"Seriously?"

Liza stared across the conference room table at Diana, Charles and Kelsey, who were all smiling back at her. Charles had just asked her if she would join he, Diana and Kelsey for lunch for the annual wining and dining of one of Empirical's most established authors, Belinda Lacroix. She wrote at least one romance novel for Empirical every year, and while she didn't bring in as much financially as Edward L.L. Moore, she had a large and dedicated following.

"Seriously. I want to introduce her novels to a new generation of readers, and I want you two," he gestured to Kelsey and Liza, "there to help convince her. She's in her 80's, and has been writing books for us since before I was even born. I doubt we'll be able to convince her to write a book solely for Millennial, but maybe having you two there will help convince her that we can sell her to a younger audience."

"So, call the restaurant and change the reservation to 5, and make sure that they are aware of my dairy allergy." Diana stood, giving her marching orders to Liza before she and Kelsey exited the room, leaving Charles and Liza standing on either side of the conference table.

"Thank you." Liza repeated, earnestly, looking Charles in the eye. Realizing that they were along, Liza decided to take a moment to bring up something that she had been thinking about over the past few days. "But can I talk to you about something that's kind of been bothering me?"

Charles furrowed his brow and came around to her side of the table, gesturing for her to sit back down in the chair next to him.

"What's up?"

"I'm just worried about what is going to happen when people start realizing that I'm not 26. There's been mutterings around the office, and if we're out in public, people are going to start talking. There was that picture of us in Page Six, and the publishing world is pretty small. Word is going to get around, and I'm worried about how it's going to affect you. And the company. There's going to be blowback at some point."

Charles nodded, not saying anything for a minute. "I've been thinking about that too." He leaned back in his chair, absentmindedly scratching his face. "There's got to be a way for us to get ahead of this. I'm just not sure how."

Liza sighed, defeated, slumping back in her chair. "I don't want to hurt your company, Charles. Your family's legacy. I couldn't live with myself if I was the one that brought it down."

"You won't be. Liza, please don't think like that." He leaned forward, clasping her hands between his. "That won't happen. I'll figure out a way. I promise."

"I should never have let it get this far." She looked down at her shoes. This had been weighing on her for a while, and she had been wracking her brain for a way to figure it out. She was just in too deep with this lie. Too many people knew her as a 26-year-old and if she wanted to have everything out in the open, they needed to figure a way out of this, and fast.

"It'll be okay." Charles pulled her to her feet, leaning in to kiss her on her forehead. She wasn't sure how he was staying so calm, so levelheaded, but she was grateful for it. "Now go make that call before Diana has a heart attack." He smiled at her and pulled her into a quick hug. He watched her walk out and took a deep breath. She was right. This was a ticking time bomb. They needed to diffuse it before it exploded. He resolved to pull Diana aside later and pick her brain – if anyone knew how to put a spin on a bad situation, it was her.

"Associate Editor? That's wonderful!" Liza clinked glasses with the white-haired woman sitting across from her, squinting at her bubblegum pink pantsuit and matching hat. Belinda Lacroix was colorful, that was for sure.

"Liza is an editor for both Millennial Print and Empirical. A sort of liaison between the two imprints." Diana added, smiling across the table at her assistant.

"We should be having champagne." Belinda suggested pointedly, giving Charles an amused grin.

"Maybe we should work on our sidecar, first." Liza laughed as Belinda rolled her eyes at the comment from Charles.

"He always scolds me about drinking too much at lunch. But it didn't bother you when you were 15 and stealing sips of my whiskey, did it?" They all laughed as Charles shrugged in defeat.

"I suppose I shouldn't chastise our biggest earner after Edward L.L. Moore. Belinda has been writing at least a book a year for as long as I've known her. Her romance novels kept the lights on for a long time."

"Ah, and I'll outlast that old pervert with his tales of dragons and incest. Where's my Netflix deal?"

Kelsey nodded in agreement. "No one can get past the romance stigma. It's terrible."

"It's just sexism in a tweed jacket. Men decide romance is silly, and women feel embarrassed about reading it."

"What's so embarrassing about a woman being a hero and having great sex? You should be a feminist icon, Belinda." Charles choked on his water as the words came out of his girlfriend's mouth, and the women at the table all glanced at him, amused expressions across all of their faces.

"Feminists, ha! They don't want anything to do with my books either, at least not in public."

Kelsey leaned in, sensing this would be a good time to bring up the subject that had been discussed earlier. "We're working hard to change that, Belinda."

Charles nodded. "That's why I had Kelsey and Liza join us. Together, with another editor, they are running our Millennial imprint and doing an excellent job. They've got a couple good titles under their belt, and they just published Pauline's novel, Marriage Vacation."

Liza smiled to herself as Belinda let out a disgruntled "Hmmph," and said something under her breath about "never liked that one."

Kelsey carried on with her pitch. "We are hoping to introduce your novels to a whole new generation of readers. Sex positive women who aren't ashamed to read about women getting their happy endings in more than just the typical fashion."

Belinda laughed and smiled at Kelsey. She liked this girl. "I can't wait to hear all about it, but might I have an escort to the ladies' room? I can get down just fine, but the getting up can be melodramatic."

Diana's eyes widened and she quickly suggested that "Millennial Print do that so that they could get to know one another better." Liza and Kelsey exchanged a look, but each got up and took one of Belinda's arms, guiding her across the room. Diana leaned back, taking a sip of her white wine. "I think it's going well. She likes Liza and Kelsey, I can tell. Good call on having them come along."

"Agreed. Diana, I want to pick your brain about something while we have a few minutes. Liza and I have been trying to figure out how to get ahead of this age debacle that she's gotten herself into."

"Gotten all of us into." Diana corrected. "You don't think I've been mulling this over since the two of you dropped those bombs on me? I'm your marketing director, for god's sake. Of course I've thought about it. We're going to have to do something fast, especially if you two keep having your picture splashed across Page Six."

"Do you have any thoughts?"

"A few. She needs to come clean on her own terms. She's going to have to deal with some negativity, some press, no matter what. She could do an article, or a Podcast episode with Dr. Wray. I would lean towards the article. Or she could write a book."

Charles sat up in his chair. "What? Liza, write a book?"

"Yes. About her experiences. About why she did what she did. Reinventing her life after she thought she lost everything. She's a good writer, and it could gather some attention."

"I don't know. She's an excellent writer, but I'm not sure that she's ready for that."

The conversation was cut short when Kelsey came crashing out of the ladies' room, yelling something about 911, a panicked look on her face.

"What a day."

The team stepped out the Empirical elevator 2 days later, an hour after Belinda's funeral. They were dressed head to toe in pink. Zane had even donned a pink suit, while Charles had opted for wearing a pink tie with his black suit.

"We look like we just came back from a breast cancer 5k" Kelsey muttered, causing the other 4 to chuckle in response. "I think we all need to go for a drink."

"Oh, shit!" Diana grabbed Liza's arm. "What time is it?"

"5:30. What's going on, Diana!"

"It's Thursday. My date with Enzo! I can't meet him looking like strip of bubblegum!"

Liza had completely forgotten about Diana's date. She hadn't filled Liza in on all the details, but apparently the plumber that Liza had called on Friday was an old flame of sorts, and he had asked Diana out. Liza couldn't imagine her boss saying yes to a date with a plumber, but here they were. She followed Diana to her office.

"Just calm down. You've got your clothes from earlier, remember. That black dress you were wearing will be great for a date. Diana, breathe. I'll help you get ready." She turned and closed the door, flashing a smile to Charles across the room before she pulled the blinds shut.

"It's 6:00. I don't see him." Liza stood outside of the office building with Diana as she waited for her date to arrive. She shivered, running her hands up and down her arms. It was the end of July, but a storm was rolling in, and the temperature had dropped significantly, and the wind was picking up.

"Well, good night then." Diana shook her head and started to turn, but Liza grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Oh, no, no, no. You're going on this date. A great guy fell into your lap and you are going to go out with him. It's midtown at 6 PM, he's probably just stuck in traffic."

Diana sighed, reluctant, but didn't move. "You're annoying when you're happy."

"If I wasn't so happy I might be offended by that statement." Diana chuckled, but her response was cut off by a series of loud honks emitting from a white utility van that was pulling up to the curb.

"Oh, good god, I'm going on a date with my plumber."

Liza grinned and pushed Diana towards the curb, taking a few steps backs to watch Diana. The man that got out of the van was probably in his late thirties and was very handsome. He looked Italian, and was dressed in a nice suit. If it weren't for the giant plumbing service ad on the side of the van, Liza would have thought he was another Midtown businessman.

"Is that Diana's hot date?" She turned to see Charles leaning up against the outside of the building. He had taken his tie off and unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt.

"Hey! Yeah, it is." She waved and laughed as Diana gave her one last apprehensive glance before the van drove off. "I didn't know if you were still here."

"I was waiting for you." He reached out a hand for hers, taking her smaller one in his larger hand. "Ready to go?"

"You bet." She intertwined her fingers with his, leaning her head on his shoulder as they walked down the street to their waiting car. "What's on the agenda for tonight?"

"Frozen, probably, for the 10th time this week. Ahh, shoot." Charles shook his head as he opened the car door for Liza before sliding in next to her. "Pauline will be there. She took the girls to the zoo this afternoon and offered to wait at the townhouse until I got home."

"Do you want me to go?" She certainly didn't want to but didn't want to cause Charles any problems.

"No. She needs to get used to seeing us together. It'll be fine." He squeezed Liza's hand reassuringly as they pulled into traffic, but there was something in his tone that made Liza think he might not be entirely confident in his assurances.

As Charles and Liza made their way slowly through the busy streets of Manhattan, Pauline was pawing through the drawers in Charles's master bath, looking for a band-aid. She had gotten a papercut while going through some art supplies with Nicole and was swearing as she opened a second drawer. Of course he had reorganized everything, she thought, or maybe his precious girlfriend didn't like how Pauline organized her toiletries.

She had told herself that she wasn't going to be bitter, but she couldn't help it. Seeing Charles and Liza all cozy at the 4th of July party had just pushed her over the edge. She had spent the last two weeks trying to forget about it, but she found herself obsessing over it. On more than one occasion, usually during one of her restless nights in her hotel, she had found herself, for lack of a better word, stalking Liza and her friends on social media. Liza didn't have a Facebook and had apparently set her Instagram to private within the past week, because Pauline could no longer see her posts. But Kelsey's profiles were open, as were Liza's daughters' accounts. Pauline had drank/cried herself to sleep when she had stumbled across a picture of Charles, Liza and the girls on Caitlin's Instagram page. It was the next day when she had given that scathing interview, hungover and jealous.

Shaking her head, she opened up the medicine cabinet behind the mirror in Charles's bathroom. She saw a box of Band-Aids and reached for them but faltered when she saw a makeup bag sitting on the shelf next to the box. She blinked, taking a step back and noticing the curling iron sitting unplugged, a bottle of peach scented lotion next to the sink. She pulled open the shower curtain and saw bottles of woman's shampoo sitting next to Charles's, a bottle of coconut body wash next to the brick of soap. Pauline whipped the curtain shut and walked out of the bathroom into the bedroom. A pair of woman's slippers laid next to what used to be her side of the bed. A garment bag holding a royal blue dress hung on the back of the bedroom door. Closing her eyes for a moment, she pulled open the door to the walk-in closet. She saw mostly Charles's clothes, but one side of the closet was partially filled with colorful dresses and tops. Liza's clothes. She ran her hands across some of the material, recognizing a few of the items. She stepped out of the closet, closing the door and sitting down on the edge of the bed.

You need to move on, Pauline, she told herself repeatedly as she took some deep breathes. He has, so you should too. She stood, returning to the bathroom to retrieve that damn Band-Aid and close the drawers she had been rifling through. Downstairs, she heard the front door open and close. He was home.

"Bianca, Dad's home!" Nicole yelled up the stairs as Charles and Liza stepped through the front door.

"Hey, sweet pea, how was the zoo?" Charles leaned down to give Nicole a hug as she ran over to him.

"It was so cool. I got to touch an elephant, Daddy!"

"That's awesome. Where's your Mom?"

"I'm right here." Pauline climbed down the steps behind Bianca, who ran across the room and threw herself at Liza and Charles. Charles didn't miss the flash of anger that crossed Pauline's face as she watched Bianca hug Liza. "Hello Charles. Liza."

Liza detected the animosity in Pauline's voice and decided to make herself scarce. I should have just gone home, she thought, as she stepped away from Charles.

"Why don't I go start some dinner? Bianca, Nicole, do you want to come help?"

"You're certainly making yourself comfortable here." Pauline muttered snidely, after the girls had exited the room.

"Don't start with this, Pauline." Charles replied, his voice taking on a cool and firm tone. Liza squared her shoulders and looked Pauline in the eyes. "Yes, I am. You're just going to have to get used to this Pauline," she said, as she slipped an arm around Charles' waist, "I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon."

She shot daggers at both of them as she picked up her coat and purse. Ignoring Liza, she turned to Charles. "I'll see you tomorrow." She slammed the front door behind her, and Charles let out a heavy sigh. "So much for her being civil."

"What's tomorrow?"

"Our meeting about the divorce with our attorneys. Should be a fun morning." He groaned, rolling his neck and letting out another heavy sigh. Liza moved behind him, reaching up to massage his shoulders. She felt taught muscles underneath his shirt and had to remind herself that the girls were just a few rooms away. "You're so tense, babe." She leaned into his back, whispering into his ear. "Maybe you should get a massage later."

Charles stirred at her words, his whole body responding to her as he turned to kiss her. "I'd like that." He whispered huskily. He leaned in, kissing that spot just below her ear that usually set her off, grinning as she pushed him back, a bemused look in her eyes.

"I need to get in the kitchen before Bianca and Nicole blow it up. Why don't you have a drink and relax, and I'll let you know when dinner is ready." Liza leaned in and kissed him gently before kicking off her heels and walking down the hall, turning to smile at him as she pushed open the door to the kitchen. He grinned back, instantly feeling the weight lift from his shoulders. As long as he had her, he knew everything would be okay.

Charles walked into the bedroom a few hours later after tucking the girls in to find Liza perched on the edge of the bed, waiting for him. The ceiling light was off, and she had tossed a scarf over the bedside lamp, casting the room in an orangish-pink glow. She had lit a few candles around the room, the light flickering and casting shadows across the walls.

"Lock the door." She directed him, standing and walking towards him. He swallowed hard as he reached behind him, locking the door. She looked like some sort of ethereal goddess, her hair cascading over her shoulders in waves, wearing a lacy black pajama set. "It's time for your massage." Charles ran his hands over her body as she reached up to unbutton his shirt, pulling the fabric out of his suit pants and pushing it off of his shoulders. He had lost his shoes and socks earlier when he and Liza had chased the girls around. He took a deep breath as she locked eyes with him, her eyes glinting mischievously as she fiddled with his belt. His breath hitched as he felt her tug on the zipper and push his pants to the floor. He never had experienced such sensuality in undressing as he had with Liza. It added a whole new level to foreplay that he had never experienced with anyone else.

She tilted her head towards the bed. "I'll be right back." She walked into the bathroom as he climbed onto the bed, laying down on his stomach and resting his head on a pillow. She came out a minute later, holding a bottle of clear liquid. "Baby oil." He chuckled, resting his head on his arms. He had to resist turning over and kissing her as she climbed up onto the bed and straddled his waist, her legs on the outside of his.

"So tense." She whispered, leaning over to plant a kiss between his shoulder blades, her hair tickling his bare back as her lips grazed his skin. Liza smiled to herself as she heard a sharp intake of breath come from the man underneath her as she dropped a couple drops of oil onto his back and started massaging it into his skin. He really was tense, she thought, as she rubbed his back in concentric circles trying to work out the knots she felt in his shoulders. She leaned forward again, kissing his neck in the same spot he always kissed her, moving up to nip at his earlobe.

Charles moaned contentedly underneath her, completely relaxed, but using all of his willpower to resist turning over and flipping Liza on her back. How they hadn't done this before blew his mind. He let his mind wander for a minute, thinking back on their first few times together. They had quickly become wholly uninhibited with each other, trying new positions that brought them both extreme amounts of satisfaction. He was more in sync with her sexually than he had ever been with a partner before. She could turn him on with one look, one smile, one graze of her lips across his. He never would have imagined in his wildest dreams that the first time that he had met her in Diana's office that they would be together like this. He had been so closed off then, had had zero interest in dating anyone or even considering dating anyone. He didn't think it was necessarily love at first sight, but it was something so familiar about her that just set his heart at ease. Something like oh, hello, it's you. It's going to be you. The one I've been waiting for.

He felt Liza move backwards a little bit and couldn't help but groan loudly when her hands began to massage his lower back. She applied more pressure to the spot, pressing into his warm skin with her palm. She lowered her lips to him again, leaving a trail of wet kisses up his back. She reached her hands around and slid them down his arms to intertwine with his fingers, matching his sigh of contentedness. They lay there like that for a minute or two, enjoying the moment.

Liza gasped a moment later as Charles turned over and grabbed her waist, turning them over again so that he was hovering over her, smiling down at her, his eyes dark with desire. He lowered his head to kiss her, taking her mouth in his and kissing her hungrily. He had meant to kiss her gently, but god damn, he wanted her. Willing himself to slow down, he pulled back from her. "It's your turn." He whispered, his eyes flickering down to her swollen lips before kissing them gently. He moved slowly down her body, kissing or touching every inch of her skin. She gasped and arched up against him as he kissed her breasts while his free hand slipped between her thighs, pulling her lace pajamas down and slipping inside her.

"Charles." She moaned, her hips arching up against him. He moved his lips down to her stomach, her navel, his mouth quickly taking the place of his hand. She moaned again, reaching down to rake her fingers through his hair with one hand and clenching the sheets with another. She felt his hands grip onto her thighs and gave herself over completely to him, calling out his name again. He moaned against her and she felt the pressure building inside of her, like she would implode at any moment. Just as he felt her start to go over the edge he shifted, pulling his boxers down and slipping inside of her. She cried out and he moved to cover her mouth with his. He started to move quickly, but Liza moved her hand to press against his chest, which he had come to recognize as her wanting him to slow down. He quieted his pace, slowly moving against her as he stared into her eyes, watching her slowly become undone. She threw her head back and arched against him again, and he couldn't hold back anymore. He grasped her hands, holding them together over her head as he thrust into her hard, letting out a primal groan as she tightened around him and he came over the edge, collapsing on top of her.

"That was…." He began, but Liza cut him off, panting a little bit.

"Amazing, unbelievable, mind-blowing, fantastic?"

"All of the above." He propped himself up on his elbows as he lifted his head to kiss her gently, both of them completely spend. "I think we should do that every night."

Liza giggled, biting her lip. "I don't think I'd be able to walk if we did that every night." She sighed with satisfaction as he extricated himself from her and rolled over onto his side as Liza slipped her pajama bottoms back on and they slipped under the covers. She snuggled up against him, basking in the heat radiating off his body as he slipped his arm around her. Charles nuzzled his face against hers, his eyes closed, his arm wrapped tight around her, and Liza thought that this feeling might be the best in the world. Falling asleep with the one you love, who loves you, holding them and feeling perfectly, incandescently safe.

AN: I hope you like this chapter! I'm still trying to figure out how I want Liza's age lie to be dealt with, so please let me know if you have any suggestions. I'm kind of liking the idea of her doing some sort of interview or article rather than writing a book about it, but I'm still open to the idea. Let me know what you think or if there's anything you'd like to see in my upcoming chapters.