I tapped on my desk with my pen, looking through the glass that separated my office from the room outside. Lilly was sat there, her hair shoved up, messily, and was talking on the phone. She laughed a lot, so I assumed it was a personal call.

I shook my head, and looked back down at the paper in front of me, trying to focus. Why wasn't I focussing?

The phone beeped, and I pressed a button.
"Oliver, your brother's on the phone," Lilly said, her voice echoing through the speakers. "Line one."

"Thanks," I said, and she smiled at me through the glass, before turning back to her conversation. Then I picked up the receiver, and put the phone to my ear. "Hi Jack."

"Hey dude!" Jack cried down the phone. Seriously, I have never heard my brother so enthusiastic before. And it's about a party. "You pumped for tonight?"

My eyes wandered back to where Lilly was through the glass. "Sure. Whatever."

"Because that is the sound of one excited partier." Jack rolled his eyes. "She still on your mind?"

I sat back in my chair. "I'm telling you, that there is no she. Okay?"

"So who was that girl that you walked home?" Jack asked, and I could hear the tone of disbelief in his voice.

He didn't believe me.

Well, why the hell not? I was telling the truth!

"That was Lilly," I said, simply. The less I said, the less he knew, and the less he suspected. "She's my secretary."

"And you walked her home why?" Jack asked, being his annoying self, and prying.

I sighed. "Because it was getting dark, and raining heavily, and if someone crept up on her, then she wouldn't know about it."

Jack laughed. "And what the heck were you planning on doing about that? Any LA mugger would take you in three seconds."

"But that would be three seconds in which Lilly could run away," I replied, staring through the glass window.

"Oh. So you'd rather get knocked out than have her give up her handbag?" Jack asked, as if that were the only possible outcome of a mugging.

I tore my eyes away from Lilly, which was amazingly hard, and looked down at the work on my desk. "Jack, you know as well as I do, that a simple mugging could turn into anything. I wasn't going to let her walk alone, especially in the dark and rain, and you can try to find ulterior motives in there, but I'm telling you, that that's all it is."

"Ask her to the party," Jack said, obviously not listening to a word that I was saying. "Rachel! Carter is looking through the cupboards! I'm on the phone! Help!"

I rolled my eyes as he called for his wife, Rachel, to take care of their son. He was so useless with Carter. Sure, he taught him how to play soccer, and he made him laugh, but he had no idea how to look after him. "I'm not asking her to the party."

"Why not? You're friends, right? Tell her that you're being... friendly," Jack said.

Truth be told, I almost did ask her to the party. At her flat. When I was leaving, I almost did, but I ended up inviting her to the business trip next weekend. Which wasn't a bad substitute. Gives me a week to think of what to talk to her about on the trip up there.

But I can't ask her to the party. Why would I? Wouldn't that seem weird; your boss inviting you to a family party? I mean, yeah, sure, she invited me into her flat the other day, but that was because we were already outside of it. And it was raining. And she's nice, so she didn't want me to get wet. It wasn't because she wanted me to meet her friends.

"I can't," I said. "That would be too weird."

Jack sighed heavily. "Okay. I guess I can see where you're coming from. She was way too hot for you anyway."

"Thanks," I remarked sarcastically. "Your brotherly love means the world to me."

"It should do," Jack laughed. "Might not be around forever."

I sat back in my seat. "You planning on going somewhere?"

"No. I'm just saying: you never know what might happen - "

Wow. When did he get so philosophical?

" - I mean, I might wake up tomorrow, and you might have killed my whole family, and then I'm going to just hate you. Obviously."

Ah. That's more like Jack. Not philosophical; just stupid.

"I'll keep that in mind," I told him, and then said goodbye. I had just replaced the phone, when a knock in the door made me look up.

Lilly stood at the door, a drink in her hand, and a smile on her face. "Heya."

She must have finished her conversation while I wasn't looking. Not that I'm stalking her or anything. I'm just showing an interest.

"Hi," I smiled, looking down at the paper on the desk. Who was I kidding? It was boring, and I was never going to finish it.

"Brought you a drink. I didn't make it. So it's perfectly safe," she said, walking over to my desk, and putting it in front of me. "And I wanted to thank you. For walking me home the other night. Miley blew up after you left, telling me how stupid it was to walk home on my own in the dark and rain, so I'm immensely grateful."

I looked at her; into her deep blue eyes. "It was no problem. And I'm not sick, so there's nothing to worry about."

"That's good. I didn't want you getting a cold because you decided to help me out," she smiled, biting her lip.

"So... are you still up for this trip next weekend?" I asked, thinking fast.

She nodded. "Yeah. Miley was sort of annoyed that I had to cancel this Hannah concert..."

"You had plans? You should've said..." I said. She shouldn't have cancelled plans for some stupid business trip!

Lilly shook her head. "It was only another Hannah Montana concert. I've seen more than enough, believe me. And she won't miss Lol... me too much."

"You sure? Because I can go on my ow..." I began, but she cut me off.

"No! To be totally honest, I've seen Hannah Montana enough times to last me a lifetime. So you got me out. Another thing to thank you for," Lilly grinned. "Plus, this buisiness thing sounds fun. I've never done anything like it before. I mean, I stayed overnight on the Hannah Bus, but that novelty wore off."

I raised my eyebrows. "Fun? It really doesn't take much, does it?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I'm happy at the simplest things. It's weird really. Having a best friend like..."

Lilly trailed off, trying to think of how to end that sentence. Trying to think of how to lie plausibly, without it looking too obvious.

Too late.

But why push? She can have secrets. And I, being her boss and only her boss, have no inclination to know those secrets. Why would I need to know her secrets? It's not like I'm obsessed with her.

I'm totally not, by the way.

"Anyway. Yeah, so I can totally make it. It's only for the weekend, right?"

I nodded. "Uh-huh. One weekend. Friday night until Sunday night."

"So, anything in particular I need to bring?" she asked, looking at me intently.

"I don't think so. Work clothes really. And jeans. In case we get bored, and decide to put on casual clothes and sneak away," I said, and she laughed.

"Want me to bring big sunglasses too? Just so that they don't recognise us?"

I grinned. "Probably a good idea. Baseball cap to hide your hair."

Lilly smiled. "I'll get right onto that. Anyways, call me if you need me. Or just wave. You'll attract my attention eventually."

"But I'll be waving like an idiot for a while until you do," I replied.

"What makes you think it's the waving that will give people that impression?" she smiled innocently as she reached the door.

I just raised my eyebrows at her, and she laughed as she closed the door behind her. My eyes followed her as she walked back to her seat. When she reached it, she turned to the window, and saw me looking. Quickly, she pulled a face, and stuck out her tongue. Then she sat back down, innocently.

I laughed.

Very good Lilly Truscott. Very good.

I might be able to update tomorrow, but if not, you'll get an update on Saturday. I'm presenting a product for a competition on Saturday, so I won't be able to update then.

Anyway, the next few chapters will be more eventful than this one.