He gave a naughty little giggle at his last comment, winking at Tessa when her cheeks flushed yet again in embarrassment. He placed his hands on her shoulders, bending over to kiss her cheek as he whispered, “Are you sure you’re a married woman, sweetie pie? Couldn’t tell from the way you blush like a twelve year old girl at times. See you after lunch.”

Tessa gave him a faint smile, struggling not to recoil at the overpowering scent of his cologne. Kevin was just over medium height with a slight build, and he seemed to favor bright, trendy clothing that was not always flattering to either his thin frame or carroty red-blond hair.

It was decidedly quieter after the trio left. Gina, Alicia, and Kevin almost always took their lunch hour from noon to one, while Tessa, Marisol, and Shelby had their break between one and two. Which was a bit ironic, thought Tessa as she returned her attention to her computer screen, considering that the threesome who had just left always seemed to be the last ones to arrive at the office each morning.

Marisol yawned loudly, then gave Tessa an apologetic smile. “Sorry. The baby is teething and I think I got an hour’s sleep last night. I’ve had about a gallon of coffee but nothing seems to be helping.”

“That must be hard on you,” sympathized Tessa. “Do you think Andrew would let you leave a little early today?”

Marisol rolled her eyes. She was a petite, slightly chubby Filipina, with black hair and dark eyes, and at the age of twenty-six already had two young children – including a six month old daughter. “I doubt it. Especially since I need to leave early on Monday to take my son to a doctor’s appointment. Normally my mom would take him, but she and my dad are going to Las Vegas for a long weekend.”

Marisol and her husband and kids lived with her parents, albeit in an in-law unit, and she was lucky enough to have both her mother and grandmother to look after the children while she was at work. She still seemed exhausted most of the time, however, forever yawning and always with that cup of coffee in hand.

“Take my advice, Tessa,” cautioned Marisol. “You and your husband should wait awhile before you get pregnant. I wish I’d been able to convince Raul to postpone having kids until we were better off financially so that I’d only have to work part-time now.”

Tessa merely smiled in response, not about to confide in her co-worker that the chance of her getting pregnant with Peter’s baby was highly unlikely. It had been long weeks since the last time they’d tried – tried being the operative word – to be intimate. Their most recent attempt had ended before it had begun – with Peter once again unable to sustain an erection long enough to satisfy her. He had become withdrawn and uncommunicative afterwards, and had slept in the living room, but at least he hadn’t suggested that Tessa look around for another lover. He actually hadn’t brought that subject up for a few months now, she recalled, probably because he knew how much the idea upset her.

“I’m not planning to have a baby for a long time,” she assured Marisol. “Especially with my husband starting this new job where he’s going to be away for weeks at a time. And especially not in our tiny little apartment. We can barely move around in there as it is.”

“Too bad you weren’t single,” chimed in Shelby. “My sister and I are looking for a new roommate since our current one is getting married in a month. And – uh, oh. Ice Man alert.”

Tessa could have sworn she actually saw Shelby quake in fear as Andrew – who’d been given the irreverent nickname of the Ice Man by Kevin - approached their cubicles. Shelby, an almost painfully thin strawberry-blonde who was high-strung, anxious, and had a rather irritating giggle that reminded Tessa of a bird chirping, was terrified of Andrew and went out of her way to avoid him. In the scant two weeks that she’d worked here, it had seemed to Tessa that Andrew did pick on Shelby quite a lot, and wondered how much of this was really necessary. Kevin had whispered to Tessa that the real reason Andrew didn’t care much for Shelby - and went over all of her work with a fine-tooth comb - was because she had already been working on the team prior to Andrew’s date of hire and hadn’t been hand-selected by him like the others had.

Andrew set a report down on Shelby’s desk and gave both it and her a look of disdain. “Once again, Shelby,” he began in that no-nonsense tone that Tessa had already come to recognize, “you didn’t bother to check your work before updating the report. I’ve found five different errors, two of them major. Can you even begin to imagine how embarrassing this would have been if I’d presented it to Mr. Gregson? Needless to say, you’ll need to correct your errors and then upload it to the system. This afternoon, please. Mr. Gregson was especially anxious to have this on his desk tomorrow morning. And check your work next time. You simply can’t keep making these types of mistakes.”

Tessa had wisely kept her gaze downcast during Andrew’s chastisement, but she could practically feel Shelby quaking in fear with each scathing word. She only hoped she never found herself the object of one of Andrew’s tongue lashings, and silently vowed to keep checking and re-checking her own work multiple times.

“Tessa.”

She started a bit, not having noticed Andrew standing directly behind her until now, pressing a hand to her heart to still its beating.

“I apologize for sneaking up on you,” he offered. “I just wanted to check on the progress of the updates.”

“Of course.” She gave a quick glance at the number of files remaining that still needed updates. “If I work through lunch, I’m pretty sure I can have all of them done by the end of the day.”

“Really?” The normally unflappable Andrew looked genuinely surprised. “Well, that is good news. God knows that I can use some, given the way this day’s been going. But it’s not necessary for you to skip lunch, Tessa, since you’re so far ahead of schedule with these updates.”

She shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. I brought my lunch with me so I can just eat here at my desk. Maybe I’ll take a quick break, get some fresh air for a few minutes, but otherwise I don’t mind. I’d really like to have them all ready for when Mr. Gregson returns.”

Andrew nodded. “It will be a very pleasant surprise for him, that’s for sure. We had actually discussed hiring an outside contractor to handle this project, so he’ll be quite pleased to realize it’s all taken care of. Thank you for your diligence, Tessa. I’m already convinced that my decision to hire you on here was definitely the right one.”