Page 39 of Worth the Wait

Understanding dawns. "So you protect yourself. Keep everything professional. Never let personal feelings interfere with your work."

"I can't afford to," she says simply. "Especially not with someone I'm competing against for promotion."

I step closer, careful not to crowd her. "Except we're not just competitors anymore. Miguel made that clear today. We're partners on this. And whatever this is between us"—I gesture to the space between our bodies—"it's not going away because we ignore it."

Before she can respond, her phone chimes. She glances at the screen, frowning.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Christine. She's requesting the preliminary drafts we've been working on." She shows me the message. "But she's asking for them separately. Not together, like Miguel specified."

I move to look over her shoulder, instantly suspicious. "Let me see the section assignments she gave us again."

Tarryn retrieves the document from her folder. We spread both papers on the conference table, comparing them side by side.

"There." I point to a discrepancy in the subsidiary section. "She omitted the cross-border liability clause from your assignment sheet."

"And the international acquisition framework from yours," Tarryn notes, her frown deepening. "If we submitted these separately, without comparing notes?—"

"—the final presentation would have major gaps," I finish. "Gaps that Christine could point out to Miguel."

"Making us both look incompetent," Tarryn says slowly, "while she steps in with the complete picture."

Our eyes meet.

"What the fuck? Is she trying to sabotage us?" Tarryn says, anger coloring her tone.

“Honestly, I want to say no because this all just seems so insane, but I don’t know how else to explain it.”

Tarryn's eyes narrow. “Yeah, well, she picked the wrong attorneys to mess with."

I can't help but smile at her fierce expression. This is the Tarryn I remember—brilliant, determined, unstoppable when she sets her mind to something.

“Let’s just focus on knocking this out of the park for now. If she’s actually trying to get us in trouble or fired or whatever, we’ll just address it with Miguel.”

We work for another hour, closely comparing our sections and identifying all the places where Christine's "guidance"would have led us astray. The shared mission creates a new energy between us—collaborative, focused, exhilarating.

When we finally finish, the office is completely deserted. The night security guard's rounds won't bring him to our floor for another thirty minutes. We're utterly alone.

Tarryn stands to gather her things but pauses when she notices me watching her. "What?"

"Nothing," I say, though it's everything. "Just… it's good, working with you like this. Really working together."

Her smile—genuine, unguarded—takes my breath away. "It is, isn't it? Feels like old times. Remember when we prepped for that debate tournament senior year?"

"State champions," I recall, smiling at the memory. "We were unstoppable together."

"We were," she agrees softly.

Something shifts in the atmosphere—the professional camaraderie giving way to a deeper current of connection. Eight years fall away in an instant, leaving only Tarryn and me, alone in a quiet room, drawn together by a force neither of us has ever fully escaped.

I step closer, unable to resist the pull between us. "Tarryn…"

She doesn't back away. Her eyes, wide and dark in the dim light, track my approach. I see her pulse fluttering at the base of her throat, her breath quickening as I close the distance between us.

"Tell me to stop," I whisper, giving her one last chance to maintain the boundaries we've both been clinging to.

Instead of answering, she reaches up, her fingers tentatively touching my cheek. The contact is featherlight. I remain perfectly still, letting her explore, letting her set the pace of whatever is happening between us.

---