"Dessler." she answered as she walked across the floor to her station.

"You busy next week?" came the sultry voice from the other end of the phone.

"It's my vacation, you know that." she replied as she sat at her desk.

"Well, I had a nice, long conversation with that pain-in-the-ass director, Almeida I think his name is, anyway, he gave me the week off as well." he stated matter-of-factly. She smiled and turned to look towards that office where her man was sure to be sitting. "Do you mind if I crash your vacation?" he asked, knowing full well what her answer would be. He looked down at her, raising an eyebrow in question. She turned away, trying to hide her excitement. However, she failed miserably and she knew it.

"Did you have something in mind?" she asked, wondering what he could possibly have planned. They'd been together for almost seven months now, and just how this man could have such an effect over her rationality never ceased to amaze her.

He nervously prepared himself and asked her to take a big step. "Would you like to go away with me?" She froze and felt herself go pale. Was he asking her to spend the week with him? She tried to play hard to get, not sure of whether or not she would succeed.

"Go with you where?" she questioned. They had never even spent the night together, and now he wanted them to be together for a whole week. She shivered with anticipation.

"It's a surprise." he joked.

"Tony!" she whispered sternly.

"Okay. My sister owns a cabin in Colorado. It's really beautiful up there, and it's not too far away from a ski resort. She said that it was ours for the week if we wanted it. They just came back on Tuesday." he explained.

"I don't know how to ski." she complained.

"I'll teach you. They rent equipment and everything. There's an ice-skating rink and an indoor pool. And her cabin has a hot tub." He was trying to bait her, and he knew the hot tub would grab her attention.

"Can they deal with both of us being gone?" she asked, not very concerned for her coworkers, but wanting to make sure that them leaving for the week was a possibility.

"Yeah, Jack said he could take over for me for the week, and Chappelle's going to be here anyway doing interviews. They said they'd be able to handle it."

It looked like he had all the bases covered. "Okay." she agreed. "When do we leave?"