Her Sexiest Mistake

Hope nodded again. 'So can we have hot dogs again tomorrow?'

'Do they make them low-fat?'

Hope snorted but still didn't give any indication of how she felt about staying.

'So… you okay?' Mia asked.

'Peachy.'

Sarcasm and wit. A mechanism Mia herself had perfected and understood all too well.

'I'm going to take a shower.' Hope left the room, and Mia looked out the window, feeling… she didn't know. Worried. Stressed. Strung too damn tight.

Kevin's bike sat parked in front of his house, looking sleek and sexy, like the man. Mia heard the shower turn on upstairs, and then she headed for the back door.

Her sandals slapped on the concrete, the heat from the day rising up through her feet. She didn't realize she was holding her breath until Kevin opened his door.

Wearing only a pair of loose basketball shorts hanging to his knees and his chest bare, he looked better than the dessert she hadn't allowed herself.

His gaze went wary. 'Mia-'

Not wanting to hear why this was a bad idea, she stepped over the threshold and into his personal space, winding her arms around his neck and sighing in pleasure even before their mouths met. 'Are we alone?' she murmured.

'Yeah, but-'

She kicked the door shut, slid her hands into his hair and brought his mouth back to hers, his delicious, talented, gorgeous mouth.

Seemingly just as hungry, he lifted her up against him, his mouth trailing hot kisses down her neck, his hands snaking beneath her skirt. When his fingers found her thong, he let out a rough 'Fuck' in a strained voice.

She knew she had him then, that he would take her hard and fast and help her forget.

***

Despite Mia's intentions of making sure the next week was an improvement over the shockingly bad previous one, somehow the shit kept hitting the fan. She was in the middle of a handful of accounts, all in different phases but none more exciting than the highly secret Runner account. The good news: she put together a fabulous campaign.

The bad news: Tess's computer crashed and her files vanished.

All of them. Poof, gone.

It meant many hours of stress, trying to re-create everything, and as a result she felt strung tight. Making it worse, Dickhead started asking a bunch of questions about the Anderson account, about her team's creative strategies, the production of planned ads, the media blitz, and the execution of all of the above. He was suddenly extremely interested in exactly how she'd gone about getting the account, and finally admitted that Ted had complained about her.

One morning she came into her office and found a sign leaning against her potted plant that said rescue me.

To top off things nicely, Sugar claimed she needed another few weeks 'kid-free,' leaving Mia not sure how to explain to Hope that even if she'd wanted to go home, no one wanted her.

Halfway through the week, Mia and Hope were eating bagels and bacon-Mia was going to have to pick up an extra few yoga classes every week just to keep up-when from outside came the rumbling of Kevin's motorcycle starting up. Casually, Mia moved to the window to peer out at him.

'You think he's hot.' Hope came up beside her and grinned. 'Admit it.'

'Do not.'

'Do so.'

'Do not.'

'Do so.'

'Do-' Mia broke off and pinched the bridge of her nose. 'Get ready to go.'

'I am ready.' Hope spread out her hands, revealing her black trousers-three sizes too big and staying in place by some random act of fate-and her black tank top, ripped in several spots and showing glimpses of a black bra. Her makeup was also black, and she'd filled in the chipped black nail polish with what smelled like a permanent Sharpie marker.

'Aren't you guys going to the movies this afternoon?' Mia asked her.

'So?'

'So I'll give you one thousand dollars to wear something bright pink today.'

Hope chewed on her wad of gum, then blew a big bubble.

Pink.

Pop.

'Yeah. I was thinking something Chanel,' Mia said.

For this, she got an eye roll.

After she dropped Hope off at the teen center and got to work, the fun began. Layoffs had hit close to home. Half her creative team had to go. It didn't help that Margot and Ted faced the same cuts, not when saying good-bye to Tami and Steven.

That afternoon, the Anderson people started asking her about Ted, wanting to know if he could join her in handling their account. When Mia went to Dick about it, she realized the good-old-boy network had gone into effect when she hadn't been paying attention, because he just said, 'Do what you have to do to keep the Anderson people happy.'

Afraid to say anything because she was seriously peeved, and when she was seriously peeved, her Southern accent buttered her every word, she simply bit her tongue and stalked out of the office, where she ran into Margot. Mia and Margot had never exactly been friends, but in this firm, where they were in the definite minority as far as women went, were in fact the only two females at this level, they had a silent agreement to stick together when needed.

'Layoffs,' Margot said furiously. 'Suck.'

'Men suck.'

Margot nodded, and in rare solidarity they smiled grimly at each other.

Mia went back to her office, going over and over the Runner stuff, wishing Tess would show up so she could get her opinion, but Tess had gone to lunch two hours ago and hadn't come back.

Then, finally, Tess reappeared. She stuck her head in Mia's office with an apologetic look on her face. 'Sorry.'

'Are you sick?'

'No.' A flush worked its way up Tess's throat. 'I, um…'

'Ah, hell.' She scrubbed her hands over her face. 'Mike.'

Tess sighed dreamily.

Mia searched Tess's face, found utter bliss, and let worry work its course. 'It's only been a few dates. You can't engage your heart that quickly.'

'It was engaged the first moment I laid eyes on him.'

'Oh, Tess. Really?'

'Really.' Tess's eyes wandered to her plant. 'Hey, you've got to water that thing.'

'I've watered it. I've not watered it. Nothing makes it happy and it's going to die to spite me. You're changing the subject. Tell me about him. What does he what to do with himself?'