Lacey kissing him really took Danny by surprise. He was not expecting that at all and loved that she took the initiative to do that. That meant he was getting closer. She wouldn't necessarily be his right then and there, but it was inevitable. And Danny was right. This kiss was better than the first. This one was deeper, longer, and more passion filled. Danny felt his back hit the car parked beside him as Lacey leaned in to him and grabbed his face. He put his arms around her and grabbed her ass to pull her closer to him. She still wasn't close enough, but that would do at that moment. Lacey pressed her body into his and immediately felt him start to get aroused again. Her surroundings were irrelevant to her. She wanted to kiss Danny and she did. She slowly but surely came to her senses when she felt Danny palm her ass with his strong hand. His hands were strong enough to pull her out of her trance. Danny had gotten to her again. What about Archie? Archie's face quickly came into her mind and she opened her eyes and saw that the guy she was kissing looked nothing like Archie. She stared at him a minute before she broke the kiss and pulled away.
"I'm so sorry. I got carried away. I'm sorry." Lacey says as she removes her hands from grabbing his face and tries to step back from him.
"Lacey, it's ok. I'm not sorry. I'm glad you kissed me. I'm glad you got carried away." Danny says sincerely.
"I can't believe I did that. I have a boyfriend. I can't believe I just did that to him." Lacey says.
"Lacey stop beating yourself up for that. It happens." Danny says.
Lacey takes her hands and buries her face into them. "I can't believe I did that. I'm sorry, Danny. I have to go." Lacey says as she starts to walk away.
Danny closes his car door and starts to follow her. "Lacey, wait. Lacey, don't go." Danny says as he hurries to follow her through the garage. Lacey is walking at an incredibly fast pace. He almost had to jog to catch up to her. "Lacey! Please just stop." Danny says.
Lacey turns around and he doesn't like the look on her face. "Danny. Please just let me go and be alone. I need time to myself to think." Lacey says as she smiles weakly.
"I can't just let you run off like this and not make sure you're ok." Danny says as he steps a little closer to her.
"I'm not totally ok, but I'll manage. I just need this. Please just let me go." Lacey short of pleads with him.
"Ok. I'll see you later." Danny says.
"Thanks." Lacey says as she turns and leaves the garage. She walks back into the building and heads for the elevator. She's forever grateful that it arrives soon and she gets on the elevator alone. She rode up to her floor feeling miserable. Lacey entered her office and just walked over to her desk. She couldn't believe she just did that. She couldn't believe that she just kissed Danny when she has a boyfriend. Archie didn't deserve that and she felt terrible about it. She felt like crying but felt like she didn't deserve to cry. She felt like she lost the right to cry the second she kissed Danny and hurt her relationship with Archie. People that hurt people don't deserve to feel bad. But she did. She felt like a horrible person and a sorry excuse for a woman and a girlfriend. She tried to chalk it up to it just being a kiss but knew that she would be mad, hurt, and even devastated if Archie did that to her. She knew she probably would not understand if Archie kissed another woman. And she had nobody to blame for her mistake. Nobody at all. She couldn't even blame Danny for this. He kissed her the first time and true, she did kiss him back. But she is totally at fault in this. She initialed that kiss and they both know it. She betrayed Archie and their relationship and she felt really bad about that. Archie didn't deserve what she just did to him. Lacey sat in the dark and in silence for a long time before she just put her head on her desk. She knew it probably wouldn't look good for her to hole up in her office like a coward, but that's exactly what she's going to do. She needed to be alone to think about what she did. She needed to think about why she did it. She would stay in her office in silence and darkness until she understood why she just kissed a man she has claimed to hate for years when she has a boyfriend.
Danny returned to the building thinking that he wanted to check on Lacey but wanted to respect her by giving her her space. He talked a lot of trash to her, but he really respected Lacey. He took the trash talking as just a game and if she really didn't like or appreciate it, he wouldn't do it out of respect for her. He hasn't said some of the things he has said to other women though. But Lacey is truly a classy lady and he wouldn't talk to her like she's one of the guys in the locker room. He headed to the eatery to get him and Lacey sandwiches because they both hadn't eaten. He realized his mistake when Whitney and Phoebe spotted him. He knew he had to lie to them. He couldn't tell them that he and Lacey just kissed against a car in the garage and it scared her away possibly because she has a boyfriend. Or maybe she really doesn't like him, but Danny knew that wasn't the truth. She didn't kiss him like she hated him. That was just a game she played to cover her true feelings. He hated that she had a boyfriend that was standing in their way. He wouldn't have to worry about anything if she was single like he originally thought she was. Danny now hated her boyfriend and had no idea who he even was. He had Danny's woman though. That's a good enough reason to hate him as far as Danny was concerned.
They waved him over and Danny wished they hadn't seen him. He reluctantly walked over to where they were sitting.
"Where's Lacey? I thought you two were going out to lunch?" Whitney questions with much suspicion.
"We were. But Lacey spilled something on her dress and went to get it off. I was just grabbing us something to take to her since we haven't eaten." Danny lies perfectly, but that isn't good enough for Whitney.
"What did she spill on her dress if you haven't even went anywhere yet?" Whitney asks.
"Just a coffee I had in my car. Somebody came speeding through the garage as I was pulling out and had to slam on my brakes. Listen, does Lacey eat turkey? I don't want to get her something she doesn't eat." Danny says as he throws on the charm hoping that Whitney accepts that and doesn't ask him any more questions.
"Yeah, she likes turkey." Phoebe says.
"Great. Well, I have to run before my lunch break is over. I'll see you pretty girls later." Danny says as he walks off.
Phoebe is grinning at him calling her pretty but Whitney isn't buying it. "Something is up." Whitney says as she sips her drink.
"Up? What do you mean?" Phoebe asks.
"I didn't believe a word he said. Something is up. And I want to know what." Whitney says as she and Phoebe finish their lunch.
Lacey continued to sit in her office in silence and darkness. She had a lot to think about. Do I tell Archie? Do I break up with him? Do I just not say anything and pretend it never happened? Do I avoid Danny now? Do I ask to be reassigned? Do I leave Archie and start dating Danny? What do I do?
It was painfully obvious that she needed to do something because she couldn't continue to go on in that way. She couldn't just keep denying her attraction to Danny. And she couldn't continue to kiss him when she has a boyfriend. It's not fair to any of them. She felt torn. She has never been in this situation before. It was a total catch 22. Somebody was going to lose in this situation. And somebody was going to win. Lacey agonized over who would win in this situation. Am I really contemplating braking up with Archie? Is my attraction to Danny stronger than the relationship I have with Archie? Would I be a fool to leave Archie for Danny? How do I even know Danny wants to be in a relationship with me?
What do I do?
Lacey wanted someone to tell her what she needed to do. She felt like an idiot and a fool for even feeling this way. A sensible woman would admit her mistake, put her foot down with Danny, and then move on. And Lacey always thought she was a pretty sensible woman. She had a good head on her shoulders. She was extremely gifted and talented and intelligent. She has to be. She has her MBA. But right now she felt like a foolish, confused, and stupid teenager. She's actually sitting at her desk, hiding from the outside world, obsessing over a kiss. This is silly. It was just a kiss. There isn't any reason to mess up her entire world over a kiss. Lacey thought that she really had made a mountain out of a molehill. There was no reason for her to feel this way. Archie is great. She had to remember how she really feels about Danny. She had to go back to hating him. That was the best decision for everyone involved. She decided that she would not tell Archie what happened between her and Danny. It was a minor indiscretion. Archie didn't need to know she slipped up and kissed one of her colleagues. Lacey just made sure that it would never, ever happen again. She was curious and got it out of her system. There was no reason to dwell on it any longer. It was settled. She would put it behind her and never speak of or think about it again. No matter how much Danny wanted to talk about it. She would just refuse to discuss it. It seemed like a simple enough feat. She was used to not talking to Danny anyway. Things would just return to the way they were before they were forced to work together. Easy as pie. Lacey was pretty sensible after all. She handled a problem that she was perplexed about. She tackled it head on and came up with the best possible outcome for her. She really couldn't believe that she was so far off the deep end that she was searching somewhere for a sign. A sign to tell her what decision to make. Which way to go. Does she run toward the familiar? Or does she run towards the unknown? It was too late to dwell on that though. Her mind was already made up. There was a knock on her office door. Lacey still felt like hiding though. She still needed time to herself. Hopefully whomever it was would go away. Lacey sat quietly and just waited for the person to go away. She hoped they would think she was still at lunch and just leave. There was another knock.
"Lacey, I know you're in there. It's me. Open the door please."
It was Danny.
Lacey started to cry. And Danny knocked again.
"Lacey, please open the door. It's important. It's about Whitney and Phoebe." Danny says as he knocks again.
Lacey let out a deep sigh and rubbed the tears from her eyes. She reluctantly got up and walked over to her office door to open it. Danny pushed his way in and shut the door. That caused Lacey to kind of stumble backwards at his intrusion.
"Why are you sitting in the dark?" Danny asked as he looked around and turned the light on.
Lacey lets out another sigh. "What did you need to tell me about Whitney and Phoebe?" Lacey asks as she tries to avoid looking directly at him.
Danny finally looks at Lacey and her actions at trying to avoid looking at him. "Have you been crying?" Danny asks in concern.
"No." Lacey lies. "What about Whitney and Phoebe?" Lacey asks as she walks over to sit at her desk.
"Why are you lying to me, Lacey? It's obvious you were crying." Danny says as he walks over to her.
Lacey sighs again. "Yes, I was crying and no, I don't want to talk about it. Please just accept that. Now, please just tell me about Whitney and Phoebe so that you can leave. I need to be alone." Lacey says.
Danny decides to avoid asking her about the reason she was crying. "I ran into them when I came back in and they asked me where you were. I lied and said you spilled coffee on your dress. I don't think Whitney believed me though. So I think you're either going to have to tell her the truth or actually spill coffee on your dress to ward her off." Danny says.
"Damn. Why couldn't she just mind her business? And you want me to ruin my dress to satisfy Whitney? Lacey asks.
"No, but I'll buy you another dress. Are you willing to tell Whitney the truth?" Danny asks as he sits on the corner of her desk.
Lacey looks up at him. "I don't need you to buy me another dress, Danny. Dry cleaning should take care of it." Lacey says as she spills her now cold coffee on her dress. "So, to answer your question. No, I'm not willing to tell Whitney the truth. She's already thinking that something is going on between us anyway and I really don't want to give her more ammunition." Lacey says as she gets tissues from the box on her desk to dab at the coffee on her dress.
Danny laughs at Lacey's antics. He never would have thought that cold, frigid Lacey Porter was that down to earth. "Is there something going on between us?" Danny asks.
"I can't talk about that right now, Danny." Lacey says honestly.
Danny weighs his options. "Ok, I'll accept that. For now. Oh, I almost forgot. I bought you a sandwich since we never made it to lunch." Danny says.
"Lunch. Yeah." Lacey says as she scoffs.
"What does that mean, Lacey?" Danny asks in wonderment.
"You had no intention of us going to lunch, did you? You just used that as an excuse to get me to leave with you. You probably had it all set up to take me back to your place." Lacey says in an accusing tone.
"If you really believe that, then what does that say about you, Ms. Porter?" Danny asks in the same accusing tone.
"Excuse me? What do you mean?" Lacey asks as she almost cuts her eyes at him.
"If you really thought that we weren't going to lunch, why did you leave with me then? If that's the case, you wanted to come back to my place." Danny says as he stares at her intently.
Lacey gets an astonished look on her face. "Get out of my office, Danny." Lacey says.
"Why? Now you want me to leave because you don't want to face the truth?" Danny asks.
"What truth do you want me to face, Danny? Why do you keep riding me about this?" Lacey asks in a smart tone.
"Oh, I haven't rode you yet." Danny says in his own smart tone.
Lacey's eyes almost bug out and her mouth hangs open for a while before she speaks. She just gets up and walks over to her office door and opens it. "Leave." Lacey says as she just holds the door open. Danny leaves without a word, but the look on his face when he walks past her riles Lacey up. She almost slams her office door. "Asshole." Lacey says out loud as she walks back over to her desk.
Minutes later and right on time, Whitney and Phoebe arrive. They knock and come in slowly expecting to find Danny in there with her. "We heard you spilled coffee on your dress and couldn't go to lunch." Whitney says in a mocking tone.
"I did. I hope it isn't ruined." Lacey says as she stands to show them. She's glad that she actually did spill coffee on her dress as a precaution because she loved the look Whitney got on her face.
"So you really do have a stain on your dress. I so thought Danny was lying." Whitney says.
"Are you going to walk around the rest of the day with your dress stained like that?" Phoebe asks while she scrunched up her face.
"I kind of have to. That's what I get for wearing white." Lacey jokes as she reaches into her drawer and looks for the scarf she knows she has in there somewhere. She finally finds it and stands to tie it around her waist to make it look like a belt, hiding the coffee stain. "How's that?" Lacey asks Phoebe and Whitney.
"Great, actually. I can't even tell there's a stain on your dress." Phoebe says as she smiles.
"Thanks. Well, I'm heading back to Danny's office to finish going over reports. I'm almost ready to scream there's so many." Lacey says as she grabs what she needs and walks towards her office door with both of her friends following her.
"How is it going so far?" Whitney asks.
"Good. We still have a lot to go over before we put our final report together before we leave. But I know that we'll get it finished. At first it seemed daunting, now going through all of those papers seems a lot easier." Lacey says.
"Leave? Where are you going?" Phoebe asks.
"We have to leave to go their headquarters in Minnesota and West Virginia next week." Lacey replies.
"Wow. I didn't know you two had to leave and go to two different states." Phoebe adds.
"Two business trips? That should be interesting. How long will you be gone?" Whitney asks.
"A week." Lacey responds though she really didn't want to. She knows what Whitney is thinking because she thought it too.
"A week out of town in hotels with Danny. I can't wait to hear the stories when you guys get back." Whitney says and really expresses how amused she is.
"You're just trying to make me hate you, aren't you?" Lacey asks.
"Nope. See ya later" Whitney says as she laughs and pulls Phoebe with her as they walk away.
Lacey heads to Danny's office and finds him on the phone when she knocked on his door. He waved her in and Lacey immediately got to work. She tried not to listen in on his conversation.
"I'll try, but I can't promise anything. I'm working on a huge project and I have to go out of town next week. I will try to see your pretty face this weekend. Ok, bye. I love you too." Danny says as he hangs up and looks over at Lacey who seems to be avoiding him again. "That was my mother, in case you were wondering." Danny says as he smiles at her.
"I wasn't." Lacey lies. She felt a little jealous at him calling someone pretty and telling her he'd try to see her the weekend. She didn't like hearing him say, 'I love you' either, though she won't ever admit it. "But thank you." Lacey says.
"I see you got creative in hiding the stain on your dress. Now, are you going to tell me why you were crying?" Danny asks.
"I had to. I don't want to discuss that Danny. It's over. It happened. Let's move forward and finish what we need to do before we have to pull all-nighters or work the weekend." Lacey says as she returns to her work.
"Ok, you're right. I won't force you to discuss something you don't want to." Danny says sincerely as he returns to his work and he and Lacey work in a lust filled, awkward silence the rest of the day.
One step forward, two steps back.
Lacey arrived home that evening and was glad that Archie wasn't there. She couldn't face him. She was ridiculously hungry and went straight to her kitchen. She warmed up her leftover baked chicken, rice and string beans. That would be her early dinner. She sat at her table and ate in her own silence alone with her thoughts. She went upstairs to her room and took off her coffee laden dress and headed for her shower. She made the water as hot as she could stand it. She again started to think of Danny and wished his hands were her hands. Lacey started to sob. She couldn't handle her emotions at the moment. But she decided to suck it up and let it go. It wasn't worth crying over. She finished her shower and retreated to her bedroom. She just sat on her bed and let her mind get lost in watching tv. She watched Step Brothers and got completely lost in it from laughing so much. Archie came in and ruined it for her. She did not want him there. She couldn't face him. But she put her poker face on and pretended to be happy to see him as they watched the rest of the movie and more tv together. Later on that night, Archie was in the mood to fool around. Lacey again preferred to have sex from behind, but Archie was in a real lovey dovey mood. He wanted to get the most out of their sexual activity because he was leaving and wouldn't see her for a while. And during their sexual activity, Lacey made a terrible mistake.
She called out Danny's name.