It's Only Temporary

Chapter 5: Indiscretions

June 2014 (Present Day)

David made his way into his apartment and stumbled blindly toward the living room couch. He kicked off his shoes and collapsed in a sprawling heap. His head was pounding. The buzz from the alcohol had started to wear off half an hour ago, and he'd taken it as his cue to say goodnight to his work associates.

He'd stayed long enough to shut down the filthy talk about Penny, though. He'd be damned before he let her name get tossed around like that. Probably shouldn't have let it go on as long as he did, but they'd caught him off guard for a moment there. He needed to find out just how much of the story they actually knew.

"Rules my ass. We all know you're getting it on the side from that little secretary of yours."

It was just idle gossip. Pure speculation. Penny was a beautiful girl, and he supposed he had a certain reputation. Still, he'd felt compelled to make a show of hitting on that redhead. Let them all stand around and watch as he tapped his number into her hot-pink bedazzled phone, just to emphasize the point: David Powers didn't need to dip his pen in the company ink.

But the rumor about Penny must have started somewhere. Someone must've picked up on a vibe. He needed to dial back the flirting. Keep things strictly professional within the confines of the office.  That could be corrected easily enough. Just as long as no one knew about their occasional electronic indiscretion, after hours.

And they were only electronic indiscretions. For the most part....

David fired up his laptop and clicked onto his Gmail, knowing what he would find at the top of his inbox.  The email chain marked:

me, Penelope (78)

Seventy-eight messages had passed back and forth between them. Had it really been two whole years since he'd sent her that first one? Even now, just the thought of it sent a little shiver down his spine. Talk about a near miss. That one little email could have easily blown his whole career to hell. He'd only known her a few weeks at the time - practically a stranger. Only by sheer blind luck had he dodged the proverbial bullet and walked away unscathed.

At least he had, that time....

He'd pretty much shot the whole rulebook to hell that night. To this day, he wasn't quite sure what got into him. It had all started as a whim - changing up her liquor order. Just a friendly helping hand from a seasoned veteran, welcoming the rookie to life after college.

He never really had any intention of going to the party. He had plans of his own that evening, although the details now escaped him, looking back. Probably some charity dinner. Some $500-a-plate affair. That's right. He'd stopped on the way home from the office to pick up his tux from the cleaners. He'd had a date lined up and everything - an auburn-haired architect he'd picked up in the gluten-free aisle at Whole Foods. That must've been before he made the rule against dating women who didn't eat bread.

In any case, he'd had an hour to kill at home before he needed to get ready. He'd poured himself a glass of scotch and sipped it as he stretched out on his couch. He must have closed his eyes for a minute or two. His Blackberry had startled him awake. He'd looked down at it, blinking the sleep out of his eyes, and saw not one text message, but two.

The first was from the architect: "So sorry! Stuck at work. Raincheck?"

The second was from Penny: "Thanks for the booze. WTF?"

He'd laughed out loud when he saw it. WTF, indeed. He'd just donated five hundred bucks worth of liquor out of the goodness of his heart, and that was the message she sent? At least the New York Historical Society gave him a tax write-off for his charitable contribution - she just gave him a "WTF?"