Darla had one ear glues to the phone, and a quill in her fingers when I stepped through the glass doors, and into the lobby of Malfoy International. I almost turned right around, and stepped back through those double doors at the sight.

"I'm telling you, Mr Archer," she was saying in a sharp, irritated tone, "you have no appointment in my little book," she demonstrated this by wedging the phone between her ear and her shoulder, and using her free hand to flip through the pages of a large tome on the desk in front of her. "No appointment, no meeting… how much clearer can I make this?"

She furrowed her brow at something the other person said, "now, there's no need to take that tone of voice with me. It's a pretty simple concept, you call her secretary… you do know her office number, don't you? Good. Then call her secretary, and make an appointment, and then it will show up in my book, and there wont be any need for another of these conversations." She put down her quill, and took a sip from a glass filled with what was presumably water, and took hold of the phone once again. "I could, but I won't. I don't care who you're marrying, Miss Thatcher is the head of Research and Development for the entire entertainment branch, and she's a very busy woman."

She slammed the phone down into its cradle, muttering all the while about how much she hated people who didn't make appointments, and that it didn't matter if Mr. Archer was marrying Miss Thatcher in a week or not.

I wanted to sink into the floor, but settled for whirling around to leave. Gryfindor or no, I was in no mood to deal with the reaming I was sure to get for not calling ahead. When the inevitable happened, and she called up to Malfoy's office, I didn't want her tipping him off that I was there. In my fantasies of the coming confrontation, it was Malfoy caught off guard for once.

Perhaps I could get Moody to compromise the floo networks for me again.

But I had barely taken two steps when a call of "Miss Granger," halted me in my tracks.

I sighed, and turned back to the desk, "good afternoon, Darla," I said with a forced smile. "How are you this lovely afternoon?"

"I'm doing well… you're a bit early."

"A bit…?" what?

She nodded, "Yes, but he did say to send you up straight away, so I suppose you ought to go ahead," she said, with a wave in the direction of a small crowd of people who worked in the building that had gathered by the lift.

"Did he?" Strange… and suspicious.

I frowned. He knew I was coming? So much for my dreams of catching him with his proverbial pants down (the thought of catching him with his actual pants down… and most likely with the latest in his string of throw-away women… was enough to make me cringe). Why would he be expecting me?

"A-alright, I suppose I'll just… go on up then…" I said, moving to stand with the crowd. The urge to flee rose like a fifty-foot wave, looming over me as the doors slid open, and everyone moved forward, but I fought it down, and let the tide of humanity carry me forward, and into the back of the car. The doors slid closed again, and I told myself it was ridiculous that my life was flashing before my eyes.

Malfoy was expecting me.

It wasn't like I'd had any real desire to be a waitress in his most recent Paris venture, I just hadn't liked being given the runaround about my duties. I'd spent the last part of the previous week in a tizzy about how I was going to work around my newest assignment, and deal with the magical strain of repeated international apparations, not to mention the mental strain of having to wear those revealing uniforms while Malfoy looked on and laughed at my discomfort. And then to find out at the last minute that all the worry was for nothing because Draco Bloody Malfoy, Part-time God, and Ruler of all that He Surveys changed his mind.

Well, I was a bit irate.

Malfoy was expecting me.

The thought sent a cold chill down my spine. It was like he knew what I planned to do before I even planned to do it. Was it possible that he knew me so well he could predict my reactions? Had he been playing me all along?

No. of course not, I assured myself. Then refused to think of it again. That train of thought was a short, fast trip to insanity. There had to be a more mundane excuse for him knowing I'd be here.

I just didn't know what that could possibly be.

-

I stepped out of the elevator, and into an empty front office. Before I had time to wonder what could possibly have happened to Malfoy's new assistant, I heard a high feminine laugh, followed by the sound of a deeper, masculine voice.

I snorted. Up to his old tricks already? And this time he'd been expecting me, too. Well, if he thought I was going to wait out here while he played 'snake in the grass' with the most recent Bimbo, he had another thing coming.

I took a deep steadying breath, fixed my eyes on my shoes with the intention of not taking my eyes off them, and pushed the doors open.

"Malfoy, so sorry to interrupt," I said in a tone that made it clear that it was my discomfort that made me sorry, and not his. "but I was told you were expecting me. Which leads me to wonder, first of all, why you're shagging some girl when you knew I was coming, secondly, how you knew I was coming at all, and lastly, why the hell you took me off the Paris assignment."

To my great consternation, he merely chuckled.

"What's so funny, you…"

"Granger," he said, in a tone most people reserved for talking to young, unreasonable children, and Malfoy reserved for talking to people he thought very stupid. "You might want to look up, before you make an even bigger fool of yourself."

It was that tone that caused me to glance up more than his command, and my eyes sought his, locking as I began to glare in earnest.

It occurred to me that Malfoy was not only fully dressed, but looked immaculate, and unruffled. His assistant, the redhead from Hellcat's was in a similar state, and it occurred to me that they probably hadn't even been snogging when I burst in, and I'd accused them of being involved in much worse.

I couldn't keep the blush off my face.

"Er, you two were polishing up Malfoy's speech, weren't you?"

Malfoy snickered behind his hand, before waving Alicia off his desk. "Give us a moment, love, I need to talk to Miss Granger here." He flashed me a sly smile before blowing a kiss her way. "I'll call you back in to finish this later."

The redhead, paused momentarily beside me, "you were at Hellcat's the other night, weren't you?" she asked, then without waiting for a reply, she smirked "I never forget a face!"

"Alicia." Malfoy said with command, "a moment, please."

She flashed a coy look over her shoulder at him then moved passed me.

I almost hit the ceiling when she goosed me, and she was out the door by the time I'd recovered from my shock enough to be properly outraged. "Malfoy… I've just been harassed." I said in wonder.

He'd seen the whole thing, and was now reclining in his chair, loosening his tie, and snickering again. "So I saw. She's probably made certain assumptions about you, Granger. I mean, think about where you two met…" his voice trailed off, his smile turning wicked, "now there's a delicious thought."

My eyes widened in shock, then narrowed, "well you can bloody well stop thinking about it, Malfoy, because it will never happen."

"Perhaps you're just in denial… maybe Alicia knows more about your preferences than you do."

"Malfoy."

"hm?"

"Shut up. Perhaps I should straighten her out."

"Oh, but I rather like that she isn't straight. Not entirely anyway. Leave me with more options, if you follow me." The look in his eyes got far away, and dreamy, and I very nearly lost my lunch right there.

"Malfoy," I clapped my hands together loudly, "focus!"

he blinked twice. "Trust you to spoil a perfectly scrumptious daydream." He said, with a smirk, "so what seems to be the problem. I thought I remembered giving you the day off."

"That is precisely the problem, Malfoy. Why didn't you tell me you were pulling me off this… an owl would have been nice, but instead I had to find out from Tracey when I stopped in to floo over."

"Floo over? Already? But you weren't supposed to start your shift until much later."

"Well, no, but I was planning on going a bit early. The foremost expert on Gremlin behavior, Jaques De Carvier, was a former instructor at Beauxbattons where two of your employees were educated. He's got an office in Paris now, though. I thought I could floo to the club, and walk around Paris."

"Are you ever not working, Granger?"

"Only when I got to Temporary Services," I continued, ignoring him, "Tracey told me you'd canceled my assignment." I bit my lip, "What I want to know is: why?"

"Why?" He seemed genuinely surprised that I wanted to know. "Granger, you didn't want this assignment in the first place, why are you so reluctant to be pulled off now?"

"I just don't like being jerked around for no reason."

"I have my reasons, Granger." And he apparently expected me to leave it at that, because he turned his attention back the speech in his hands.

I growled, "accio speech," I said, and before he could grab the sheets, they came flying across the room and into my hands. "Now," I informed him, "we aren't done. you don't want to tell me your reasoning? Fine. I can't say I really have any burning desire to get inside that tiny lecherous head of yours. But that doesn't mean I've said my peace about this. A simple owl would have been nice."

"I was sending you an owl, Granger, but you were early."

"Yes, and I'm sure the, what, one hour notice you were giving me might have been fine for you, for me, it would have been a bit more of a problem."

"You'd been injured, Granger, I thought you'd be happy for the time off to rest. Not to mention that international apparations are a pain, and I felt that two a day, three days in a row, with the way you've been working yourself lately was just asking too much of you."

"Don't do that, Malfoy," I said with a shake of my head.

"Don't do what?"

"Pretend to be a caring person. I don't need you playing at being concerned… it's more unnerving than anything else, and certainly not helpful."

He drummed his fingers across his desk, "is that so? Because you were taking such good care of yourself on Saturday."

"Oh, shut up."

"No, seriously, Granger."

"Fine, I get your point. It's like you said, I didn't even want this assignment to begin with. I would just appreciate it if, in the future, you would warn me if you were feeling particularly protective, so I could plan my week accordingly. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to see a man about a gremlin."

I turned to leave, but paused mid-step as his voice came from behind me, "Not so fast, my dear."

"Oh, what is it now?" I asked, my patience wearing thin. Why couldn't he just let me go so he could get back to his speech writing? I was sure he was relatively anxious to have it out of the way so he could indulge in other activities with Alicia.

He didn't reply, and with a frustrated sigh, I turned to face him again.

He'd moved, and was now leaning casually against his desk, balancing his wand on one finger absently, while treating me to a maniacal grin. It was a grin I'd come to associate with very bad things heading in my direction. I shuddered, and swallowed hard.

"Just because you aren't working tonight," he said, now that he had my full attention, "doesn't mean you'll have any time to see this Jaques De Cavier."

"What," I asked, " are you on about?"

"Granger, will you do me the honor of accompanying me to the Grand opening of Chez Malfoy this evening?"

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"Not at all," but joke or no, he was quite obviously finding this situation wildly amusing.

"Absolutely not!" came my incredulous reply.

He flipped his wand into the air, sending it spinning end over end, and muffling a mildly suspicious cough before catching it again, all without taking his eyes from mine.

"How about if I say please?"

"Not even then, Malfoy. You couldn't have honestly have thought I would accept, could you?"

"Oh course I didn't think you would." He said, his grin never faltering, "but I was pretty sure I could convince you, I am awfully charming"

"And awfully full of yourself… my god Malfoy, if your head gets any bigger, they'll need to expand your private elevator." I sniffed, "besides, I wouldn't be caught dead with a philandering jerk like you… incidentally, you two straightened yourselves up pretty well. I was completely fooled by the speech writing cover."

"Excuse me? Speech writing cover?"

"You can drop the innocent act, Malfoy, your fly's unzipped."

He glanced down, and paled, before turning his back and righting himself. "Heh… how about that… wonder how that happened."

"Save it, I really don't care to hear how it was necessary for you to write your speech unzipped. I have no desire to hear about how you needed ventilation. Personally, it doesn't matter to me one bit, except that it shows what an absolute ass you really are. And the fact that you have the nerve to ask me, me, to accompany you to this opening. As if I was some sort of idiot who wouldn't notice, or bimbo who wouldn't care."

"Oh, pardon me, Miss Granger," his voice filled with disdain, "were you under the impression that this was a social invitation? And I'm the one who's full of himself. My situation isn't so dire that I would desire your company."

For some reason, those words got to me, and to my horror, my eyes began to sting.

"Listen, Granger," he said, his voice somewhat softer now, "this is business." He tossed me a dossier.

"What's this?" I asked in a forced level voice.

"This is the owl post I was going to send you. It contains information on a Mr. Vernon Salinger, the head of a small textile company in India, and his business. He's been invited to the opening. I want you to look it over, and watch him over dinner, and in conversation, and when the event is over, I want your opinion."

"That's it?"

"That's it." He confirmed.

I bit my lip. It wasn't a social engagement, like he said. It wasn't like I was going to Paris, city of lights and romance, with Malfoy… I was going with Malfoy International. That was a much safer concept.

"You're telling me all of this… no surprises? No fake jobs this time? No ruses, or ploys, or amusing sidetracks?"

"It's been a long week for both of us."

"Yes, it has," I agreed, warily. "Are you intending to cash in your favor, Malfoy?"

He was grinning again, "you drive a hard bargain."

-

Alright, sorry this is so short, there was more, but I'm leaving in about five hours to go on vacation, and I still haven't finished packing. Not to mention the fact that I have to sleep at some time before I drive 1000 miles.

Oh well… I'll see what I can do about getting an update while I'm away, but no promises.

Quick thanks to everyone who reviewed… over 750 at the time of this posting… wow, is all I can say.

And Plastraa… sorry it took so long, but here it is!