+A/N: Thank you all for your continued love and support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 13: Dazed and Confused

Ana, Nadia, and Jessica all went out for drinks together afterward, as they agreed they would, and Ana was grateful for the distraction of hanging out with her friends, who were chatting happily about all the cute guys they saw at The Single Hop. Ana participated in the conversation as much as she could, but her mind was still lingering on Christian the whole time.

She was still completely flabbergasted as to why he had dumped all of his call cards into the garbage right in front of her. What the hell had that been about? Was he just messing with her again, or did he truly not want to be in contact with any of the women he had met tonight? Even if there wasn't a love connection, she found it hard to believe that there wasn't someone who he had been interested in tonight. Or, at the very least, he could have just saved a few numbers and kept them in his little black book for a rainy day.

What is he playing at?

Ana very much wanted to tell her friends about what Christian did so they could examine his behavior, but she decided not to. Christian always ended up being a topic of conversation for her, and she didn't want Nadia and Jessica to think she was obsessed with him or something.

Which I'm definitely not.

They finally called it a night after 2 AM, and they all took separate Ubers home. Ana, not wanting to think about Christian's odd behavior anymore, decided to just go straight to bed and crash for the night.

It was only when she finally crawled into her bed and began drifting off to sleep did she remember Boyd. He had given her his number, and she had given him hers, albeit reluctantly: there was definitely potential there, but it was difficult to feel excited about a possible new relationship when she was so exhausted.

I can just text him tomorrow…

~/~

The next morning was predictably pretty rough, but this was typical whenever Ana and her friends went bar-hopping the night before. She woke up late Saturday morning with a throbbing headache, but after drinking some water and eating fried eggs with butter (her go-to hangover cure) she felt a bit better.

Ana picked up her phone to text Nadia and Jessica to see how they were faring, but before she could, she noticed a text from an unknown number:

Unknown: Good morning! This is Boyd btw. I hope u don't mind me texting you so soon after last night.

Ana felt her heart flip in her chest. She had forgotten to text Boyd this morning, but felt grateful he had reached out first. She added his number to her contacts and texted him back:

Ana: Morning! I don't mind :) I actually just woke up, I went bar-hopping w/ my friends after speed dating lol

Boyd: No worries haha. Sounds like fun! How are u this morning?

Ana: Recovering :(

Boyd: Ugh I kno that feeling lol

Ana smiled slightly down at her phone – talking with Boyd felt just as easy and effortless as it did last night. The two of them continued to text for the next few minutes, making small talk about their plans for the day and what they typically enjoyed doing on the weekends. Neither of them broached the subject of a date yet, which Ana was thankful for: she liked Boyd well enough, but right now she was too tired and hungover to think about making plans.

Once again, Ana's mind went to Christian and her interactions with him last night at The Single Hop. She idly wondered what he was doing right now, and the thought crossed her mind about possibly texting him just to ask why the hell he chose to dump all his call cards into the trash without keeping a single one. He'd probably just respond with something snarky, and she would respond back with a sarcastic quip.

Ana couldn't help but chuckle to herself at the thought. As much of a jerk Christian could be to her sometimes, conversations with him definitely weren't boring.

Ana now yawned and set down her phone on the counter before walking into her bedroom, deciding not to let thoughts about Boyd and Christian consume her mind today. All she wanted to do was take a hot shower, order some Starbucks via DoorDash, and chill out in front of her TV in a sweatshirt and leggings while watching reality show marathons.

Sometimes it's not so bad being single.

~/~

Monday came around much too quickly, in Ana's opinion. After a nice, relaxing weekend where she was able to sufficiently recharge from the events on Friday, she came into work feeling ready and energized.

Of course, Christian was already at his desk when Ana walked into the office. "Good morning," Ana said brightly, heading over to her desk.

"'Morning," Christian said blandly, not even glancing up at her from his computer. He said nothing else as he typed away at his keyboard, and Ana looked over at him.

"That's it?" she couldn't help but ask, setting her purse down on her desk. "Just 'morning'? No snarky comment about my looks today?"

He glanced at her briefly before focusing on his computer screen again. "You look fine today," he said. Ana frowned at him before rolling her eyes.

"I don't know what's going on with you, but I'm really not in the mood," she said tersely, moving around her desk to sit down in her chair. "Your weird Monday energy is not something I want to deal with."

"Sorry. I just assumed you had a busy weekend, after speed-dating on Friday," Christian explained, his eyes still trained on his computer screen as his jaw seemed to clench. The clacking of his keyboard got noticeably louder. "Did you go out with Boyd yet?"

Ana raised her eyebrows at his odd behavior. What was going on with him? "No, not yet. We just texted a bit this weekend, but we haven't made any concrete plans."

It was true, she and Boyd had texted on Saturday, and then some more on Sunday, but it was all pretty innocent and neither of them had brought up going out for dinner or drinks yet. Ana wasn't sure if he was going to ask her, or if she was the one who was supposed to ask, but ultimately decided not to bring it up yet.

Christian looked up at her, his gaze finally meeting hers. "Really?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "Why not? I mean… don't you want to make plans with him?"

Ana felt herself blush as she looked away. She honestly didn't know how she was feeling toward Boyd at the moment, and the last thing she wanted to do was admit that to Christian. "That's really none of your business," she said briskly, sitting down in her chair. "Boyd's a nice guy, but after what went down with Jose, I really don't want to go rushing into anything right now."

"I suppose. But you've already met him and you're already texting," Christian shrugged, turning back to his computer. "I just figured you liked him enough to go out with him."

"And what about all the women you met on Friday night?" Ana couldn't help but ask, frowning over at him. "You got the phone numbers of practically all the women at The Single Hop, and yet you chose to throw all of them away without keeping a single one. I don't think you have any right to judge how I'm navigating things with Boyd."

Christian looked unperturbed as he shrugged. "I'm not interested in leading anyone on or wasting my time," he said simply. "But if you want to waste your time with Boyd, be my guest."

Ana simply rolled her eyes before powering on her computer, deciding not to respond. Just as she was clicking onto her email, her phone buzzed with an incoming text. Ana looked at her screen, and saw with some surprise that it was Boyd.

Ana glanced over at Christian before picking up her phone and reading his message:

Boyd: Morning Ana! Hope you're having a great Monday. I just wanted to text you to ask if maybe you were free to grab a drink with me tonight? There's a bar called Mollo's in Midtown that has great food and live music. I thought maybe we could enjoy it together. Let me know :)

Wow… Ana could hardly believe that she had just told Christian that she wanted to go slow with Boyd when the man himself just texted her to ask her out tonight.

Should I say yes?

Ana's thumbs hovered over her phone screen, ready to respond, but something held her back. She instinctively glanced up at Christian again, and he seemed to notice her looking at him as he glanced over and met her gaze.

"What is it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing," Ana blinked, shaking her head and looking back down at her phone. "Boyd just texted me asking me out for drinks tonight."

Christian seemed to stiffen in his seat as he stared at her. "Seriously?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," Ana said. "He says there's a bar in Midtown that he wants to take me to tonight."

There was a beat of silence. "Are you going to go?" Christian asked, his voice sounding odd.

"I mean, there's no reason not to," Ana shrugged. "He's a nice guy, and it's clear he's interested in me. I don't see the downside."

Christian grimaced slightly, turning back and staring a hole into his computer screen. "Of course. He's a nice guy…" he muttered to himself, typing away at something. Ana couldn't help but snort.

"Yeah he is. You could learn a thing or two from him," she said, her voice snarky. Christian just rolled his eyes.

Feeling resolved, Ana picked up her phone again and texted Boyd back, telling him she'd be happy to join him for a drink tonight. Boyd texted back immediately, asking if seven o'clock worked for her, and she said that was perfect.

Done.

Ana had barely set her phone back down on her desk when Jessica suddenly poked her head inside their office.

"Hey guys – Mr. Kavanaugh is calling an emergency meeting right now in the big conference room," she said to them. There was a rather serious expression on her face, and behind her, Ana could see several people making their way down the hallway. "We need to head over right away."

"Okay," Ana said immediately, getting to her feet before grabbing her cell phone and a notepad. "Is something going on?"

"I don't know, but it sounds kind of serious," Jessica stated, grimacing. Ana and Christian didn't say anything else as they stepped out of the office and followed her and the others to the conference room.

The whole department was gathered there, and Mr. Kavanaugh and Max were both standing at the front of the room, talking quietly to each other with serious expressions on their faces. There was a quiet murmur of voices as everyone talked with each other, clearly trying to figure out why they were all called into this meeting.

"Is everybody here?" Mr. Kavanaugh now asked, gazing around the room. Everyone quieted while glancing at each other, and Mr. Kavanaugh didn't seem to wait for a response as he went on: "Alright, we'll try to make this brief. This isn't necessarily something the marketing department has to concern itself with, but all of our employees need to be made aware of what's going on. There was an Accounting error made last night – a few of our larger clients were mistakenly overbilled, and the higher-ups here were just made aware of it. Our Accounting and IT departments are working to figure out the source of the issue and trying to resolve it so this doesn't happen again."

Everyone glanced at each other again, and Ana met Jessica's eyes. They were all clearly thinking the same thing – was this overbilling issue actually a "mistake", or was someone trying to steal from the company?

"The IT department informed us they need to do a complete sweep of our server system to see where the error originated from," Max explained, now addressing everybody in the room. "They'll be monitoring all activity on our computers today, and they will be conducting a more thorough sweep tomorrow – that means they'll need to shut down the entire local network here at Kavanaugh Media for several hours during that time. In order to keep business running as usual, everybody will be required to work from home tomorrow. I'll send out an email after this meeting to go over it in a bit more detail, but any on-site client meetings that are scheduled for tomorrow need to be rescheduled to a later date. Also, any person who isn't able to work from a different location will be allowed to put in a day of PTO if their supervisor signs off on it…"

Max went on about the work-from-home situation, and although Ana was concerned about this whole overbilling incident essentially causing their office to shut down, the idea of working from home tomorrow did sound rather appealing. She could wear her pajamas and recline on her couch all day while answering client emails.

Mr. Kavanaugh soon dismissed them all, and everyone filed their way out of the conference room, talking amongst themselves. Ana saw Nadia make her way out of the crowd and walk over to her and Jessica.

"It's pretty crazy, this whole overbilling thing," Jessica noted as the three of them made their way down the hallway. "Do you think the bosses suspect an employee trying to steal money?"

"Yeah I do," Nadia confirmed anxiously, glancing over her shoulder toward the conference room, where Mr. Kavanaugh and Max were still talking. "They didn't mention it in the meeting, but I heard from Kendra in Accounting that it was our five biggest clients who were overbilled – and by a lot, too. That can't be a coincidence."

"Wow," Jessica said, frowning in concern. "Any of your clients, Ana?"

"I don't know," Ana said, mentally thinking over all the clients she had. "Maybe. Are the bosses really worried, do you think?"

"They wouldn't be shutting down the office tomorrow if they weren't," Christian appeared at their side, obviously having overheard their conversation. "If I were Mr. Kavanaugh, I'd be pretty pissed about all of this too."

"I know the clients are angry," Nadia said worriedly. "I overheard Max on the phone with each of them this morning, trying to smooth everything over. It sounded like some of them were threatening to drop Kavanaugh Media altogether."

The four of them were silent as they seemed to absorb this unfortunate news.

"…Well, I'm sure with the server sweep they're doing tomorrow, they'll find the culprit," Ana eventually said, her voice confident. "Plus, we all get to work from home tomorrow, so that'll be fun."

"Yeah, for sure," Jessica said, brightening up at the thought. "I'm definitely gonna take my laptop to the Starbucks near my apartment and do my work while drinking macchiatos all day."

"I'm taking the PTO. It's kinda hard to be a receptionist when I'm not at my desk," Nadia giggled. "I'll be taking the day off and going shopping on Fifth Avenue…"

The three women continued to chat about their plans for tomorrow, but Christian didn't participate: he simply turned and walked back to his and Ana's shared office, his stiff posture making it clear he was still thinking about the overbilling incident. Ana watched him go, wondering if it was one of his clients who were targeted.

Christian had told Ana he left his family business and moved across the country for this job here at Kavanaugh Media. If his job was being affected by this, she wasn't surprised he would take any sort of threat to his career very seriously.

Ana felt a twinge of worry in her heart for Christian. She never would admit it to anyone, though.

The rest of the morning and afternoon went by rather normally, though Ana found she could hardly focus on her work. Part of her mind was on the clients being targeted by someone at their company, but mostly she was thinking about her date with Boyd tonight. She kept glancing up at the wall clock and watching the hours and minutes tick closer to when she was meant to leave for the day. The nervous feeling in her stomach couldn't seem to go away.

Five o'clock soon came around, and Ana began packing up her things. Christian glanced down at his watch. "You heading out?"

"Yup," Ana said simply, grabbing her planner and some important papers that she would need tomorrow while working from home.

"Still going on that date with Boyd tonight?" Christian asked after a moment, his voice sounding odd as he said Boyd's name.

"Last I checked," Ana responded tersely, the nervous feeling in her stomach feeling more pronounced than ever. Christian seemed to notice her tone as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Are you not looking forward to it?" he asked, looking genuinely curious. Ana fought an eyeroll, but figured telling him the truth was better than lying to him, which would undoubtedly end with him mocking her.

"Honestly, I'm a bit nervous," she said, not meeting his gaze as she finished packing up her things. "I haven't been on a first date in awhile, and all of them I've been on just end up being really awkward."

Christian seemed to consider her words for a moment as he looked at her. "Why are they awkward? If you like the guy, when you go out with him, shouldn't you feel… I don't know, a spark?"

Ana glanced up at him dubiously. "Ideally, yes," she said, her tone conveying her skepticism. "But in reality, I usually find it difficult to expect any sparks to happen when I barely know the guy. I'm overly preoccupied with how I look or if I'm being interesting enough to hold his attention. First dates come with a lot of pressure."

"Maybe that's your problem," Christian smirked at her, and Ana had to fight the urge to roll her eyes at him again. "You get too much into your own head. I bet you don't even know what a spark even feels like."

"Of course I know what it feels like," Ana stated, her face going red for some reason. "And I don't get too much into my own head – I just know what I want in a relationship. The spark can come later."

"Okay then," Christian said, getting up from his chair and leaning back against his desk as he faced her, crossing his arms. "Tell me – what does a spark with a guy feel like to you?"

Ana couldn't help but give Christian a commiserating look. She had no idea if he was trying to help her or mess with her, but she figured that they were already down this conversation path. There wasn't any point in turning back now.

She let out a breath, thinking. "I guess… I like when a guy is confident in who he is," she said after a moment. "When he's honest and strong, but not mean. And not a jerk," she added, giving Christian a pointed look.

Christian grinned at her, something unreadable dancing in his eyes as he regarded her. "Anything else?"

"Those are the main things, I suppose. But I also like when a guy can be vulnerable with me," Ana said, turning around to grab her coat from the hook behind her desk. "That he's not afraid to show me how he feels, and that he's honest about what he wants. I guess that's why I'm not a big fan of first dates," Ana slipped her arms through the sleeves of her coat, still not facing Christian as she buttoned it up. "It's hard to have that sort of intimacy with a guy you don't really know yet…"

Ana turned back around to grab her purse, but to her utter surprise, Christian was standing right there, barely two feet away from her. Before she could ask what the hell he was doing, Christian suddenly moved forward, reaching up and grabbing the side of her head with his hand before leaning forward and pressing his lips to hers in a sudden kiss.

Ana had not known the meaning of the word 'blind-sided' until this very moment. Her complete and total shock prevented her from reacting right away, and her mind was trying to grapple with basic words and phrases.

Christian… Christian is kissing me… we are kissing right now.

Oh my God.

Ana had been kissed before, of course she had, but this kiss was something else entirely – like it belonged in its own category of kisses that all others tried and failed to live up to. Christian's lips were voracious as they seemed to all but claim her own, and Ana instinctively began to respond in kind, tilting her head back as she lost herself in the sensations he was producing in her. Christian moved his hand on her face up so his fingers threaded in her hair, gripping her tresses just tightly enough so as not to be painful; his mouth moved so his teeth lightly scraped against her bottom lip, his warm, stubbled skin pressed against her heated face, and Ana couldn't help the small, needy whimper that escaped her lips.

Christian let out a groan deep in his chest as he captured her lips once again, opening his mouth as he coaxed hers open with his warm, wet tongue. Ana obediently followed suit, instinctively gripping the lapels of his suit jacket and hanging on for dear life while she surrendered herself to this exquisite kiss. Everything else in the world just seemed to fizzle and melt away as Ana's entire being went adrift, lost in a sea of sensation as Christian's amazing lips continued to devour her whole…

In a moment, Christian had pulled away, and Ana almost made a sound of protest as she blinked open her eyes. They were still very close, breathing heavily, with Christian's hand still in her hair and Ana's fingers still clutching his lapels. Christian gazed down at her with a burning expression in his gray eyes.

"Is that the kind of spark you were talking about?" he asked quietly, his hand slowly sliding out of her hair and grazing the skin of her cheek with his fingertips. Ana shivered slightly, and she couldn't seem to form any words as she continued to stare at him. "If Boyd can't do that for you tonight… feel free to give me a call."

With that, Christian dropped his hand from her face, and Ana's fingers automatically released his jacket. He turned around and walked back over to his desk, picking up his briefcase before heading out the door; Ana watched him scrub a hand over his face as he walked away, trying but failing to maintain his composure.

Ana stood there for several minutes, trying to mentally collect the pieces of her mind that seemed to have exploded into pieces all around her.

A/N: Whew! *fans self*

Please review! See you all next chapter ;)