Liza sighed as she closed the door to Diana's office, feeling only slightly guilty that she left Diana alone with the ever-exhausting Lauren. She loved the girl, but my goodness, she could wear out even the most energetic of human beings. Liza needed coffee if she was going to spend the whole day with Lauren flitting about the office. And she needed strong coffee, so she slid on her jacket to make a quick trip to the coffee shop down the block. The watered down office coffee just wasn't going to cut it today. And she'd get Charles a dose of his favorite dark roast. He'd be arriving any moment.

15 minutes later Liza was back and properly caffeinated. Charles had apparently slipped in while she was out, as evident by Diana's flushed face and cheeky remarks about Liza's relationship. Liza had just rolled her eyes and carried on. She could see Charles in his new office, the door opened just enough so that she could see boxes upon boxes upon boxes. Pauline had wasted no time in clearing his belongings out of Pound Ridge.

She pushed the door open and watched Charles for a moment. His back was to her as he leaned over an open box, his sweater pulled slightly taught against his back. As much as he could rock a suit, she loved semi-casual Charles.

"What's in all the boxes?" She said, stepping into the room and leaning against the door frame. Charles turned and smiled at her, a manuscript in his hand.

"20 years of old galleys, manuscripts I've never read, some books I probably should have published and didn't, and vice versa. Mostly junk, but I've got to go through it to be sure."

Liza smiled, handing over the cup of coffee.

"Oh, you're the best. From the shop down the street?"

"Your favorite. Only the best for you."

Charles leaned over and kissed her, leaving the aroma of coffee lingering around her. "You're the best. I love you."

"I love you too. But these boxes need to go. It's so crowded in here you can't even see the flowers someone sent you."

Charles leaned around a few boxes to see the bouquet of flowers hiding in the corner. "Oh," He said softly, his eyes and his smile turning soft. "God, it's good to be home."

"Even if it does look like an episode of Hoarders." Liza smirked, stepping aside as a mover pushed into the room, carrying 3 more boxes.

"Where do you want the rest of these, boss?"

Liza lifted the top box off of the stack. "Oh, you can take the rest of these to my office, please." She turned to Charles – "We can sort through it all, together."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Goddamnit." Liza groaned. She'd just spun around in her desk chair and had proceeded to knock over a box of Charles' stuff. The 3rd box in 15 minutes that she'd managed to empty of its contents. She slid down onto the floor, picking up the jumbled items. A note scribbled on a manuscript caught her eye and she paused – the note was to Charles, from his father.

The door creaked and was pushed open by Charles. "Wow. My god."

Liza smiled, doing her best to pretend that she didn't mind her office resembling a storage unit. She had volunteered it, after all.

"Just a little accident, no worries. What's up?"

"Do you want me to pick you up at your place tonight?"

Liza quickly searched her mind and drew a blank. "For…?"

"The Reading Project fundraiser.

"Crap! That's tonight?"

"Mmhm. In Tuxedo Park. It's pure hell, but I have to go. You're off the hook if you want."

"No, no, I want to go. I just forgot it was tonight. We can suffer together…in evening wear!"

Charles chuckled and leaned down to pick up some of the items scattered across the floor. "Actually, it's only the eighth circle of hell. The ninght is going through these boxes."

."Oh, this one just fell open. I don't mind." Charles looked at her speculatively, his eyesbrows raised.

"I'm not really a glutton for punishment."

Charles reached out a hand and helped her up. "Let me know if you still feel that way after tonight."

Liza smiled and watched him disappear back out into the hallway. She reached down, grabbed the mysterious manuscript, and tucked it into her desk.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Your friend Michelle seems nice," Charles commented as the town car crossed over the bridge into Brooklyn. Liza was uncharacteristically quiet in the car. She leaned her head against his shoulder, their fingers intertwined, and she kept tracing a figure eight pattern his hand with her thumb.

"Yeah," Liza sighed quietly. "She's nice. Her heart is in the right place."

Charles noticed her tone and looked over at her. "You alright?"

Liza glanced at him and plastered her best fake smile on her face. "I am. Honestly. I'm just tired." She was a lot of things, and tired was one of them. But the night had been a bit of a shock to her system, and she needed time to process. And her thoughts kept drifting back to the manuscript sitting on the coffee table in the loft. She leaned over and kissed Charles on the cheek as they pulled up to the apartment. "I'll see you tomorrow. I love you."

As much as he didn't want to let go of her hand, Charles did. She was holding something back, and she wasn't hiding it well. He knew enough about women to not push the subject, but it was eating at him. Whatever was bothering her, he would get it out of her eventually. For someone who lied about her age for years, she wasn't good at masking her emotions.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Liza slid the door to her office shut and leaned back against it, sighing heavily. The peace and quiet of her office felt like her only tether to sanity today. She'd stayed up until the early hours of the night reading the manuscript she'd grabbed from the box, and it had totally captured her attention. It was beautifully written – colorful and vivid but you could tell that the author had lived the story. There was a familiar tone to the writing that she couldn't quite place. Romantic but not overdone, amusing but not obnoxious. It was a book that would appeal to the masses. And it was unfinished.

She could hear Kelsey and Zane bickering down the hall, so she turned some music on while she caught up on her emails. Her mind quickly drifted from the to-do list Diana had emailed to her before traipsing off to Staten Island with Enzo for a baptism. She was having a bit of a crisis, to be honest. Her life seemed to be reaching a crossroads, and she needed to either choose a path or carve her own. The past two years had given her some of the best experiences of her life, but there was no part of her that wanted to continue to act like a twenty-something. The people in her life were growing up – Josh had a daughter and was growing up quick. She'd come across him this morning preparing to sell his most prized possession – his motorcycle. He'd offered to take her for a final spin, but she'd declined. There was a look in Josh's eyes when he looked at her that Liza was all too familiar with, and she refused to lead him on. That chapter of her life was closed. And then there was this new life, with Charles. She loved him, loved being with him, but didn't want to become what Maggie had referred to as a "banquet barbie", hopping from one function to another in a string of rented ball gowns. She needed to figure out how to move forward, and she needed to do it fast.

Her door swung open and Kelsey stomped into her office and collapsed on a chair. "Ugh."

"That went well, didn't it?" Liza smirked, referring to the meeting they had just had with Charles and Zane.

"They're infuriating. The both of them."

"You're not going to win every battle, Kels. You're going to have to give them an inch or two on occasion. You kinda killed their entire slate."

"I get that. I just want the first book we publish together to be, like, great. And we're not having any luck. I'm looking for something romantic, something commercial, like a John Grisham or Nicholas Sparks."

Liza bite her lip, debating.

"What? I can see you thinking, and if you're not careful you're going to chew a hole right through your lip."

"What if I told you that Charles does have a book? It's totally on par with Nicholas Sparks. It's set in the Hamptons, about a college kid working on a lobster boat who has an affair with a wealthy, older, married woman."

Kelsey sat up in her seat. "Now, that's interesting. Why did Charles not pitch me that?"

"I'm not even sure he knows he has it. I found the manuscript in some boxes that got sent over from Pound Ridge."

"Well, who's the writer? How do we know that it hasn't already been published?"

"It hasn't, I checked. Possibly because it's not finished."

Kelsey blew out a sigh and rolled her eyes. "You want me to consider an old, unfinished novel, Liza?"

"It's really commercial, I promise. And if you like it, we can have Charles get back in contact with the writer." Liza pulled the manuscript out of her bag and handed it to Kelsey.

"Does he even know that you're giving this to me?"

"He doesn't even know that I found it. Just read it. And if you don't like it, don't mention it to Charles. After the beating this afternoon, he doesn't need another pass.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that evening…

Liza stepped out of the cab, gathering the skirts of her dress up to avoid a small puddle. She had butterflies in the pit of her stomach. She'd taken a couple hours off this afternoon, needing to get out of the office. She was nervous about Charles' reaction when he found out about the manuscript. She'd heard nothing from Kelsey all afternoon, and wasn't sure if that was a good sign or bad, and now, she felt, it was time to face the music.

She turned the corner to the hotel where the event was being held and her breath caught. Charles stood facing away from her, hands in the pocket of his perfectly cut black tux. He could rock a tuxedo like no other man she had ever met before.

"Hi," she whispered, coming up behind him and placing a hand on his back. Charles turned, smiling down at her.

"Hi. Wow. You look beautiful." He slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her close to him. "Where'd you disappear to this afternoon?"

Liza bit her lip again. He was wasting no time. "I was playing hooky. I needed to cut loose for a few hours."

"Mmmhmmm." He kissed her forehead. "You mean you had to disappear while Kelsey read the manuscript that you found in my personal papers? You were snooping."

"Honestly, the box, it just fell open….and…and I read it and it was such a beautifl story and I…Yes, I was snooping."

Charles laughed and pulled her closer to him. "Liza, the summer I turned 21, I had an affair with the wife of a famous author. She was beautiful but dissatisfied. She was always looking over her shoulder and she thought that a fling with a younger man would make her feel young too. And for awhile, it was exciting for the both of us. That's the part you read."

Liza leaned back and looked up at him, stunned. "You wrote the book."

"Everyone's got one novel." Charles answered, his voice quiet.

"Why didn't you finish it?"

"Because in the end, I realized it would hurt too many people."

"Charles, the writing was wonderful. Is wonderful. I couldn't get enough."

"I'm not really a writer, Liza. But I knew what it was like to be that young, heedless man. And I understood the mind of a woman in her 40s who was bored with her life and who needed validation."

Liza looked into his eyes and something clicked in her brain. It was like all of sudden they were seeing each other in a new light, and for some inexplicable reason the look in his eyes seemed to calm the anxiety that had been bubbling up within her over the past few days.

"Will you make me a promise, Charles?"

"Anything."

"Promise that you'll at least think about finishing the book. It could be amazing. For you, for the company. Just think about it."

Charles paused for a moment, debating. His instinct was to refuse but there was a part of him, buried deep down, that desperately wanted to finish the book. He'd been drawn back to it time and again over the years, but had never found the inspiration to finish the story. But maybe, now, the inspiration was standing right in front of him, wearing a pretty purple dress.

"I 'll think about it." Charles glanced at the building and sighed. "I really don't want to go to this party, do you?"

Liza laughed and shook her head.

"While we're on the subject of promises, can we promise each other one thing?"

"Of course."

"That in the future, we never ever do anything together that we don't want to do."

"I like that."

Charles grinned and glanced around, overcome with sudden whimsy. "Why wait?" He said, mostly to himself.

"What?"

Charles grabbed Liza's hand, intertwining his fingers with hers. "Let's make a run for it."

"What?"

"Let's go!" And before she could say anything, Charles pulled her around the stone wall and out onto the sidewalk.

Liza laughed and, feeling perfectly relaxed and completely in love, let Charles lead her into the night.