Liza had just sat down at her desk, a fresh cup of coffee in hand, when she heard the familiar ping of a new email coming in. She had come into the office early, hoping to use work as a distraction from obsessing over Josh. After leaving Charles last night she had returned home, texting Josh a few times with no success. So she had gotten up early this morning and headed into work with the idea that she could maybe catch up on some of her work and just maybe impress Diana with her expediency.

She sat down in her chair, pulling her email up on her desktop, surprised to see that the email was from Charles. She turned her head to see him sitting at his desk through the glass window. She hadn't noticed him when she had come in 20 minutes earlier.

Can you stop by my office before everyone else shows up? I have something I'd like to run past you. – Charles

Her curiosity peeked, Liza stood and headed back towards his office door, which stood ajar, smoothing the front of her skirt as she made her way closer. What could he possibly want to talk to her about? Her mind kept flashing to last night, his hand skimming over hers as she had handed the book to him. Had he felt the same tingling sensation that she had? She didn't know what she would say if he made any sort of advance towards her. She knew she should shut this workplace flirtation down, but she couldn't deny that the thought of spending even part of her day with Charles made it 10x easier to come to work every day. She liked being around him. She liked him.

"You wanted to see me?"

Charles looked up from his computer as he head the gentle knock on his door. Liza leaned in, her brown hair slipping over her shoulder.

"Yeah." He stood, gesturing for her to sit in the chair across from him. "Please sit down."

"Is everything okay?" She frowned, suddenly nervous that she had done something wrong.

"Yeah, yeah. I just," he paused for a moment, leaning back in his chair. "I thought about what you said after you left last night. About Kelsey." He left out that he had thought about her a lot last night as well. It had been a mostly sleepless night and he could say, without hesitation, that most of his tossing and turning had been due to Liza consuming his thoughts. He had stayed up late reading through the manuscript she had delivered to him hours earlier, and when he finally fell asleep, he had dreamed of laying in bed with Liza, her curled up against his side as they read through those pages. The dream had quickly become a lot less literary, causing him to take an icy cold shower this morning.

"Oh?" She tilted her head at him, curious about what he wanted to say. He seemed distracted.

"I won't be able to match the offer that Hachette has given her, but I think I've come up with a way to convince her to stay. I know you two are close, and I wanted to bounce it off you before I talked to Kelsey. What do you think about giving Kelsey her own imprint? Geared towards 20 somethings. She can choose the projects, have editorial control, but it'll still be under the Empirical umbrella."

"Wow." Liza broke out into a smile, letting Charles know that he was on the right path. "I think that's amazing, Charles. I think Kelsey will love it."

"Do you think she's ready for the responsibility?"

"I think so. And it's not like you're throwing her out into the ocean without a lifejacket. You're still her boss, she still has to answer to you and make business decisions that will work for Empirical. But yes, I think she's ready. This is just amazing."

Charles smiled back, satisfied. "Well, good. I'm glad to hear you say that. Your opinion, Liza, it's come to matter quite a bit to me."

Liza looked down, shyly, not sure how to respond.

"Well, just act surprised when she tells you about it. I'm sure she'll want you to be a part of it."

Liza stood, pausing at the door, her hand grasping the handle. "Thank you, Charles. It means a lot to me that you value my opinion. I know I'm just an assistant, so really, thank you." She slipped through the door, and Charles watched her retreating figure through the window.

"You're so much more than an assistant, Liza. So much more." He whispered the words as he turned back to his desk, once more wishing he had the courage to state his true feelings for her, to her.

Liza stood at the edge of the Millennial launch party, taking her first moment to herself in what felt like a week. The last few days had been absolutely insane. Planning the launch party and holding Kelsey's hand through the changes had been crazy enough, but to add to that she was pretty sure Josh was ghosting her (Lauren's words), Diana was bound and determined to keep her busier than ever, she'd had next to no sleep because she was staying at Lauren's while Maggie Airbnb's the apartment and Lauren's dad seriously creeped her out, and she was feeling guiltier than ever about lying about her age to Kelsey. So here she stood, in her sky high stilettos that made her feet feel like they were going to fall off at any given moment, taking a few deep breaths in an attempt to clear her overcrowded mind.

Charles watched her from across the crowded rooftop, a smile tugging at his lips. He liked looking at her when she didn't know it, when she didn't think anyone was looking. He had hardly spoken to her all week – she had been flitting around planning this launch party, and Diana had been piling even more work on her than usual. It looked like she was taking a moment to relax before diving back into her hosting duties. Plucking up the courage, he began to weave his way through the crowd and over to her spot by the railing.

"Why are you not over there getting your picture taken?" He came up beside her and she jumped when she heard his voice, swallowing her last bite of food quickly.

"I don't photograph well. I smile too hard. It comes off as aggressive. I think the technical term is 'mean muggin'". She smiled up at him, and Charles couldn't possibly imagine someone describing her smile as aggressive. Genuine, stunning, bright, beautiful, but definitely not aggressive.

"I can't imagine that. You have such a nice and friendly mug." He leaned in a little closer to her as a group of people moved past him, so that his shoulder was brushing hers.

"Thank you. So do you." Liza turned her face up to him, thrown off by how close he was to her. If they both leaned in a little bit more, they might as well be kissing. She looked into his eyes for a moment, searching them. In this light they looked icy blue, specked with green.

"Liza! So sorry." Lauren appeared from nowhere, wrapping her birdlike arm around Liza's wrist, pulling her away before Charles could say another word.

Charles milled around for a bit, always keeping an eye out for Liza as he conversed with many of the social media influencers that had shown up tonight. He watched as she tried to calm Kelsey, who was clearly having some sort of freak out. They stood huddled in a corner with the tiny redhead that had pulled Liza away from him and a sandy haired younger man that Liza kept throwing daggers at. He had noticed that her boyfriend didn't appear to be anywhere around, and wondered silently, hopefully, if they had broken up. Kelsey and Liza disappeared for awhile, and he didn't spot either of them until he was standing up with a microphone to formally introduce Kelsey.

He handed the microphone over to Kelsey, listening to her speech as he retreated to the bar to refresh his drink. Turning, a flash of light caught his eye and he saw Liza standing towards the back of the crowd, her phone held up to her mouth as she spoke the words that Kelsey was repeating back to the crowd. A wave of emotion washed over him as he watched Liza smile brightly at Kelsey as she finished her speech. She was so incredibly selfless, so caring towards her friends and so completely genuine. He had never met anyone like her, and in that moment, decided that it was time to tell her how he felt, consequences be damned.

He sidled over to her as the crowd spread back out across the rooftop, swallowing the last of his drink. He needed some liquid courage. "That was quite the speech tonight."

"Yeah, she did great tonight."

Charles looked at her and smirked, trying to convey to her that he knew exactly what had just transpired. "Yeah, I think you both did a great job tonight. Even the trash to table turned out surprisingly well. I enjoyed my off grade sweet potato puffs."

She smiled, amused. "Yeah, who knew that restaurants just threw away pock marked potatoes. It's like America throwing away Brad Pitt or Edward James Olmos."

"So, where's your young man?" He needed to know before he said or did anything else.

Liza was caught off guard for a moment by his surprisingly personal question. "Uhm, I'm not sure there still is a young man." She answered honestly. Who knew where she and Josh stood – he hadn't spoken to her all week, and hadn't bothered to show up and support her tonight. "He's, uh, been ghosting me."

"Ghosting you?"

"Yeah, it's when someone evaporates into thin air with no explanation."

"Oh, I'm sorry." He said the words, but didn't really mean them. "Can I get you a glass of champagne?" He wanted to get her away from the crowd, somewhere where they could talk in private, but thought that a drink would be a good start.

"Yes, I'd like that, thank you."

He smiled back at her, brushing past her to head back to the bar. One step at a time, he told himself. Just talk to her, see how it goes. Maybe see if she wants to go for a walk. Then lay it out there and see what happens. He strummed his fingers on the bar, tossing a tip down and taking the two flutes of champagne from the bartender. He turned, smiling to himself, but the sight in front of him stopped him in his tracks. Liza, wrapped in a tight embrace with her boyfriend. The ghost had returned. He surveyed the guy for a moment. His brown hair was slicked back, and he was wearing ripped up jeans and a flannel shirt. Tattoos poked out of every sleeve visible. Charles plastered on his nicest face and walked over to them, noting how Liza pulled away from the guy as soon as she caught sight of Charles.

"Charles, hi, this is my boyfriend. This is Josh. Josh, this is my boss, Charles."

"Well, I guess the ghost made it to the feast after all. Uh, you two should celebrate." He reached out with the glasses of champagne, handing them over to Josh and Liza.

"Thanks." Josh reached out to shake his hand. At least he had some semblance of manners, Charles thought.

"Very nice to meet you, Josh." He was unable to help himself, though, and reached out to touch Liza's arm affectionately. "You did a great job tonight, Liza. You should be proud of yourself." He squeezed her arm lightly before disappearing into the crowd, cursing himself for thinking that this would go well. He knew that there was something there between the two of them. It was inevitable, but impossible.