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Zoey nervously drummed her fingers alongside the take-out cup of coffee that she had stopped for on her way into work this morning. Not that she needed the caffeine boost, she was already jittery enough at what would await her at work. That is, once she had enough courage to step out of the elevator. So far, she had stood rooted in her spot in the elevator for at least four stops now. But the weird looks from her fellow co-workers were a lot easier to deal with than with the repercussions that came with kissing your boss in the back of a car after a disastrous night out.

Who knows though, best case scenario, Joan might've been just drunk enough that she had completely forgotten about the kiss. Or was that the worst-case scenario? Not knowing which would she wanted it to be only freaked Zoey out more and was the catalyst for one more elevator ride before stepping off on the floor she worked on but that idea was halted when a hand smacked against the side of the elevator and held it so it stayed open.

"What are you doing, you weirdo?" Max asked, smiling at her with that crooked smile. "I've counted three elevator stops, are you going for a world record or something?"

"Actually, there were four and yes I am," Zoey laughed it off, hoping that Max didn't pick up on any weirdness because she couldn't even begin to explain this to him. Especially not after hearing his heart songs. That would be like rubbing salt in his wounds.

Max gave a jerk of his head back to their office space. "Well come on, there's something we need to talk about."

"What happened?" Zoey asked urgently as she fell in step behind Max. He couldn't possibly know what happened. No one could. There was no way. "Is there a crisis? Does it involve me?"

Max was leading her to where the other coders had formed a huddle around a computer but he stopped at that. "Why would it involve you? Did something happen that I don't know?"

"No, what?" Zoey stammered. Her fingers were back to nervously tapping against her coffee cup. "I have no news. Just tell me what you're talking about."

Max leaned in, as if most of the office didn't already know. "Joan and Charlie are getting a divorce."

"Oh," Zoey sighed, a wave of relief washed over her that this news wasn't about her.

He pulled back from her. "Unless you already knew that."

"I might've heard a rumor," she played it off because it's not like Max needed to know that Joan had confided in her after she relentlessly pursued the deeper meaning behind Joan's first heart song which led to her playing couple's counselor for them which then led to a new bond between them that had culminated in a drunk Joan kissing after she burned down a rose wall at an engagement party.

Yeah, that she was definitely keeping to herself.

"Hey, I like rumors," Max joked.

Zoey smiled at him. "Okay, well next time I hear our rumor about our boss getting divorced, I'll pass it on."

"That's all I'm asking."

"What are we asking for?" Joan asked, popping up out of nowhere and scaring the pair. "Are we talking about the boss' divorce too? I've already been over it but you two can catch the highlights from the other coders who think that my personal life is their business."

"Sorry," Max quickly apologized. "I just wanted to offer my condolences."

"Okay," Joan replied with a nod of her head and an unimpressed look on her face. She, then, turned to face Zoey. "We need to talk in my office."

Before Zoey could ask why or object, not that she would object an order from Joan because that was asking for trouble, Joan turned on her heel and left Zoey nervous and fidgeting once again. She shared a look with Max, one that was their usual whenever Joan demanded one of them in her office, before she followed in Joan's footsteps. She took the time to drop all her stuff on her desk before practically sprinting to Joan's office.

"You wanted to talk?" Zoey asked as cool as she could in spite of how she felt. "What's up?"

"Well, moving past that," Joan replied. She sat at her desk and pushed her tablet across the desk to Zoey. "Leif had a new idea and it was, surprisingly, good. Needs some work but there's real potential there."

"Um, okay," Zoey drug out the last syllable as she approached the desk and picked up the tablet. She tapped and swiped at the screen for a new product design called The Chirp. "This was Leif's idea?"

Joan nodded her head. "I was just as surprised as you are. He pitched it to me at Simon's engagement party, which I'm sure you remember."

Zoey could feel her cheeks heating up and her breath was caught in her chest as Joan gave her a very similar look to the one she gave her a couple nights ago. Or maybe she was imagining it. She let out a little nervous laugh. "So…um…Leif's idea?" she asked, just trying to get back on track.

"Once he pitched the idea to me, I couldn't get it out of my head. We met yesterday to go over the logistics and design for the product and since you are his supervisor now, I wanted to loop you in before we give the presentation."

"We?" Zoey questioned.

"Leif and Me," Joan answered. "Of course, we'll be bringing you into this but, for now, we'll give the presentation."

"So, you called me in here to show me the idea?"

Joan gave her a look and Zoey regretted even wasting her breath asking the question when the answer was obvious. Of course, she had been called in her to talk about Leif's idea. The idea that she didn't even know he had and that kind of bothered her since she was his superior but Joan was the one that said they needed a new idea, so, of course, he would go to her first. At the very least, Joan was looping her in now so she wasn't totally bombarded by their presentation. That was...something.

"Never mind," she said dismissing her own question. She looked away from Joan and back to the tablet in hand that showed sketches of Leif's idea. She looked back up when Joan began speaking.

"I was going to fill you in more before we gave the presentation but you decided to use the elevator as your own personal amusement park ride this morning and wasted precious time."

Zoey cringed. "You saw that?"

"I see everything, Zoey."

"Right," she said with a nod of her head. She, then, gestured to the tablet in her hand. "And this is all you called me in here for?"

Joan gave a nod of her head. "Yes, Zoey."

"Right."

She crossed her arms on her desk. "I need you to round up everyone and let them know that we'll be giving a presentation soon. Also, I need Leif in here, if you'll let him know for me."

"Aye-aye captain!" Zoey said with a mock salute to her boss that she instantly regretted. "That I can do."

"Don't ever do that again," Joan said half-heartedly.

Reflexively, Zoey gave her a thumbs up. "You got it!"

Flushed with embarrassment, Zoey turned on her heel and set out to do as Joan had asked of her. Before she got to the office door, Joan's voice was calling her back.

"Zoey?"

"Yes?" She asked a little too eager as she turned around to face her boss.

Joan clicked her tongue and pointed at the tablet still in Zoey's hand. "That's mine."

Zoey hurried back over to Joan's desk and handed over the tablet. She couldn't help but notice that during the exchange of the tablet, Joan's hand lingered on hers a little longer than normal and she smiled before taking the tablet completely away and then used the same hand to gesture in a shooing motion. Zoey bowed her head before turning back around and finally exiting the office.

Zoey considered hiding herself in one of those isolation pods where their sole purpose was total isolation and complete focus on one's work. After the morning she had, being in complete isolation with her tablet and a true crime podcast episode as her only company sounded almost perfect. But she guessed as a supervisor, she needed to be more available to those she was supposed to be supervising, so she settled on another chair in which to curl up and code.

She had successfully avoided Simon for most of the day and the few times that she couldn't avoid him, Max, she was ever thankful for him, jumped in and saved her from a whole bunch of awkwardness. They even decided to get out of the office and go to lunch together somewhere not on a campus. A fact she was also ever thankful for because it got her out of the way of Simon and Joan.

Joan.

That was a different story today. Usually, before these last couple of weeks, she avoided Joan for different reasons. Since she wasn't completely sure how she wanted things to happen with Joan after their drunken kiss in the back of a car, avoidance seemed like the best approach. However, avoiding Joan wasn't as easy as it sounded. Especially today.

She had been called into a pseudo-meeting first thing this morning where Joan just wanted to show off Leif's idea and tell her that they'll loop her in more soon. Then, after the presentation, she was called back into Joan's office where she thought they were going to discuss their new tech idea but instead Joan just ended up telling her more details about her divorce and that she was doing really great. Save for a few bad mistakes. Zoey wasn't listened as a bad idea in Joan's list but maybe that was her way of hinting at it.

No, Joan was direct and blunt and didn't talk her way around things without ever getting to the actual point. So, that couldn't have been it. At least, Zoey didn't think so. And the idea of their kiss not being a mistake, calmed Zoey down a little even though she still had a nervousness about her. Then, just as she thought she could leave, Joan mentioned that she was thinking about getting back out there in the dating world. That she was ready.

Joan still hadn't mentioned their kiss or even alluded to it, not that Zoey thought she would at work, and she didn't want to overthink anything and assume that Joan was dropping a hint to her. That would be crazy. Joan was her boss. She couldn't date her boss.

Plus, there were still the feelings for Simon that just didn't disappear overnight like she had hoped they would. And then, there was the crown jewel that was Max who had sung a couple heart songs that further sent her spiraling into a land of confusion. He was her friend. Her best friend but apparently, he was harboring feelings for her like Simon, and like Joan maybe was now.

The whole thing was almost laughable. Yes, she had dated before and had boyfriends before, and a computer camp girlfriend that opened up her eyes to dating the same sex, but to have three people into her at the same time? That was a lot to process.

Not even the true crime podcast that she had blaring in her ears could drown out everything that was rolling around in her mind. And they usually calmed her down.

Plus, maybe Joan wasn't actually interested and it wasn't something that she needed to worry about. But there wasn't an easy way to find out that answer. One doesn't simply drunkenly kiss their boss and sweep it under the rug like nothing ever happened. Joan might've been too many drinks in to exclusively remember that part of the night but Zoey knew one thing, she couldn't forget it.

The only thing that jerked Zoey out of her rambling thoughts was the taking off of her headphones that she reflexively reached up for to find that Max was the one behind the interruption.

"This is a podcast about the Golden State Killer," Max said after listening to what was playing from her headphones.

"True crime calms me down," Zoey defended as she took her headphones back from Max.

"Okay, well since you were off in serial killer land, I'm going to say that you didn't notice Joan pointing and calling you into her office, oh for like the past two minutes now," Max replied and used his eyes to direct Zoey's attention to their boss' office where Joan sat with Leif.

Sure enough, Joan was watching them and moving her finger in a 'come hither' motion directing it at Zoey.

"Again?" Zoey complained. "That's like the third time today. What could she want now?"

Max shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, it's Joan, she could want literally anything. And I mean anything."

Zoey groaned. She thought she was in the clear for today but that didn't look like it was happening. "But calling me into the office three times? Seems like overkill for today."

"Maybe someone has a crush," Max teased.

Zoey's eyes widened at that. And she grew suspicious. "What?" she asked with a little nervous laugh. "Who said anything about that?"

"Relax Zoey, it was just a joke," Max assured her. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "Is everything okay? You seem a little off today."

She shook her head. "I'm just a little tired."

"Alright," Max said, his tone a little disbelieving. "Well you better go, don't want to keep Joan waiting any longer."

"Right," Zoey replied as she was already turning away from Max and heading towards Joan's office.

Back in Joan's office for the third time today, Zoey walked up to see Joan and Leif sitting on the same side of the desk. She politely knocked on the door-frame and waited for Joan to acknowledge her before she fully entered the office.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked.

"Finally," Joan said as she noticed Zoey. "You took long enough."

"Sorry, I was working on some code and I just got wrapped up in it," Zoey lied and hoped that Joan believed her.

"Good, that's why I called you in here," Joan replied, looking up at Zoey. "I have a few calls to make right now so I want you and Leif to get together and begin working more on this idea."

"Right now?" Zoey asked.

"Preferably yesterday because this is a golden idea of a product," Joan answered. "So, yes, right now."

"Okay," Zoey sighed. "Anything else?"

"Nope," Joan answered quickly, already shuffling papers around on her desk and reaching for her phone. "Just need you two to get started so we'll have something soon that we can actually present as a viable product."

Zoey nodded her head in response. With no more being said, she motioned for Leif to follow her out of Joan's office so they could find a spot to work as they were requested.

Later that night, after working the rest of her day with Leif who made it obvious that he would prefer to work with Joan, Zoey was finally packing up her things and getting ready to leave for the day. She slipped her headphones over her ears and started up another episode of a true crime podcast as she wound her way through the office and headed towards the elevator. Distant voices played over the voices coming through her headphones and her curiosity got the better of her. She slipped the headphones off and crept slowly towards the voices to find that Joan and Leif were standing in the conference room talking.

Her name popped up. That she wasn't surprised about since Leif seemed to relating everything back to Joan that they had worked on earlier. But what made her stop in her tracks, was when Leif started coming on to Joan. Judging by the look on her face, Joan seemed just as disturbed at what Leif was implying as she did. Her inner voice was screaming 'no' over and over again as music began to play in the background and Leif began to sing a heart song to Joan. Their boss.

Zoey was horrified. And not only because this was Leif and she had her own personal issues with him but his heart song was very telling of his intentions. If there was ever a time for her to interfere in her boss' personal life and stop her from making another bad mistake, this was it.

She just had to wait for Leif to finish singing because she knew that trying to interfere while someone was singing their heart song did not work out. That is if the idea of Leif trying to seduce their boss with terrible intentions didn't make her sick first. Luckily, the song was short and as soon as Leif was trying to hit on Joan again, Zoey rushed over to them.

"Hey guys, what's going on?"

She could tell Leif was mad at her when he spoke. "Actually Zoey, Joan and I were in the middle of something."

"Oh, I know," Zoey said, eyeing him carefully and wedging herself between the two. "I just had a few questions that I need to ask Joan."

"Leif," Joan said as she looked over Zoey's head at the guy in question. "I believe we're done here for the night. We'll reconvene in the morning."

Leif tried to protest but Joan cut him off and reiterated the fact that they could go over everything else tomorrow. Zoey looked over her shoulder to watch Leif begrudgingly pick up his things and leave. She tossed him a little smile and wave just to mess with him before she looked back to face Joan.

"You had some questions for me, Zoey?" Joan asked.

"Well, actually," Zoey took a few steps back from Joan. "Not really. I just...okay, here's the thing."

"Yes?"

She just needed to spit it out. "I'm your friend and I just had to tell you that I had a feeling that Leif was trying to come on to you and you mentioned your bad mistakes and Leif would definitely be a bad mistake. If not the worst. Plus, I'm pretty sure his intentions are sketchy."

Zoey waited for Joan's reactions and was both relieved and a little confused when she started to laugh.

"Oh my God, Leif?" Joan asked through a laugh. "Zoey, come on, give me some credit."

Zoey had started to laugh along with her. "It is a pretty ridiculous idea."

"Very," Joan said with a smile. "It would never happen. It flies in the face of everything I believe in regarding workplace professionalism. I'm his boss."

Zoey sucked in a deep breath. Maybe that was her answer. She wasn't even completely sure of her feelings for Joan or if she had any at all but hearing Joan talking about workplace professionalism felt like a punch in the gut when their kiss had been on her mind all day.

"Right, you're his boss, and that is totally unprofessional and wrong," Zoey started to babbled. "And you're very professional, so you wouldn't ever do that. Kiss one of your co-workers, that's absurd. And you're my boss too."

"Zoey," Joan interjected. "Are you done?"

"I guess I am now."

"Good. That was a lot of nonsense but I think I know what you're trying to say."

"You do?"

Joan gave a nod of her head. "If you're referring to Simon's engagement party, which is the only thing there is to refer to, I do remember what happened between us. And you're right, it was unprofessional."

"Right, unprofessional," Zoey agreed.

"But," Joan said as she took a step towards Zoey. "I don't regret what happened."

Zoey stood rooted in her spot. "You don't?"

"I was drunk, yes, very," she said as she took another step closer. "But I still knew what I was doing. Even if it was wrong."

Zoey stayed silent and stared up at Joan because in just a few seconds, Joan had closed the small gap between them and stood so close that they were almost touching. And now they were touching because Joan had reached out and brushed a few strands of hair that had fallen in front of her face.

"Do you regret what happened Zoey? You have been acting a little stranger than normal today."

"I..." Zoey tried to process all that was happening. "I don't."

"Okay," she smiled. "Let's have dinner."

"Tonight?"

Joan shook her head. "Not tonight, it's already late. Friday, I'll send a car to pick you up. Sound good?"

"Yep," Zoey found herself agreeing before she even knew exactly what it was that she was agreeing to. "Sounds great."

"Friday," Joan agreed. "I'll see you in the morning, Zoey."

As Zoey was trying to figure out what she agreed to by going to dinner with Joan, Joan was already packing up everything of hers that was spread out on the table beside them. She waved by to Joan as she exited and hope that her exit wasn't met with another heart song because after everything today, she wasn't sure if she could handle it. Zoey was grateful that she was only met with silence as she watched Joan walk out of view. She threw her headphones back on and immersed herself in a podcast as she hurried out of the building with her apartment in mind and to the one person that could help her navigate this new path that opened up because of her powers.

As always, reviews are appreciated.