"Hi Emily, please come in." Alexis extend her hand to the young lady and invited her into the office.

"I'm sorry to barge in, I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Emily replied as she looked over at the desk and saw the pile of paperwork Alexis had been going through.

"It was time for a break anyway." Alexis shrugged off the workload staring at her.

"How can I be of help to you?" she continued.

"Well, I'm not sure." Emily giggled. "I was suppose to meet Mr. Lansing, he hired me yesterday as a clerk. I'm assuming to be of some help to you?"

"Yes, Ric mentioned that. But I thought he said you'd be arriving tomorrow."

"Was it tomorrow? Yeah I guess it was." Emily realized she had reported to work on the wrong day and went to leave.

"Wait....if you'd like to help me out today ....?" Alexis stopped Emily just short of the door.

"You mean it? I mean ... I'd love too." Emily quickly replied as she turned on her heel.

Alexis laughed a little at Emily's enthusiasm. "Of course I mean it. I really could use another pair of hands today." She said as she showed Emily the pile of files sitting on her desk.

"Yeah I can see that." The two of them giggled together. Though Emily much young then Alexis, Alexis felt an instant connection to the young lady who was obviously ambitious and enthused about working in the DA's office.

The two of them went through the pile of files before Ric came back a few hours later. He peeked in on Alexis and found Emily sitting behind her desk, Alexis no where to be found.

"Um, excuse me ..." Ric said as he stepped into the office and approached Emily.

"Hi .. you must be Mr. Lansing? Sorry." Emily quickly got up from the high back swivel chair and went to greet Ric.

"And you are?"

"Oh, sorry ... Emily .. Emily Quartermaine."

Alexis came hurrying through the door and stopped quickly when she saw Ric had returned to the office.

"Hi ... I didn't think you'd be back this soon."

"Really? I told you I'd be back early afternoon. And actually I'm late." Ric said as he checked his wristwatch.

"Is it that late, already?" Alexis hurried to her desk and began to pack her briefcase.

"Going somewhere?" Ric asked.

"Uh, yeah .. Alex is waiting for me, I promised to ....."

"Yeah I know, he comes first." Ric rolled his eyes at Alexis list of priorities.

"Ric, he's my son .. so yeah he comes first."

"You have a son?" Emily asked as Alexis snapped her briefcase closed.

"Yes I do. He's going to be 18 soon."

When Alexis mentioned her son's age, Emily's face lit up. Finally someone else in town that she probably could relate to. Emily had her friends, good friends, but she sometimes got bored and to hear that there was a new guy in town, certainly piqued her interest.

"I hate to chat and run but Alex is waiting." Alexis headed for the door after she grabbed her coat from the chair. Ric standing in her way.

"Since you and Emily have gotten acquainted, I'm going to assign her to you." Ric said as he blocked Alexis from leaving the office in a hurry.

"Sure, that's fine with me. I look forward to working with her. She's a quick study."

"Good. I'll see you tomorrow." Ric replied and stepped out of the way so Alexis could pass.

"Bright and early." she smiled as she turned and looked over her shoulder.

"Good .. we have a lot of work to do tomorrow ...." Ric's words drifted off as he noticed Alexis probably wouldn't hear him cause she hurried out the door and couldn't get out of the office fast enough.

Emily cleared her throat and Ric turned towards her. "Yeah you can go too." Ric smiled. Emily gathered her things quickly and was heading towards the door when Ric reminded her about coming in the next day.

"You heard Ms. Davis. Bright and early tomorrow."

"I'll be here." Emily replied and she disappeared down the corridor, on her way to meet her friends at Kelly's for lunch.

All the way home, Alexis had her mind on her young new clerk. She was cute, sure Alex would be interested in meeting someone his age, being in town not all that long, Alex might enjoy meeting Emily. Alexis smiled at the thought of her son and the young lady she had just met. She pulled up to the curb and parked her SUV outside the building. She gathered her things and got out of the truck. She locked the doors and walked up to the building, saying hello to the door man who opened the door for her. Alexis stepped inside and walked to the elevators, across from the front desk.

"Ms. Davis?" The clerk called her name.

"Yes ...." she replied and walked towards him.

"Your son left a message for you." the clerk said and handed her a pink slip of paper.

Alexis smiled and took the message from him.

"Went exploring. Be back soon. Zander"

"Thanks." she smiled at the clerk and walked back towards the elevators. She just wanted to relax and she could feel the warm water surrounding her body as she rode the elevator to the suite.

"Sorry I'm late." Emily said as she hurried through the door of Kelly's, Elizabeth and Lucky already sitting at one of the tables.

"It's alright, we just got her a few minutes ago." Lucky said as Emily took a seat and removed her coat.

Emily wasn't sitting long with her friends, when he walked in. She turned towards the door and saw him stroll through the doors of the diner. He caught her attention immediately, his coal black hair, his passionate eyes, she stared at him as he walked by and smiled. She smiled in return and followed him with her eyes, as he walked up to the counter and sat down.

Emily was mesmerized by the young man who sat at the counter reading the menu, Elizabeth and Lucky both had difficulty tearing her focus away from the stranger.

"Em .... are you okay?" Elizabeth asked as she tugged at Emily.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine ...." still in a daze and concentrating on the dark haired stranger who had grabbed her attention.

"Yeah sure you are." Elizabeth giggled as she noticed the focus of Emily's attention.

"Why don't you go up there and say hello?" she suggested with a smile.

"I can't do that." Emily refused.

"Why not? He seems to be alone, and he doesn't look like he's waiting for anyone. Besides, you know you want to." Elizabeth nudged her friend.

Emily took the suggestion and got up from her seat. She walked slowly towards the young man, thinking of all the stupid things she probably would end up saying to this gorgeous guy. She cleared her throat quietly as she approached him.

"Hi ..." she said and he turned around. His eyes intense and looking right at her. She smiled.

"Hi .." he returned and smiled.

"I'm sorry ..." she turned to go back to the table quickly.

"I'm Zander, by the way." he replied and she turned back around towards him.

"Emily .... my name's Emily."