For two weeks Ryan had come and picked her up from work, taken her out then taken her home. It was a really simple procedure and he never tried anything else. She was starting to feel frustrated with that and frustrated with her weakness - she was supposed to appreciate it instead of craving for him, and yet she was craving for him. If their previous attempt at a relationship had been disastrous to say the least, the sex was good and she found herself dreaming of the time she had sex. Something she often scolded herself for.

She helped herself from trying to do anything. If he was going to do this the old fashioned way, she had to let him set the pace. It was gonna come. She just had to be patient. She found out more and more about him every day. Funnily enough, she didn't do that thanks to his talking - although he was doing his best to be more talkative than usual, he was still Ryan. But she started noticing how he liked to eat his food separately - he ordered steak with chips, he'd eat the chips first and then the steak. He always liked to take the shortest way when he went somewhere - even if that wasn't necessarily the fastest way. He often forgot to charge his personal cellphone - he used his work phone so much, there was hardly any need for it. She noticed he was also paying more attention to her than before. He'd open doors, pull chairs, make sure she didn't get wet when it rained. She found herself daydreaming of him in the most peculiar moments - like when a client started talking about his daughter (like she cared) she smiled so beautifully at him, she almost laughed when she realized he had thought that she smiled because of him. She'd work and then she'd realize that she'd been doing the same thing for half an hour. Or she wouldn't work at all - there were times she couldn't concentrate.

Unfortunately work caught up with her at some point. She had a deadline and she had to respect it. Her new workplace was much less demanding than the last one, but even here people had to respect deadlines. And she had to admit that it was her fault if that deadline wasn't respected - it was a pretty loose deadline.

And then she had a meeting that ran much later than usual and she realized she wasn't going to make it back to the office on time and of course the first thing she thought about was Ryan who was waiting for her. But he had rubbed off on her - her personal cellphone wasn't charged. And for some reason she couldn't find her work phone. She rushed as much as she could but at that time of day traffic was a bitch. She was still an hour late and started losing hope that she'd find him there.

She entered her office building and saw Ryan talking to Alexandra - her boss' secretary. They were laughing at something and Taylor stopped dead in her tracks.

From the moment she realized she was starting to feel something for him beyond the 'he was part of that group i never managed to fit in' thing, everything had been about Marissa. He had dated Marissa for so long, she was sure they were some kind of lost soul mates. Destined to return to each other some day. They were perfect together, a match made in heaven, challenging enough to keep it interesting, and yet fitting each other. It had taken her a long time to realize that Ryan did not harbor any longing feelings for Marissa and that he had totally moved on. And it hadn't been Summer's nagging or Ryan's own claims (after all, you can still be hung up on someone and not know it). It was the fact that when they actually did talk, Marissa's name didn't come up. Ever.

She had gone out on occasional dates with guys who were hung up on their ex. While they would never say that out loud, it was obvious from the way they said 'once, me and Betty did that...' and from the way all their significant memories seemed to revolve around one person. Ryan was not that case at all. For the first week she kept waiting for them to talk about Marissa but he never seemed to want to do that. He also didn't seem to make an effort about it - he simply had better things to talk about. And in the end Taylor had finally admitted to herself that she had been totally wrong about that.

It was the first time she had allowed herself to feel a little more secure in her... thing... with Ryan. However, as she looked at Ryan and Alexandra laughing she realized that Marissa was not around but other women were and Ryan was an attractive guy. He seemed to sense her presence cause he turned around a few seconds after she got in.

"There you are!" Alexandra was the one who spoke and Taylor wondered why she was so friendly - they hardly said two words to each other since Taylor was hired. "I spoke to Mr. Mills, he said you forgot your cellphone at his office, I tried calling you..." she said on a perky tone and Taylor suddenly felt the urge to slap her.

"Are you ready to go or do you have anything else to do?" Ryan said, still smiling, and Taylor wondered whether he was smiling at her or at Alexandra. Even though technically his face was turned to her.

"I.. uh... I have a little work to do. I... I think it's gonna be another hour"

"OK, I'll come back then"

"No, there's no need, you've already been here an hour, I wouldn't want to keep you from... your thing"

He frowned then he looked at her a little confused.

"I... uh... I gotta start right away if I'm gonna get anything done"

She started heading towards her office, but Ryan was right on her trail.

"What are you doing?" he whispered in her ear scaring her. She hadn't realized he was that close.

"Uh... working"

"You're doing it again"

"I'm not doing anything"

"You're doing it again, and I'll be damned if I'll let you"

She blinked twice in confusion.

"Ryan"

"I'll be back in an hour. You'd better be ready by then"

Her mouth opened in surprise - he had never talked to her like that.

"And if I'm not"

"Then I'll wait"

"Okay..." She said unsurely.

"Okay what"

"One hour. No more"

His face returned to old Ryan and a wide smile replaced his scowl. "Good. See you then"

And then he kissed her shortly on the lips. It didn't last more than a second, and yet it was their first kiss in a long time and for a moment she couldn't help thinking that he had found an odd time to do that. He gave her a friendly smile:

"See ya"

She smiled back weakly and nodded before going into her office.