Chapter 1

"Yo, let's go get some coffee." Ryan, my best friend, nudged me as I kept working on my laptop.

"I have work, dude. I need to get these sample designs for our new project done, like now," I replied, not taking my eyes off the screen.

"Oh right, the new project. I heard that our new project manager is a woman. Can you believe it?" he whispered so that no one could hear us and climbed on my desk.

"Really?" I asked in shock. We worked at a gaming company, and I was a game designer while Ryan was working on the back end. Women were rarely interested in gaming and stuff, so I was genuinely surprised to learn that a woman was going to be our new project manager.

"Yeah, I hope she's hot. I'm bored of seeing all these dudes and nerdy chicks around," he stated, making me laugh a bit.

"Yeah, whatever." I shook my head and continued to focus on my work.

"What happened to you, man? I miss the old Nate."

"Old Nate is no longer available. New Nate is fucked up," I replied dryly, and he rolled his eyes.

"Are you still hung up on that Rebecca chick?" he asked, and I froze, not able to say anything.

"I'm not. Stop bugging me, Ryan," I muttered in annoyance. Ever since her wedding, I had thrown myself into work, trying my best not to think about her. Ryan had been annoying me to go on dates and even tried to set me up with some chicks, but I wasn't interested at all.

"Jeez, someone's got their panties in a twist," he teased, punching my arm while I glared at him.

"Girls are throwing themselves at you, man. Just get over her already."

"I'm not interested in dating."

"Then, let's hit the club and find some chicks." He winked, and I let out a huge sigh, knowing he was not going to give up anytime soon. The last time I hooked up with a girl was on Rebecca's wedding day, and even though I had been drunk, the memory was still fresh in my mind.

Phew, that was one hot encounter!

"Boys, get in the conference room. Our project manager should be here any minute now. Nate, are the designs ready?" David, our team lead, asked. I nodded, grabbing my laptop while Ryan jumped off my desk.

"Time to meet the hot chick." He whistled and walked in front of me while I dragged my lazy ass towards the conference room.

The room was filled with our entire team, which consisted of around ten people, and I sat down in my seat, already bored out of my mind. I opened my laptop and tried to keep myself busy.

"Hi, Nate." I looked up at the sound of a familiar voice to see Amy smiling at me from the other side of the room and adjusting her glasses. She was a nice girl who'd had a silly crush on me since day one, but she was definitely not my type. I smiled back at her just to be polite.

"Why don't you ask her out?" Ryan stated loud enough that she could hear, and I kicked him under the table.

"Shut up before I kick your ass."

"I'm just looking out for you, jerk," he whispered, and I mentally face-palmed myself.

"Now you whisper, asshole!?" I cursed, making him chuckle.

"Guys, our new manager is very talented and really good at what she does. She expects nothing but the best, and I expect all of you to work your asses off to deliver this project successfully," David started, going on and on about this chick. I wanted to kill myself already. I started to play Super Mario on my laptop, all the while wondering what the hell was so damn special about this woman. She must be in her late forties or something if she's already achieved so much.

Poor Ryan!

"And here she is. Team, I would like to introduce our new project manager, Samantha Perez." David beamed proudly. I looked up from my game to see who this mysterious woman was and literally choked on my own saliva, gaining everyone's attention.

"Fuck," I muttered under my breath and loosened my tie a little.

"Mr. Wilson, are you okay?" David asked with a concerned look on his face, and I smiled, assuring him that everything was fine. I could feel a pair of hazel brown eyes staring at me from across the room, and I swallowed hard, unable to believe my own eyes Is this what they call a coincidence?

"Dude, she's smoking hot. Am I dreaming or something? She's so freaking young. I thought she'd be close to 30 or something," Ryan gushed beside me while I gave him a nervous smile. David began to introduce the team members one by one, and finally he pointed at me.

"That's Nate Wilson, our game designer and the most valuable asset in our company."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Wilson." She smiled, a knowing look on her face, her eyes lingering on me for a little longer than necessary. I gave her a tight smile and looked away immediately. Fuck, nothing made sense. How could she be my project manager? She looked younger than me, and she was too pretty to be smart.

Okay, that came out wrong, but come on, this was unbelievable!

"Nate, she's literally eye-fucking you, man. Do you know her or something?" Ryan whispered, and my eyes went wide.

"Wh-what? No, of course not," I stammered nervously.

"She keeps glancing at you."

"I can't help it if I'm good looking, dude," I mumbled, wiping the beads of sweat from my forehead. I kept glancing at her occasionally. Damn, she was even hotter than the first time I saw her. She was wearing a sleeveless beige top and grey pencil skirt that hugged every inch of her body. She looked so poised and sophisticated, nothing like the woman I had met at the bar. I reluctantly peeled my eyes from her smooth olive skin, which brought back sinful memories of that night. I finally took a deep breath to calm my raging nerves.

Okay, I can do this. She probably doesn't even remember me.

The rest of the meeting went pretty well, and I explained my design confidently, trying my best to imagine that she wasn't in the room. Once I was done with my presentation, I sat down again.

"Alright, team. Everything looks good. I'm so excited to work with each and every one of you. You can go ahead and get back to work. Thank you so much for your time," she finished off the meeting, and I stood up swiftly, shutting down my laptop with force.

"Oh, Mr. Wilson, I need to talk to you about your design. Could you please stay back?"

Fuck! Holy fucking shit!

Is she going to fire me or something?

"Sure, Ms. Perez."

"She totally has the hots for you, dude," Ryan whispered before walking out of the room, leaving us both alone.

"You look much better than the last time I saw you." She smirked, folding her arms in front of her chest and causing my eyes to flick to her breasts for a split second.

You look much hotter too, I wanted to say, but I refrained from doing so in the interest of keeping my job.

"So you do remember me," I stated, running my hands through my hair.

"I should be the one saying that. I'm surprised you remember me at all given how drunk you were," she scoffed, and I stood in front of her awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

"Small world, huh?" I laughed, trying to break the tension between us.

"Yeah, small world indeed," she said, looking at me with amusement.

"Umm...did you really want to talk about my game design?" I asked, just to be clear, and she raised her eyebrows.

"Mr. Wilson, don't even think that I'm going to treat you any differently just because we've fucked. Neither of us saw this coming, so let's just put that behind us," she replied bluntly.

Damn, what happened to that wild sexy woman from the bar? She was acting so cold and professional now—not that I wanted to sleep with her again or anything. Or did I? I mean, I wasn't entirely opposed to the idea.

"I know. I-I didn't mean it like that," I stuttered like a fool, feeling a bit intimated by her.

Fuck, I'm acting like a pussy. What's wrong with me?

"Now that that's settled. Your designs suck, Mr. Wilson. I need you to come up with a new design in the next twenty-four hours," she replied casually and began to walk past me.

"Excuse me?"

"Do you have a hearing problem?"

"I worked my ass off to come up with that design," I raised my voice a bit, feeling pissed out of my mind. Who the hell did she think she was? She probably didn't know the first thing about good game design.

"Well, work harder. I've heard some great things about you, so please don't disappoint me again," she replied and turned around to walk out of the room, leaving me speechless.

What a bitch!