'Hello, I'm sorry I don't know who this is but I...'

'Hello Maria!' She didn't say anything for a while.

'I'm busy right now,'

'Well maybe you and me...' She'd already put the phone down. 'Fine, hang up on me then.'

Pepper was waiting to talk to me.

'Can you believe that? She just hung up on me.'

Pepper smiled. 'Maria?' she asked.

I looked at her. 'How did you...'

'You got her number from Lilly's phone,' she said 'I can usually tell when you're up to something Mr. Stark.'

'Is that for me?' I asked taking the cup of coffee from her hand.

'Mr. Stark, you have an interview set for…'

'Cancel it.'

'And tonight you've got…'

'I'm not going.'

Pepper looked at me for a little while, smiling.

'What?' I asked.

'Nothing,' she said 'It's just, I think that'll be the first party that you haven't gone to out of choice'.

'Party? What party?' I asked.

'The one you just said you're not going to.' I thought about this for a second; alot of drinks and alot of ladies, yeah, I was going. Pepper took one look at my face.

'I knew you couldn't resist,' she said, making her way back upstairs.

I tried calling Maria a couple more times but she'd switched off her phone. Come on, I wasn't that bad was I ? She could at least have a conversation with me.

I'd never had to chase after a girl before, and I wasn't really sure what I should do next. She wasn't answering my calls and I doubted she'd be back at the casino anytime soon. I guess I'd just have to give her a bit of time, problem is I didn't want to wait. Well ,there would be other girls at the party, probably none of them would be as sexy as her but alot of them would be more willing to spend the night with me.

I couldn't concentrate on working right now. My mind was stuck on other things; Maria.

I called Pepper over the intercom.

'Yes Mr. Stark.'

'Can you uncancel that interview.'

She sighed 'Mr. Stark, you can't just...'

'Pepper can you or can't you?' I didn't want a lecture on reliabilty right now.

'I'll do my best,' she said.

'OK. Well if you do manage to uncancel it can you get my suit ready.'

'Yes Mr. Stark'

'Thanks Pepper.'

I sat at my desk. I wondered how many guys Maria had slept with. Was she a virgin? That hadn't crossed my mind before. That would complicate things.

'Mr Stark,' Pepper was calling me over the intercom. I broke from my thoughts.

'Yes Pepper.'

'I just rearranged the interview for this afternoon.'

'Ok! Thanks Pepper.'

I had a feeling that I wasn't going to get much work done today. This thing with Maria was bugging me more than I expected.