A/N: HELLO MY FRIENDS! I have returned. Wow, life sure has been wild the last couple of years. Lots of life changes, the pandemic, and now I'm back in school! But this week I'm off and I got the writing bug something fierce. Please enjoy these next few chapters and let me know if you catch some of the pop culture + song lyrics references I snuck in there :)

1.08

"Are you sure you're 26?"

Liza pushed away the panic rising inside of her. She swallowed, trying to be coy. "And what if I wasn't?"

Charles gave her a quizzical look, but didn't seem put-off by her question. "What if you weren't 26?"

She nodded. "Yeah. What difference would it make?"

Now it was Charles' turn to stifle his rising panic. How on earth was he supposed to respond to that?

He swallowed hard, working very hard to maintain his cool exterior. He gave her a small smile. "Well it would certainly explain a lot."

"Like what?" she pressed. She was genuinely curious as to what parts of her true self seeped through the cracks of her carefully crafted millennial persona and exposed themselves to the world.

Charles was unsure how to respond. How could he be honest without laying all of his cards on the table? There had to be a diplomatic way to handle this.

But she was asking, wasn't she? Clearly she wanted to hear his thoughts.

He needed to be sure. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yeah, I do."

The sincerity in her voice was almost startling, but it reassured him nonetheless.

"I hope this doesn't sound too strange coming from your boss, but…"

She smiled at him. "I think we are beyond the baseline 'employee/boss' relationship, don't you? How many other co-workers have you let into your home? Or trusted with your daughters?"

"Fair point," he conceded. "Well regardless, I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

She dismissed this thought with a wave of her hand. "I appreciate your concern, but there's nothing to worry about. We're both adults here."

He smiled again. "If you say so." He paused, considering how to begin. "You seem to have an old soul. I've thought so since the day we met. First time I saw you, you were having lunch at your desk and reading Look Homeward, Angel, And I thought... 'Who does that?'"

Liza felt her cheeks warm at this admission. Charles continued, "And you almost always have some insight to offer that seems wise beyond your years. Your interests don't always align with those of your friends and co-workers who are around your age. I hate to stereotype, but you're the farthest thing from a typical millennial that I've ever met."

He blushed a little once he finished speaking. Had he really just said all those things? He took another comforting drink of whiskey.

Liza didn't appear to be the least bit uncomfortable. In fact, she almost looked…thrilled. But surely not. What could he possibly have said to illicit that kind of reaction?

"What are you smiling about?" He couldn't help but ask. Her expression puzzled him.

She shook her head. "It's nothing. You just…you've read me pretty well. Really well, if we are being honest."

"I don't run a publishing company for nothing," Charles joked, giving Liza a small smile.

Her cheeks colored a darker shade of pink. "You're the first person at Empirical to see the real me."

Charles quirked an eyebrow at her. "Kelsey? Diana?"

Liza shook her head. "They see what they want to see. With all due respect," she added, not wanting to bad-mouth Diana to their boss, who she cared about a great deal despite everything.

This just added Charles' confusion. "How so?"

Liza swallowed and didn't answer right away. Charles noticed she seemed much more anxious than she had been when they started this conversation.

"You didn't really answer my question," she replied at last. "About what difference it would make."

Now it was Charles' turn to be anxious, the potential consequences of answering weighing on him like an anvil. She was anxious, that much was clear, but was it because of him? Or something else?

He cleared his throat. "Ah...the difference it would make is..." He couldn't decide how to finish his sentence.

Somehow she had moved closer without him noticing. Could she hear the staccato of his heart?

Breathing in the smell of him and his whiskey was almost enough to send her right into his arms, but Liza managed to maintain control.

She took a deep breath. "I'm not 26."

Shock and hope simultaneously flooded his entire being.

"I'm..." she hesitated.

Charles scoffed good-naturedly. "You're what? 33?"

Liza shook her head mutely.

"35?"

When she shook her head again, Charles could feel himself almost become dizzy from everything going through his mind. Could she really be...

"40?"

She looked him dead in the eye, her own filled with a spark of fear and a lot of hope, and she nodded.

When he didn't immediately respond, the whole story came spilling out of her.

"I just wanted to get back into the industry I loved and help my kid," she finished, letting out a long sigh.

Charles moved slightly closer to her, checking to see if she angled herself away. When she did not, he moved close enough to place a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"You're a great mom," he said, giving her a reassuring squeeze. "I hope I would be brave enough to do something like that for my girls."

Liza's eyes grew watery, but she managed to keep the tears at bay. She did, however, quickly move to envelop Charles in a tight hug.

"Thank you for understanding" she said softly while she fought to control her sniffles.

His embrace was solid and comforting, just like he was. "We all do crazy things when it comes to our kids. I had to watch a YouTube video on how to French braid."

Liza laughed, pulling away slightly. "It just takes practice. Once you do it a few times you'll be a pro."

Charles touched a lock of her hair. "You seem to have it down pat, based on the elaborate braids you've had at work."

"I didn't realize you'd noticed," she said playfully.

"I notice a lot of things when it comes to you."

The tension between them was palpable, but neither was sure they could cross that line.

"Can we do this?" Liza asked, practically in a whisper.

Every instinct in him was screaming at him to GO FOR IT. But he knew better than to act on impulse when it came to matters of the heart.

"We can," he replied, taking her hand in his. "But I'd like to take some time first. To get to know more about 40-year-old Liza the mom. To know your favorite songs and to hear about your dreams."

Liza smiled at him. "I'd like that. But first..."

She leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. When she pulled back, Charles followed her with a kiss of his own — still gentle, but more fervent.

After they pulled apart, Liza snuggled against him, and Charles thought his heart might burst. "I'd like to get to know the real Charles, too," she said, burrowing her head into his shoulder. "The outside the office, YouTube watching dad Charles."

"I'd like that."

"And...I'd like it if you met my daughter next time she's in town."

"I'd like that too. I would introduce you to mine, but it seems like they might like you better than me already, so I don't think another introduction is necessary."

"They are wonderful. You're a great dad."

"I'm trying. It's not always easy," he admitted.

"Well, I'm here now. Anything you need, just ask. I can even do live French braid tutorials."

"What more could I want?" Charles smiled at her and kissed the top of her head.

It was not an evening either of them expected, but it was one that gave them exactly what they needed.