Chapter 1: Wow, lucky huh?

I had been working as a summer hire at RCM (radio communications manufacture) for two years, since I was sixteen, way before my friends had a similar job. I worked full time almost all summer for ten dollars an hour, also way more than my friends were making. Really the only reason I got the job was because my dad worked there. The kids of employees were the only hires the company made during the summer. There were maybe twenty others who were children of employees but they were all older than me, most of them were in college. During my first summer I worked with document control and in the marketing department.

My boss was an incredibly attractive twenty-eight year old by the name of Eveline Azmano. She had a deadly combination of looks and intelligence that would see her rapidly climbing the corporate ladder. She was maybe five foot five; she had dirty blond hair, quick intelligent blue eyes, a small mouth with sensuous full lips and a devastating smile. Her ears and nose were small and combined with little patches of freckles high on her cheeks made her look cute. Her body was athletic, her shoulders were broad and her breasts were petite, according to my limited male knowledge maybe a B cup. Though she always wore bras that pushed them up and out making them seem larger than they probably were. I could tell her stomach was washboard flat and her waist was trim. When she wore tight pants you could tell her ass was small and tight, her legs were toned and shapely. And as an added bonus her personality was great, she was friendly and outgoing and could carry a conversation for as long as she wanted no matter the topic. When I was introduced to her that first summer she seemed surprised to see me, I chalked it up to my age; I doubt she had ever worked with anyone as young as me in this company.

I was introduced to her as Thomas Morrison but asked her to call me Tom. I held out my hand and she shook it firmly.

"Call me Eve." She had said brightly. The work she gave me was easy; really just stuff that would only slow her down and that I had no trouble in completing with a speed that I think surprised her. I believe I preformed well above what she had expected of me, considering my age. We got to know each other pretty well the two months that I was there and I was startled to learn she lived maybe ten minutes from my house. I had never seen her around town before and I teased her mercilessly about it, calling her a hermit living in a cave, I even went so far as to print out a picture of Gollum from Lord of the Rings and tape it to the back of her chair. She admitted that she was a homebody and in turn kidded me about my ineptitude in dealing with girls my own age, which was sadly true. I was totally hopeless when it came to the girls at school; I would clam up in their presence and would be stricken with horrific speech impediments whenever I did get up the nerve to talk to one. She wasn't too harsh though, she only went so far as not to cut too deep.

She ended up spending a lot of time in my cube, though she wasn't the only one. It seemed like there was no end to the number of people that stopped by just to talk. This happens to my father as well, we call it the Morrison face, people see us and just start talking to us. But anyways, she spent the most amount of time with me, sometimes she would sit on my desk and we would carry on a decent conversation while I worked. I thought it was because she didn't have that many friends at the company, she might have been too intimidating in a way. I learned that she was having a little trouble with her boyfriend, that they weren't spending enough time together. I sort of shied away from that subject when it had come up because it tended to make her sad.

It was the best first job I could have ever hoped for and I enjoyed it immensely. However it ended way to soon, those two months flew by at a mind boggling pace.

I couldn't wait to work there again next summer in the hopes that I would work with her again. When that second summer came around I was disappointed to learn I wouldn't be. Instead I would be working in a completely different part of the building, isolated by two sets of security doors doing inventory and shipping/receiving in the warehouse. It was even easier than what I had done with Eve, more manual labor than mental work. I found it enjoyable because it kept me in shape and I was moving around more. The guy I worked with was an energetic Dominican named Marco, he and I became fast friends. When we had down time, which ended up being quite often, we would chill in his office and listen to his Reggaeton CD's.

About a month after starting my second summer I had just sent out two huge antenna arrays and was filling in the void they left with overflow products when I heard a quiet sniffle behind me. I turned sharply, my heart pounding, in the massive warehouse when you didn't hear someone approaching it tended to scare the shit out of you. Eve was standing behind me, now slightly startled aside from the tears spilling from her eyes. Her conservative business suit was rumpled and her hair was a mess, the make-up around her eyes was running slightly.

"Oh my god Eve, are you alright?" I gasped at her appearance, worry filling my voice. She stood for a second more, looking at me as tears continued to roll down the tanned skin of her face, obscuring her freckles. She took a deep faltering breath and stepped up to me burying her face in my chest and wrapping her arms around my back grabbing fistfuls of my shirt. She was wracked by wet sobs as she tried to hide herself in my lean six foot frame. I hesitated before putting my own arms around her, patting her heaving back.

"What happened?" I asked, gently prying her away from me. As soon as I did she put her hands to her face, she said something but her hands muffled her voice.

"What?"

"He left me!" she cried before latching back onto me.

"Eve I'm so sorry." I soothed, letting her cry herself out as I gently rocked her back and forth. It was a long time before she calmed down enough to pull away. She turned her back and made a futile effort to straighten her clothes and fix her hair.

"I'm sorry, I-I just..." she sniffed. I put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"C'mon." I said gently leading her back the way she came, towards the bathrooms.

"H-he called me this morning and said he was moving his stuff out into his new girlfriends place." She sniffed.

"Asshole." I muttered under my breath. She must have heard me because she turned her head and gave me a pained smile. We came up on the bathrooms and I held the women's door open for her as she shuffled in. When the door closed I turned and headed for the men's room. I stood in front of the mirror and sighed. What kind of idiot would give her up? I splashed some water on my face and stared at my reflection. I had changed from last year I finally noticed, my acne had disappeared completely and my skin had tanned nicely from time spent at the beach. My nose was strong but fit with the rest of my face. My eyes were a darker blue color and already I had those little laugh lines going due to constantly smiling. I ran my hands through my short light brown hair and sighed again, why had she come to me? It seemed to confirm my theory that she really didn't have any close friends here. I found it hard to relate to that, I had always been able to make good friends wherever I went. I shook my head at the small make-up stains on my shirt and left the bathroom after washing my hands. I stood between the two restrooms and took a drink from the bubbler, waiting for her to emerge. I didn't have to wait long before she staggered out looking no better than she had before.

"You want to go home?" I asked.

"No," she responded her voice a little hoarse, "No I'm alright. I'll be fine." Her assurances were weak and I doubt she believed them herself. I escorted her to the security door and opened it for her. She passed by me but paused for a second as if she just remembered something. She came back and kissed me on the cheek before bouncing back through the door, tossing a "thank you Tom" over her shoulder.

That was the greatest amount of time I spent with her that summer. She was bucking for a promotion so she was busy most of the time and towards the end of the summer, business on my end started picking up a great deal as well. Again the summer went by too quickly and I was eager to return.

And that brings me to the present day I was eighteen and instead of riding to work with my father I was driving myself, not wanting to put up with the extra hour early he came in by in the morning. This was my first day of my third summer and to say I was excited would be an understatement, because just this morning I learned I would be working with Eve again. As I pulled into the parking lot, reveling in the looks I got from my pounding heavy metal music, I could barely keep my hands from shaking. I got out and strode through the double doors and into the lobby, giving the receptionist a kindly old British woman, a warm hello. I made my way through the building, winding through maze like cube farms and assembly areas to the slightly more secluded marketing/sales area. The rest of the building liked to joke that they had it the best, because they were in a carpeted area. I looked in her old cube but there was someone else there, looking around further I finally found her name plate on the wall next the door of an office marked Marketing Manager. The door was slightly ajar so I peeked around the corner and had to suppress my laughter.

"Whoa now! Whose bright Idea was it to put you in charge?" I chuckled. She had her feet up on her desk and was looking at a piece of paper she held in one hand. When I spoke she jumped and shot to her feet, the paper fluttering to the floor.

"Tom!" she squealed running up to me and giving me a tight hug.

"I like your new digs Eve." I said admiringly looking around her spacious office.

"I know right!" She responded excitedly looking up, still tightly attached to me.

"Why don't you give me a tour." I suggested teasingly.

She laughed and jumped back from me straightening her blouse and affecting the air of a flight attendant. "To your left you will see my desk complete with high speed computer and other accessories and to your right you will see my trash can." She didn't say anything else because after that she broke down into hysterical laughter; obviously she found her joke very amusing.

"Oh and guess what you're doing this summer!" she said coyly.

"What?" I asked, smiling warily. She took my hand and led me back out the door and to the cube directly outside her office.

"Lets just say this is yours." She grinned.

"Oh god I'm going to be your secretary?" I groaned, still smiling.

"Well I was going to call you my assistant, but if you want to be a secretary then be my guest." She giggled delightedly. I plopped down in the chair and she jumped up onto my desk, letting her legs dangle and kicking her feet like a little girl.

"So ... you're eighteen now huh?"

"Yeah, it's so awesome."

"Ya find a girlfriend yet?" she asked slowly. I turned my head slightly and looked at her sidelong.

"No Eve, I have not."

"Oh that's too bad." She replied absentmindedly, playing with her hair and looking at my computer. She became quiet after that, she handed me a stack of customer contact information and asked me to put it in the company's computer system. She said this would be my summer long project seeing as there were more than a hundred pages of the stuff, I was to do this when I didn't have any other work to do. Next she gave me a box full of binders and another box filled with product fliers for a trade show she was going to next week. This wasn't the first time I'd done this for her; I actually enjoyed putting the binders together.

"While you're working on this I have a few meetings to go to but after that I'll be back, okay?"

"Alright." I said looking at her curiously. She got down off of my desk and as she walked past me, let her hand brush my arm. Instantly my skin started tingling and I smiled to myself at the sensation.

It was a few hours before she reappeared outside my cube. "God that was sooo boring!" she said wearily.

"Is work ever not boring?" I asked jokingly, not turning around.

"It can be, if you do it right." She said wistfully, I wasn't looking but I thought I could feel her eyes on me. What did that mean?

"So, do you have something else for me?" I asked, swiveling around in my chair. She was looking at me! She was leaning against the side of my cube, one hand was at her mouth pulling at her lip the other nervously clutched at a piece of paper. That hand was trembling slightly and when I turned she took her hand away from her face and put it behind her back.

"Um y-yes could you ah could you make forty copies of this please?" she asked handing me the piece of paper in her shaking hand.

"Are you okay Eve?" I asked, worried.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." She responded quickly, "Um I'll be in my office." And with that she turned and hurried around the corner. I spent a second wondering why she was acting so strange before shrugging and heading to the copy machine. It took me all of twenty seconds to make the copies; I brought them back to my desk and quickly finished the binders as well before heading for her office. I knocked twice before letting myself in, I think I startled her again because there was a rapid movement and I thought I heard a little squeak of surprise. She was sitting close to her desk and I noticed that her cheeks were bright red. Had I caught her doing something? Nah.

"Here you go." I said handing her the stack of copies, "And the binders are done too. Do you want me to bring them somewhere?"

"Oh um yeah. Could you please ah bring them over to Megan? She needs to add a new spec sheet to them before we send them out."

"Right away milady." I said smiling and making a grand sweeping bow.

"Stop it!" she squealed, giggling girlishly. God she was fun! I left her office and stopped at my cube to heft the now considerably heavy box of binders. I carried it down the row to Megan Green's cube and set it down on the floor next to her chair.

"Hey cute stuff, that for me?" she chuckled. Megan was a charming woman in her early forties, I assumed. She was short and squat with a jovial face and short brown hair.

"That it is Megaleg, they just need that spec sheet and I can get them out of here." I said grinning and giving the box a light kick.

"So how has your first day been sweetie?" she asked.

"Great, I miss being back here." I said truthfully.

"That's good. I know Eve was excited for you to be working with her this summer." She reached out and touched my arm, "She hasn't been doing so well lately, you know personally." This was the Morrison face at work.

"Oh?"

"Yeah she's been really quiet lately, all cooped up in her office. I think she's been trying to lose herself in her work really. I just hope this doesn't continue is all."

"You worry too much Meg, she'll be fine." I said, more confident than I actually felt. Before she could start again I said, "Look I have some more stuff to do, but I'll see you later alright."

"Okay, later then Tom." She said picking out the first binder. Damn it now I felt bad, now I had to do something. It was almost lunch time, and there was my answer! I strode back to my cube and dialed my dad's extension. When he answered I told him I was going out for lunch and he merely grunted, saying to have a good time. He was quick to get used to my teenage independence. From there I turned the corner and walked into her office, again I think I startled her because her face turned beat red and she smiled nervously as I sat down in the chair facing her desk. She had a plastic container of what looked like left over Chinese food in front of her and was just about to open it when I walked in.

"Eve." I said slowly, "Put that away." Her eyes darted from my face to the container for a moment before she tucked it in a mini fridge behind her. She had everything in here!

"So what am I doing for lunch then?" she asked cautiously, her blue eyes riveted to mine.

"We're going out to lunch today." I said suddenly smiling warmly. Her lips mimicked mine and soon she was positively beaming.

"Okay!" she chirped happily.

"Fantastic." I said, standing up. She followed me as I walked out and snatched my keys from my desk.

"And I'll be driving. Muhahaha." I laughed evilly and touched my fingertips together in a mad scientist sort of way.

"Oh no!" she giggled, playing along, placing the back of her hand to her forehead. She followed me out to my car, a beat up little coupe that I had gotten for a bargain bin price. I opened the door for her; such a cheesy gesture was called for in this situation I believe.

"Such a gentleman." She snickered and got inside. I got in the driver's seat and before I turned it on, made sure to shut off the radio.

"Thanks for that, I heard you come in this morning." She said suppressing her laughter, poorly.

"Don't want to hurt your delicate little ears." I chuckled.

"I'll have you know I used to listen to loud music too when I was a kid." She said turning up her nose in mock indignation.

"Really?" I said barely able to contain the hysterical laughter that threatened to overcome me, "I didn't know cars came with built in record players." Her expression was absolutely priceless. First she was shocked, then she was angry, and finally she started laughing, that fantastic female laughter that stopped abruptly when she accidentally snorted but which overcame her again and again with the same result.

"You little brat!" she managed to say after awhile, slapping at my arm. I couldn't help but laugh myself as I turned the car on and pulled out of the parking lot. As soon as I got to the main road I gunned the engine and we shot out into traffic, or lack there of. I deftly wound my way through back roads and across main thoroughfares with an ease that astounded both my parents and Eve too it seemed. I was at a loss as to why driving came so naturally to me but I didn't question it, only enjoyed it.

And in no time at all we had arrived at a strip mall with at least four different types of eateries to choose from. If I had had more time I would have taken her to a more upscale place farther away but this was all I could do on such short notice.

"What would you like Miss Azmano?" I asked, shutting off the car and getting out. She too got out and leaned up against my car.

"For you to stop calling me that for one." She smiled. She looked at each of the four and bit her lip trying to decide, "But um, I haven't had pizza in awhile, can we have that?"

"Of course." I responded locking the car and starting towards the pizza place directly in front of us. She hurried to catch up, not walking next to me but close behind me and off to one side like she was hiding. Perhaps this has something to do with her being such a homebody or visa versa; in any case I reached out and pulled at her arm, guiding her next to me as we walked into the pizza joint.

"What do you want on your half?" I asked leaning down so she didn't have to shout over the din of the busy shop.

"Pepperonis please." After waiting in line for a minute or so I ordered a medium pizza half cheese half pepperoni and two cups for sodas. She tried to reach into her purse but I lightly slapped her hand away, shaking my head at her. The place was cheap so it wasn't a big deal especially with the kind of money I was being paid. I handed her a cup and she moved off to the soda machine, it would be a few minutes so I followed her and watched curiously as she mixed pink lemonade with ice-tea.

"Are you serious?"

She put a cover on and shoved a straw through to opening, taking a long pull. "Mhm so good." she said smacking her lips.

"Guess I'll have to try it then." I said reaching out with my own cup.

"Wait! Let me do it." She said snatching the cup out of my hand just as I was about to press the button, "This is a science here; you gotta do it just right." She was serious. Again I watched as she filled it about two thirds full of ice-tea and the rest, pink lemonade.

"Why not regular lemonade?" I asked.

She stuck out her tongue and made a gagging noise, "Eww that just doesn't taste right believe me. It has gotta be pink."

"That's adorable." I smirked.

"Oh shut up and get the pizza." She retorted, jabbing me in the ribs as she made off with the drinks towards a booth by the windows. I picked up the pizza and followed her; I guess I wasn't surprised to see she chose the seat facing away from the interior. The pizza came pre-sliced so all one needed to do was pull your piece and dump whatever condiments you wanted onto it, which is what I proceeded to do. I'd finished one before she'd even started and I watched, fascinated as she picked all the pepperonis off of the slice before carefully picked it up and took a delicate bite.

"You're joking." I said around a mouthful of cheese.

She giggled again, "Yeah." The next bite easily halved the slice, puffing out her cheeks.

"Much better." When she finished she started nibbling on the pepperonis she had removed.

"You are so weird." I teased.

"Alright look, did you bring me out here just to make fun of me or something? First you call me old and then you go after my pizza eating. What's next, are you going to call me fat?" she asked in mock anger.

"Pfft you couldn't get fat if they pumped it straight into you." I scoffed. Despite the lameness of that comment she still blushed.

"Okay you're forgiven." We talked some more, small talk and projects she expected to be handing me in the near future. I was impressed at how well she could pack it away; she was just like a teenager, well almost. When she had finished her pizza she started picking at the pepperonis she had plucked off. I was long finished and was still sipping at my drink which was fantastic, just like she said.

I watched her for a few moments, she seemed fine but I didn't want to spoil her good mood by asking the questions I wanted. She finished her pepperonis and leaned back, patting her stomach and groaning.

"Damn, look what you made me do Tom."

"What, do you want me to carry you to the car? Nancy." I smirked. She crumpled up her napkin and threw it at me, scowling. I gathered the trash and got up, tossing it in the trash can.

"Ready?"

"Mhm." She sounded disappointed. We walked out to my car and got in. After turning it on she turned my radio back up to a loud, but not deafening roar and grinned over at me. I smiled back and pulled out of the parking lot, my driving was even wilder with the music and out of the corner of my eye I saw her grip the door handle but with a huge grin on her face. We screeched back into the company lot and got out.

"Thanks Tom that was fun, even if you did tease me the whole time." She said coming up alongside me and linking her arm with mine.

"You're welcome." She broke away as we came through the doors and just in time too as we were immediately set upon by people needing her help or asking about pending projects. The rest of the day ended in a blur as did the rest of the week, due to the upcoming trade show she was incredibly busy. On Friday though, I was hit by a complete bombshell when Eve bounced into my cube at the end of the day and spun me around in my chair.