A reasonably pleasant month at the Newport Group has passed, things have been ticking over quietly and business steady. Until….

"Pick me up outside"

"Are you sure you wanna come up here?" Marissa asks surprised knowing that Jonathon hates coming anywhere near the Newport Group

"Well I'll keep an eye out for you ok"

"k see you soon bye"

Marissa snaps her phone shut and picks up her chinese "so where were we?"

Ryan drops a piece of chicken onto his desk and motions for a serviette. Marissa shakes her head at him and passes several over.

"You were telling me that your moving out of Julie and Calebs" he says between chews.

She smiles proudly "Oh yeah the people have finally moved out, so I'm gonna rent it"

Impressed Ryan stops eating " I love that house its so huge" he glances at Marissa who has a dreamy look on her face "Its so beautiful and besides what else am I sposed to do with my salary, apart from shopping of course"

Ryan nods in agreement "That's about the only perk in this job the ability to afford reciculous things", she sticks her tongue out at him "For you maybe Mr. Big archtitect" this is followed by a swift kick at Ryans chair, causing Ryan to drop more and make Marissa errupt into a fit of laughter. Ryan just groans.

Marissa stands up and puts down her food "I better wait round reception for Daniel"
"he wont be here for a while yet", Ryan persuades. She smiles and sits back down "no I spose not"

Minutes pass bye as the to talk and laugh "I'm so full" she slouches down in her chair and Ryan pulls at his belt trying to loosen it mumbling out "lightweight".

"Shi.t! Daniel, Whats the time I completely forgot" grabbing for her shoes Mairssa tries to ram them on, which only succeeds in her hopping around the office.

"Please don't make me laugh its not good on a full stomach" he tells her while clutching at his stomach. Marissa grabs his shoulders and kisses him on the cheek "bye and thanks for dinner"

Ryans voice catches for a moment and he just stares snapping out of his daze and calls after her "your welcome"

Walking briskly Marissa scans the reception area and relaxes when theres no sign of Daniel. She sits down in a chair to wait and fiddles with her skirt. Its so quiet she thinks, when Daniel appears out of a hallway leading to the main offices. She stands confused "what were you down there"

Daniels head snaps up and gets a deer caught in the headlights look "I ummm was errr…..looking for you"

Marissa nods not really believing him "my office is that way" she points off in another direction. Causing Daniel to look more panicked, his lips moving but no sound coming out. "there was no receptionist and I couldn't remember where your office was"

Weird she thinks again "So lets go see that movie, you wanna get some thing to eat as well" he says interrupting her thought pattern.

"Nah already eaten" she puts her arm thru Daniels as he leads her to the elevator. 'That was really weird though' her mind refuses to forget, probably nothing just looking for me, and shrugs it off giving no further thought to the matter

Daniel leads her to his car and before getting in she looks up at Ryans office where a dim glow can be seen. It was horrible how lonely Ryan appeared sometimes. She had seen him with the office girl Nicole, but Ryan never wanted to talk about it. What he really needed was to find some one that lit him up, and let him relax and forget about everything that was going on in his head. It was a pity……..

"Marissa are you getting in"
Without another word she gets into his car still staring up at Ryans window. Little did she know some one was staring back at her from that same window trying to deny the strange feelings that were overcoming him, he knows them all to well so has no problem shelving them aside. Its what hes been doing for years.