dude in those aspects. I just missed that trait that allows me to blurt out I'm going to beat off to whoever might or might not want to know.

If Marnie wanted to tell me all about her life, she would tell me whether I wanted to hear it or not.

Jordan came back one hour later. I was in the middle of drafting up a new letter head design, per his request, as he leaned on the wall and absentmindedly twisted a pin in the cork board. It held up a photo of Marnie's parrot.

His stop ins had increased since he and Marnie started seeing each other.

He smiled at her, she didn't frown at him, and then he looked at me. "I have a Christmas vacation this December. I'm going overseas. Somewhere warm. Do me a favour and browse for flight and accommodation packages. Tropical. Like uh, The Maldives or something."

She looked at him with bored puzzlement. "We just had sex, Jordan. Don't invite me on Christmas vacation."

He narrowed his stare and lightly laughed. "We might have had sex more by the time Christmas comes around."

She sighed and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I would hope so."

That was all he needed it seemed because he looked at me and said, "search for two person packages."

Did the packages even come for less than two? I suppose singles vacationed alone too. He left me to it so I opened google and started going in search of different offers and options and locations.

I clicked through pictures of gorgeous beaches and blue skies. The activities covered everything from jungle adrenaline to scuba diving. Safari animal encounters and mountain climbing.

Each picture I passed felt like an opportunity slipping past me.

Abby's words rang through my head. Jordan's orders. Amalia's advice on balance.

Yeah, people need a job in order to travel. But Mom and Dad had told me more than once that if we wanted to travel, they would help because they firmly believed in experience before settling. They weren't old when we were born. But they did a lot in their early twenties.

I stood up, abrupt and full of adrenaline. "I quit," I said to Marnie.

She stared at me from her seat while I started turning around in circles, looking for things to collect and pack into a box.

I didn't have a lot of personal belongings here. Why the hell was I so dull and boring?

"I would follow you," Marnie stated. "But this job just got somewhat more interesting. But you go girl."

I laughed at how disinterested she seemed. I was going to miss her the most. But that didn't stop me from leaving the cubicle and going into Jordan's office.

His office wasn't bad. A decent view. Photos of his family and a comfortable sofa along the wall. His desk was large and occupied a better computer than I was provided with.

He looked startled to see me bursting in.

"I quit. This job. You're a great boss but I'm starting to understand why the windows don't open."

He turned around, slow, and peered behind him for a moment. When he spun back around in his chair, his eyes were narrow and uncertain.

I probably wasn't making a lot of sense. But I'd never done anything like this before and I was just sort of rolling with it.

"You have to give two weeks notice to resign from this position. It's in the contract," he wasn't being an asshole, just informative. Like he didn't want me to face legal trouble.

But it kind of killed my spontaneous mission to trash the job and leave. "But I want to quit now. What would happen if I just left and didn't come back?"

He leaned back in his seat and seemed super stumped. "I wouldn't have an assistant for one. And you would lose your last pay check."

The pay check didn't bother me so much. I did feel bad about walking out on Jordan though.

It wasn't his fault that he was able to go on a beautiful vacation and the entire thing triggered me so hard.

He scratched the space beneath his chin, thoughtful, while I stood there. My adrenaline was wearing off and I considered just going back to my desk. But he held up his finger and picked up the phone.

"Take a seat and give me a minute."

So I did. And an hour later, he had a replacement willing to step in immediately. He'd called the work recruitment agency and asked for someone that was in search of urgent work.

"It'll fill the position for tomorrow onwards," Jordan said after the phone call. I sat, my leg bounced up and down as I listened. "If the person is shit it'll give me time to find a replacement. You're a good assistant. It'll be a shame to lose you."

"I need out," I said, feeling sort of bad. "I just need something different."

"I get it," he nodded. "Finish the rest of the day for me and I'll write up your last pay check and a reference."

"Really?" I stood up.

"Yeah. It's no sweat."

When I got back to the cubicle, I thought about thanking Marnie.

Jordan wasn't an awful boss but his exceptionally good mood must have come from somewhere. She watched me sit down and cracked a smile-less laugh.

"That dramatic exit went well, huh?"

The next night, Saturday, I stood in the apartment at seven and heard the soft tap of the front door.

Date time.

I pathetically gave myself one last look in the mirror. I was wearing a fitted t-shirt and a pair of sweats. And, just for good humour, a pair of odd socks.

I opened the front door and there she stood. Amalia.

She had an overnight bag on her shoulder and looked puzzled for a moment as to why the apartment was so dark.

She was wearing a pair of leggings and a hoodie that was several sizes too big. But it did look comfortable and that was the point. I took the bag from her shoulder and gestured her inside.

"How are you?" She smiled, slipping past me. She had this incredible scent.

Sweet spice. It carried into my nose and heated me up.

"Uh not bad," I closed the door. We'd been texting back and forth all week but I hadn't mentioned quitting my job yesterday. "I quit my job."

She stopped just before she reached the end of the book shelf separating the living room and the front door. Her mouth fell open. "You did?"

"Your dad fill that position?"

She shook her head, grinning. Her dark brown waves were pulled back in a braid but tendrils fell around her heart shaped face. She left me sort of breathless.

I watched as she turned around and walked into the living room.

That was when her mouth fell open for a second time. Her gaze became wide and she looked around with awe and appreciation.

The idea not to do movies because it was too intimate got abandoned. It wasn't movies. But I had definitely gone for intimate.

Unintentionally of course. I just got carried away.

Sheets were draped from the ceiling where I'd pinned them up. They fell like a tent around a mattress on the floor.

Pillows and throws created a cloud of comfort. On top of the make shift tent were fairy lights. They travelled around the top and edges, falling to the floor and creating a pool of glow around the outside of the tent.

It was open enough that we could sit inside and watch television.

"I was going to get us tickets to the baseball game. But I should've known that last minute wasn't going to happen. So I had to settle for watching it on television instead."

"This is the coolest thing, ever," she wandered from one side of the tent to the other, little coos of appreciation.

I knew her artistic self would find the value in what I'd arranged.

The shadows of light flittered across her soft skin. She glowed.

"Um, please don't think that the mattress is. . . suggestive," I winced and felt hot around the neck and cheeks as she peered up at me through her long thick lashes. "It's just comfortable. But definitely not suggestive."

"It's fine," she bit down on a grin. "It looks super comfortable."

She looked up and then her gaze went past me and she gasped once again.

The kitchen countertop was covered in dessert toppings. Candies and chocolates. There were glasses to serve sundaes in. Different flavours. There were sauces and sprinkles.

"A candy bar?" She clutched her chest and dropped her lip. She looked as if she was going to sob with delight. "Are we making our own sundaes?"

"That was the plan," I dropped her bag beside the tent and slipped my hands into my sweat pockets.

Wow. I loved how happy she looked. As if her entire week had been made.

"So, what did I need to bring dressier clothes for?" She asked.

The room was dark. The lights, while magical, were dim. But her gaze was bright and made me feel alive.

"I just suggested it incase you wanted to go out for dinner or do something different. Ya know, incase this was a bit much," I pointed at the mattress.

LI swallowed as she skipped a step closer and stood in front of me.

"This is perfect," she murmured.

Her hands came up and held the sides of my neck as she leaned in and pressed a soft kiss on my cheek.

But it was low and close to my mouth. She lingered for a moment and I could have turned into it.

I could have kissed her lips with mine and I wanted to. But I didn't. I wanted her to call the shots.

She stepped back and clasped her hands behind her back, stepping up on to her tiptoes as she rocked. "So dessert first and dinner later?"

"Definitely."

We sat in the tent. The fairy lights on top of the sheet made dots of shadow on the inside of our fortress.

Amalia's legs were hidden under the comforter. So were mine. Our ice creams were creative and enormous. I wasn't sure if I would need dinner afterwards.

Hers was vanilla with oreos smashed into it. As well as Maltese's and chocolate sauce drizzled on top. Three wafer sticks came out of her ice cream mountain and rainbow sprinkles were adding some colour.

Mine was chocolate with popping candy and M&Ms on top. Chocolate sauce created a hard shell on top and tiny marshmallows made it look fun.

"Okay but what about The Wizard of Oz?"

I shook my head and Amalia gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Max, it's a classic. Literally. Everyone has seen it."

We were meant to be focusing on the game but conversation distracted us. I knew she loved the sport so I kept reminding her to watch it and not feel obligated to upkeep conversation.

But whenever we fell into quiet, she thought of a new topic. The current one was what movies I have or haven't seen. She didn't like the fact that I wasn't up to speed.

"Judy Garland - Dorothy - died of an overdose. Horrible right?"

I nodded in agreement, stirring the ice cream in my cup. "That is awful. I should watch it huh? Catch up."

"It astounds me that you haven't seen it. I mean, didn't your parents ever put it on?"

I shrugged. I really wasn't sure. "Mom and Dad sat us through a lot of their favourite movies but I spent more time reading if I'm honest."

"That's definitely not a terrible alternative."

"So, favourite telenovela?"

"Rebelde," she said. "It's like The Breakfast Club meets Argentina boarding school drama. A group that don't get along form a pop band and it's super dramatic and wild but fantastic and I love it."

"We'll have to watch one together some time."

She looked at me. "I'd love that."

After we finished our ice creams, we decided to lie down, our stomachs were sore from the sugar overload.

We had a mountain of pillows behind us so we could still watch the television. But our talking hadn't slowed down. We just checked in on the score once in a while.

"So," she said. "Where are these date strings I was promised?"

I laughed, nervous, as she raised an expectant brow. She really was too beautiful.

I felt her hand under the comforter, her fingers danced on top of mine and then I opened my palm and let her lace them together.

"Max," she said, a bit more serious than before. "I know you're a gentleman, don't stop being one, but you don't have to be so afraid to be direct with me. I really like you. Holding my hand or . . . giving me a kiss isn't going to upset me. Unless it's a matter of guilt?"

I stared up at the tent ceiling and swallowed. The lights created a dim burnt orange glow.

Guilt hadn't even been on my mind for the last few days. I shook my head and could feel the familiar niggle coming on.

The guilt for not feeling guilty.

I leaned up on an elbow, put a hand on her nape and just caught the surprised smile she wore as I leaned in and pressed her lips to mine.

Fire. Heat. A song of sweet undoing settled in my veins.

There was no tongue. Her lips were soft and gentle on mine but it was a rush of perfection as I leaned back and looked at her relaxed features and closed eyes.

Her lips remained in a pout for a second after I'd pulled away and I felt all blood rush south.

So I laid down again and found her hand once more.

"It's not guilt," I watched her.

She looked dazed as she touched her lips with her fingertips. Could I really have that effect on her?

"I just want to do things right. I know a lot of people have sex without getting to know each other first and that's fine but I want to know you first. I think there's something special about being with a girl, looking down at her and knowing who she is and what she's about and appreciating her soul just as much as her body."

She turned on to her side and smiled, nibbling on her bottom lip. She didn't have to make it so hard. "You have to be one of the sexiest men I have ever met. Soul and body."