Two weeks went by with no mention from Paul. He hadn't called or texted, or even tried to get a hold of her. Stephanie sat at her desk and sighed at the thought of him. He was nice, and not to mention cute, but he kissed her, he kissed her and left her hanging.

"Miss McMahon, we need to talk." Her boss came into her office and shut the door, "we've been needing to make some cutbacks, if you haven't noticed." He leaned on the corner of her desk with his hands folded in his lap.

"Mr. Gordon, what are you trying to say?" She asked, on the verge of tears. She knew what he was about to say, she'd gotten this speech before.

"Well, as much as I want to tell you we need you, we just um, don't right now." He was looking at her with a fake sympathetic grimace, "I'm sorry. But I promise that if we ever need you in the future, you'll be the first to be called." He stood up, "I'm so sorry Miss McMahon."

"No, I understand. Business is slow, I totally get it. When does my stuff need to be out of here?"

"Um, hopefully by tonight? We're gonna keep you for a few more days with pay so you can try to search for another job, but, we need the office." Her boss shook her hand and left the room.

She sat there in shock, it was so sudden, no notice or anything, they just pretty much fired her in the nicest way possible. She opened her desk drawers and started gathering all her belongings.

On her way out, she passed one of her friends, who had also been putting things in a box, "Candace, what are you doing?"

"Mr. Gordon said," Candace looked up, "oh, looks like he told you too." She sighed and shook her head, "I don't know why Steph. It looks like business was going slow, yeah, but you and I were pretty busy for slow."

Steph nodded, "I know, but maybe this is a sign of something bigger and better." She gave her friend a hopeful smile and continued to leave. She got in her car and let out a long, sad sigh, "what am I gonna do now? I lost my job, and I already don't have any money. And then Paul, he hasn't called me, its been two weeks." Before she could stop herself, she was crying. She cried the whole drive home, occasionally wiping her face with an old napkin. When she got home, she locked her car and dragged herself up to her apartment, and when she opened the door, she was met with a very unexpected face, "what are you doing here?" She looked around at the grocery bags of food on the counter, "what is all this?"

"Food. I just got off an airplane from Montana. And I was hungry." Paul looked up at her from his sandwich, "are you hungry? I can make you a sandwich if you want. I had to go grocery shopping for you cause you didn't have anything. You had peanut butter, but I can't use that without jelly, or bread."

"How did you get in here?" She took a bag of chips and sat down next to him at the table, "wait, did m neighbor let you in? She has the key."

He nodded, "well yeah." He took another bite, "oh, so, I'm sorry I didn't call. It wasn't that I was busy, my cell phone didn't work up there for some strange reason, and so I couldn't." He wiped his face and leaned forward, "where were we the other night before I had to leave?"

She smiled, "its okay, I've just had a rough day. My boss fired me. Well actually he said the company has decided to 'let me go', but pretty much he fired me." She leaned forward, "you have food in your mouth Paul." He swallowed and pushed his lips on hers, "Paul, stop, that's gross."

"What? I don't have any more food in my mouth." He leaned towards her again, "I'm sorry you lost your job. If it's any consolation, I'll bet I could give you a job tomorrow."

She got up and went to the fridge, "I'm hungry, you want to make me a sandwich like you said you would?"

"Sure, what do you want on it?" He stood up, "are you sure you're okay? You're kinda acting a little spacey." He came up behind her at the counter, "so where were we the other day?" He kissed her earlobe.

"We weren't anywhere. We kissed, that was it." She grabbed the loaf of bread and took out a butter knife, "Paul, just stop it." She pushed his arm from her waist.

"Holy crap, what's going on? I know you lost your job and all that, but I offered you another one. What do you want to do? Tell me and I'm sure I can find you that job at Comcast." He playfully pushed her over and took over making her sandwich, "is something else bothering you?"

"No." She leaned on his arm, "I don't know what I want to do. I barely liked the job I had." She looked at her counter, full of food, "why did you really buy me all this?"

"Stephanie, the last date we went out on, we were talking about not eating. Right? And then I came here and found out that you must not ever eat. You didn't have anything to eat in here. And then I was hungry, like I said." He put her sandwich together, "here you go."

They sat down again, "thanks." She started to eat her sandwich, not mentioning that it was the first thing she had eaten all day.

"So, are you busy tonight? I bought food and was gonna make dinner." He sat back in his chair and watched her eat, "what sounds better, spaghetti or lasagna?"

"Umm, I don't know. It doesn't matter." They sat in silence as she finished eating, "why do you keep staring at me?"

"I don't know. Sorry." His eyes looked away, only to return to her after a few seconds, "I think I'll make lasagna."

Having his eyes on her the whole time was uncomfortable, but at the same time, it felt good. He liked her. This was the most attention she'd gotten in a long time, and she wasn't about to make it stop, ""lasagna sounds amazing."