Wanting to Remember, Trying to Forget (Meet the Shepards, #1)

March

Charlie walked into Max's office wearing a navy blue T-shirt, a white pair of shorts, and a sweatband over his right wrist. He twirled his squash racquet in his hand and looked at Max expectantly. They had developed an effective gym routine since the implementation of the late New Year's resolution. They did cardio on Monday, weights on Tuesday, squash on Wednesday, weights again on Thursday, and tai-bo on Friday. Although they felt a little out of place in a class full of forty-something women learning how to do a roundhouse kick, their commitment had not faltered.

"You ready?" Charlie asked.

"Give me a minute," Max replied, his eyes not leaving the computer screen.

After a minute, Max still had not moved and Charlie decided to take a seat.

"Are you done yet?" Charlie asked when they passed the two-minute mark.

"Almost." Max sighed heavily. "That woman is gonna get me fired."

"Who?"

"Sofia! We've had seven meetings to discuss this design and so far we've still got nothing. Terrence Truman wants to see more or less what the site is going to look like on Monday and when he sees the magical array of nothing that we have, I'm dead."

Charlie smiled. "So if I'm interpreting this correctly, you've had seven dates with the lovely Miss Panadero in the last three weeks and she was so smitten by you that the thought of business didn't even cross her mind."

Max finally looked up from the computer screen and smiled modestly. "Well, I wouldn't exactly say that."

Dorothy knocked on the door, walked in and stopped a few feet away from the desk. "I managed to move your meeting with Bit-by-Bit to eleven o' clock on Monday," she said.

Max noticed Charlie's eyes move up Dorothy's legs to rest on her ass but he chose not to say anything about it. "Thanks. I'm gonna need all the time I can get."

Charlie quickly reverted his eyes back to Max as she turned around. He flashed a smile as she was about to pass him. "Hey, Dorothy, why don't you come sit on my lap and we can talk about the first thing that pops up?"

"Why don't you think about rephrasing that question before I get my stun gun," she retorted with disgust.

"I like toys," Charlie said with a naughty grin.

"And I did like older men until you started looking like one."

Normally Charlie would be furious at a statement like that, but instead he seemed intrigued by the challenge. He watched Dorothy storm off and turned back to Max.

"She so wants my beef."

"And she makes it so obvious," Max added sarcastically.

Charlie pulled an unimpressed face. "Would you get your ass in gear? It's already four o' clock."

"Stop nagging." Max shut down his computer and stood up. "I'm coming."

They walked out of his office to the elevators.

"So things are going good between you and Sofia?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah. Pretty good. She's funny and she's smart and—"

"Have you made it with her yet?"

"Fuck, Charlie!" Max decided not to tell him that he hadn't even tried to kiss her yet.

"Just asking. So when are you going to see her again?"

They stepped into the elevator and Max hit the button for the basement parking. "Saturday. We really have to finish this design before Monday and I'm swamped for the rest of the week."