Everybody and anything familiar belong to Janet. Mistakes are mine. The recipe I saw online.

"What are you eating, Babe?" I asked, though I'm positive I'm not going to like the answer.

"Nothing."

I didn't need to see her hand disappear behind her back to know she's hiding something. Nothing would have me believing that particular tone of hers.

"Let me see."

"No. You'll hand me a loaded gun but confiscate my food. It would really hurt Ella's feelings if you took away something she made special for me."

"It's alright, Stephanie," Ella said, coming out of the control room kitchen in time to hear that comment. "I'll box them up for you and you can reheat them at home."

Steph's eyes widened in horror. "How do I do that? My oven hasn't worked in years, and my microwave only defrosts one corner of whatever I try to heat up. My toaster's okay for now. Do you think I can stick them in there?"

Despite rumors to the contrary, I do have a heart … at least one functional enough to love this woman against everyone's better judgment.

"Go ahead and finish what you started," I told her. "I won't touch anything this time."

"Not even me? I mean, I'm going to taste like a fried/loaded potato combo. I know with one-hundred-percent certainty that's an irresistible flavor."

Ram cleared his throat. "Ummm, maybe you two need to take this conversation somewhere less public."

Not a bad idea since I have every intention of tasting her lips ... and everything else I can get my mouth on, potato or not.

"Grab your food," I told Steph. "You can eat in my office."

Her blue eyes darkened and narrowed in suspicion. "Are you trying to isolate me so no one will see you toss my Potato Cannoli in the trash?"

I'm not even going to ask why Ella, someone on my payroll, would purposely turn an unhealthy and unnecessary dessert into a savory, no doubt over-salted and useless starch.

"No. I'll grant a stay of execution this one time, but only this time," I said, the second part directed at Ella.

She was respectful but not intimidated. "Of course. After all, there is only one first time to test out a brand-new recipe on Stephanie."

In Ella speak, that means there's no danger of Stephanie consuming these potato things again because the Fairy Snack-Mother has already moved onto a different recipe that will make my Babe happy.

Stephanie grabbed her soda, which is also not typically allowed on the floor, her shoulder bag, and a plate of what looks like fried and filled potato cigars from her cubby and followed me to my office.

"I did finish up all my work before Ella surprised me. If it makes you feel better, you can call this my reward for a day well scheduled."

I unlocked my door after being away from the building for two hours for a meeting with my partners and then a walk-through on a specialized system for a client. As hard as it is for me to admit, being a loner in nature, I missed Stephanie at an uncomfortable level for just that one-hundred-and-twenty-minutes alone. She doesn't know it yet, but I'm at the end of my patience in waiting for her to decide to be in my building full-time for the length of my life.

I watched her walk into my space and put her things down on the extra chair instead of sitting on it. "You look cute in your uniform, Babe, but that wouldn't have made me hire you. I know my company is lucky to have your brain and your luck getting comfortable here."

"Keep saying things like that, and I may just dig out those too-short uniform shirts that were ordered by mistake the first time I accepted a job from you."

I know exactly which shirts she's referring to. They didn't show much of her body aside from her stomach, but they did provide easy access if I managed to get her flirting back. That uniform and the barely-there/skintight outfit she wore not long after to piss off Morelli, have kept me awake at night - and hard as cold fucking granite - to this day still.

"I know you don't eat anything that tastes good," she was saying, picking up a second Cannoli since I've been back and taking a bite, "but these are a vegetable. And the cheese Ella mixed into the mashed potato filling counts as protein. Plus, she said she didn't fry the outside potato slices that made the crispy cylinders she could fill. They were baked in the oven. So really, these are a health food." She held up the remaining half of the one she bit. "And see that? Those are green vegetables inside the cheesy whipped potato."

"Parsley or chives aren't nutritional boosts unless they're in a salad or vegetable-laden chicken breast rolled into a whole-wheat wrap."

"Don't say the 'S' word while I'm trying to enjoy my snack."

She's nuts, but as irresistible to me as junk food is to her. She was still standing, though transferring her soda and Cannoli to my desk, so I leaned against the edge of it. I'd be able to face her and also be close to her.

"Those were likely made just for added incentive so you'd stick around here. Even Ella probably heard that Morelli is sniffing around again."

"The jerk can sniff all he wants," she stated, finishing the last bite of her food and licking her fingers clean, which has every sensory cell in my body on high alert. "All that's gonna get him is two flared nostrils full of whatever Bob's stomach left for him to clean up. My taste in men has improved dramatically. And I seem to be interested in a guy who is too quiet most of the time, doesn't appreciate the finer things in Shop N Bag's snack aisle, and restocks cars as often as I do boxes of Tastykakes."

I placed my hands on her hips and moved her closer, inching my boots further apart on the floor so she'd fit flush to me. "Are you sure you're interested in him? He doesn't sound like your type."

She draped her arms over my shoulders and brushed her lips across mine. "Yeah, in theory we're completely wrong for each other, but that's what makes us so right. I constantly disrupt your private spaces and you continue to lure me further out of mine."