Mondays were awful, and seemed to drag on and on longer than other days in the week. I felt like I was in the office all day, when in reality it was only four hours. Cameron was in a business meeting with some investors from other corporations in the city, so I was reorganizing his daily schedule around that since it was running a bit long. But my office phone started ringing tearing me from my calender.

"Cameron James's office" I said softly into my phone just like I did everyday, it felt like this phone never stopped ringing. "Avery, sweetheart" I heard my mother's voice say on the other end of the phone, making my blood run cold. "Mother, I told you not to call my office" I growled to her, hearing a gasp on the other end. "I don't wish to talk to you, goodbye" I said before slamming my phone back down. I haven't seen my mother in four years, and even after repeatedly telling her I didn't want to see or talk to her, she insisted and called or texted me daily. The phone rang once more. I swear this woman was insufferable.

"Mother, I told you not to call me here!" I growled with my voice raised into the phone, only to be greeted by a soft laugh on the other end. "That anyway to greet your brother" They said on the other end.

"Tommy!" I gasped nearly in tears hearing my brother's voice. Tommy was my older brother by four years, and has been in Iraq for over a year now. I missed him so much, that hearing his voice actually had me in tears. "Are you ok? How are you?" i asked quickly knowing he probably didn't have much time to talk on the phone. Tommy chuckled before I heard his soft voice again, "I'm fine baby sister, I'll be home soon you know" He said happily. I heard some other people talking in the background, and some loud laughter before i felt it was quiet enough for me to talk again.

"That's great Tommy! I miss you so much" I said softly, feeling the tears already rolling down my face knowing I would be seeing him soon."I miss you too, but I have to go now. I'll email you my return date" Tommy said quickly, probably having a line a mile long behind him to use the phone. "Ok, Tommy. I love you"

"I love you too" And the line went dead. I haven't spoken to Tommy in at least five months now, he often times was moving around a lot and rarely had time to write let alone call anyone. But this one phone call was enough to satisfy me enough until I saw him again. If anything actually did happen to Tommy, my mother would be the person they would notify, and she was terrible enough not to tell me if it did. Tommy would be the only reason I would ever even want to see her again, him still not knowing why I wasn't speaking to her. If Tommy ever did find out what happened six years ago, he would never speak to her either.

Cameron's meeting should be ending soon, and I know he would be starving at this point. It was way past lunchtime right now. I quickly gathered my bag and shut my light off before heading into our lobby to get his lunch for the day. "Avery, wait up!" I heard behind me and smiled when I saw Bradley running up to me. "Going on lunch?" he asked when he caught up to me. I nodded and shifted my purse on my shoulder. "Mind if I join you?" He asked walking with me to the elevator. Jack smiled at the pair of us before hitting the lobby button for the two of us.

"Not at all, I'm eating in the office though" I said softly as we made our way out into the busy streets of New York City. Bradley chuckled before nudging my shoulder with his own "I know this Avery, you do this everyday" Bradley said with a laugh. "Have you been watching me?" I asked with a fake air of appalled to my voice. Bradley was often a breath of fresh air in my stuffy office sometimes, even if he was out there with everything he did.

"Of course baby doll" He said with a laugh before slinging his arm around my shoulder. I stiffened at his touch, and tried to wiggle away from him but Bradley started rambling on about something I wasn't paying attention to. I was too busy trying to get away from him discreetly, him being none the wiser. Bradley had been the first guy to actually touch me in years, even if it was just a friendly gesture. When i felt my heart rate pick up, and my forehead grow sweaty, I was suddenly relieved when he removed his arm as we had just arrived at my favorite diner.

I ordered Cameron's favorite BLT sandwich with chips and a diet coke, and one of their infamous grilled cheeses with a bottle of water. I loved White's deli, they were so fast and efficient when it came to lunch time. Hundreds of people were served in just a couple hours, there had to be at least six big name companies on this block alone. They didn't bother putting chairs and tables inside, since most of us grabbed our lunch and ran. Not only were they fast, but they had the best sandwiches in Manhattan, hell I could live off of these grilled cheeses every day and be perfectly ok with that.

After Bradley flirted with the guy behind the counter for ten minutes, we finally started to walk back to our office. It was growing hotter here in the city, and I knew summer was right around the corner. I felt beads of sweat roll down my neck and into my white button up blouse making me fan myself with my free hand. "Glad I'm not the only one noticing the heat around here" Bradley said running his hand through his dampened hair. But when I noticed he was looking at some construction workers across the street, I realized he never actually noticed the heat at all.

"You are insufferable, you know that" I said with a laugh as we walked through the turn-stalls at our building. "Don't you know it baby" Bradley said wiping some sweat from his forehead. The air conditioning in our building felt so good, the heat outside I'm sure made my hair poof out even worse than normal. I probably resembled Medusa right now. Bradley said goodbye when we made it to our floor, and he settled into his desk to answer the phones for the rest of the day. I walked past the offices and made a B line for Cameron's office.

His door was closed, but I knocked quietly to let him know I was there. "Come in" His husky voice called out to me, and I slowly opened his door. Cameron smiled when he saw me and stood from his seat behind his desk. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves as Cameron's smoldering gaze and sweet musky scent was making me weak at the knees. "I brought your lunch" i mumbled, handing him the brown bag from the deli. Cameron smiled and took his food, his fingers just gently brushing up against mine. But unlike when Bradley put his arm around me earlier, I suddenly felt the want to touch him again.

Besides my brother, Cameron has really been the only decent male in my life since my father died when I was eighteen. And in the five years I have known him, he has always treated me with respect. There was no fear when I was with him, no terrorizing thoughts that he might do something to harm me. No, I trusted Cameron oddly enough, I rarely trusted anyone anymore. He was the thing i looked forward to seeing every morning when I came into work, he was something brilliant and someone to bring life into this lonely complicated world of mine.

"Thank you so much Avery, I was starved" Cameron said pulling out his wrapped BLT and practically was salivating before it even went into his mouth. "Care to join me?" He asked, motioning to the chair across from his desk. I blinked realizing he was talking to me before taking the seat across from him. I pulled out my sandwich and was about to take a bite when I noticed Cameron had already started. And I couldn't tear myself away from his plump pink lips. He bit onto his sandwich slowly, sticking his tongue out to lick some mayonnaise that ran down his lip.

I couldn't look away, I was captivated just watching my boss eat his lunch. Something that I had done plenty of times before. Everything Cameron did caught my attention. From the way he chewed the ends of his pens when he was thinking to hard, or how he sung to himself when he thought nobody was looking. I loved everything about this man, and here I was lonely Avery Montgomery. The girl with a frizz ball on top of her head, and not the best sense in style. The girl who would rather curl up with a book than hit the clubs. I was not good enough for him, this man was perfection in human form. I always felt insignificant around him. Just this broken girl he hired and had do his bidding, but when we were alone I felt it ten times worse.

"Eat Avery" Cameron said egging me on as I still hadn't touched my sandwich. I smiled slightly at him before biting into my grilled cheese and couldn't help moaning at it's delicious flavor. I could have sworn I heard Cameron groan a second ago, but I was too enthralled by my sandwich to really care. "I put your mother on the do not call list" Cameron suddenly said. "What?" I asked with a gasp, dropping my sandwich onto the wrapper it came in, at the mention of my mother.

"Don't think I don't know when she calls. I know everything in this building" Cameron said leaning back in his black leather chair and placing his hands nonchalantly behind his head. "I'm sorry sir, I've told her not to call me-"

"Don't call me Sir, Avery" Cameron suddenly interrupted me holding a hand up to stop me from talking. "I have told you that before" Cameron said with a raised eyebrow. I nodded in response before looking down at my hands. On day one, he asked me to never call him Sir but I never asked nor understood why. "I'm sorry Cameron" I said instead.

"That's better" He said with a smile, leaning forward and placing his toned arms against his wooden desk, looking at me intently. "I know you don't want her calling you, I had her number blocked from the building for your sake. Don't apologize for her" Cameron said seriously, his fierce blue eyes burning a hole into my body. "Thank you Mr. James" I said standing and taking our lunch trash in my hands. I didn't realize I had been in here for over an hour and really needed to get back to work. I unfortunately needed to call Jessica Schwartz for a date with Cameron.

"I think you can just call me Cameron from now on, I like the way it sounds coming from you" Cameron said, a slight smirk coming through his full pink lips. I blushed at his comment and shrugged my bag onto my shoulder. Sure in five years I have called him Cameron a couple times, today included. But most of the time it was always Mr.James, i had always felt unprofessional calling him by his first name in the office. "I think after five years together, it seems appropriate" Cameron said with a shrug before turning to his computer.

"Bye Cameron" I said before walking towards my office door on the other side of his office.

"That's my girl" Cameron said before smiling at me as I closed my office door. I swear this man was driving me crazy and he doesn't even know it...