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Sora grunted as her pussy clamped down, hard. She felt the shockwaves rolling through her as she came. She gasped as she collapsed, breathing shallowly and tiredly.

Her face suddenly fell as she realised something.

It had felt nice, it hadn't felt any less than any other time she had got herself off... But... The usual satisfaction that followed was missing. She felt just as sexually frustrated as she had before she'd started. There was no afterglow.

Sora groaned and put the seat back down, cursing how slowly it moved with the motor. Then she grabbed her pizza, and tossed the headband onto the chair before shuffling off to her bed. Hoping she could just sleep off the feeling.

She'd never had that happen before.

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When her morning alarm went off, Sora nearly tossed the devil of a thing across the room. She didn't feel like she'd slept at all. She was struggling to open her eyes, meaning that she literally fell off the side of her bed when she tried to get up.

She groaned pitifully, forcing herself to somehow stagger upright. Her steering was a bit off as she moved in the direction of the shower, walking directly into her wardrobe. Then into the hallway partition, rather than through the bathroom doorway. And finally she walked into the glass of her shower before she remembered to pull it open.

She yawned tiredly under the spray of hot water.

Memories of last night came creeping back in, bit by bit. The fun of talking and flirting with Liam. The embarrassment of the pizza delivery. The frustration of Adam's unfinished tale. And the weirdness of an orgasm that left her immediately craving more.

She ran a hand through her hair, or tried to. It was immediately caught up in dreadlocks that felt like she was going to need scissors, not a hairbrush, to fix it. She gritted her teeth and yanked free, wincing and then staring at the brown spiderweb on her hand. Her drain was going to hate her.

Shampoo and hairbrush came into play, and Sora found herself grinding her teeth as she tried to tame the fucking thing.

She was kind of glad today wasn't going to be the day she picked up the card from Liam, and maybe transitioned from having his number to something more. She was scheduled into phone calls, all day.

At least two of them were going to be painful. Dispute resolution. Customers who were trying to hold out on payment for as long as they could without ruining the business relationship. One was a full thirty days overdue, and thirty two was what was written into the standard contract as non-renewal of services. The other was a mere twenty eight overdue.

She hated this kind of thing, but it was common across the entire industry. Everybody hated paying their bills, and nobody did it at the first demand. Or the third.

The worst part of it all was the exhausting cultural barrier. She would be speaking to people who really couldn't say no. They would say yes to everything, as if agreeing, but yes wouldn't mean yes, and it'd be up to her to try and reposition herself and understand what someone half the world away was really meaning... And if they even had the right authority to be speaking to her.

Just finding the right manager could be hell.

Her alarm went off again, warning her that she was now running late and had about five minutes to get out the door. Not even enough time to grab breakfast, she'd have to pick up something in the city.

Sora flicked off the shower and stepped out, before realising she'd left her hairbrush hanging in the knots. She sighed at herself, today was going to be one of those days.

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She came off the tram a block away from her work, feeling tired and flustered. Two different jerks had tried to subtly grope her ass through her work pants. What was it with assholes and feeling super sneaky whenever they were in a public space?

She was still bristling when she went into line at one of the food stands in the square. She was technically already late, but she wasn't going to be able to get through the first call with an empty stomach. Falling asleep on the call would be catastrophic. Thank goodness for being able to mute herself so she could chow down.

After she'd been shuffling with the line for a couple moments, she became aware that the broad shoulders in front of her were kind of familiar. She was struggling to place them, but convinced that she knew the guy in front of her. He was tall, blonde, and broad-shouldered. His right fringe was twisted into a braid, dangling with a couple of silver beads strung into it.

Sora half-smiled to herself. She'd joked with friends how most of them could never go to a metal concert, they'd come away from it pregnant. The Nordic look was just one that seemed to get to all of them. Take a halfway-attractive guy, give him a beard, a braid, and a Viking accent, and they'd all be swooning like the guy was a movie star.

She needed to see his face to work out exactly who he was. She didn't think she knew any guys with that style of appearance. Not recently, anyways. A few exes that needed to stay firmly in that box.

She fretted, trying to place him, right up until she heard him give his order. Not finding an excuse to talk to him. "The lunch, thanks."

"Liam...?" Her stomach leapt into her throat.

He gave a quick glance behind himself, trying to pay at the same time as noticing her. "Uh... Oh. Um... Sora?"

She blushed furiously, realising that the only picture of her that he had to recognise her by contained catears and a dressing gown. She stepped up to the counter, "Um... The same. Wow. Didn't expect... To see you, today."

He took his order from the stallholder, and stepped awkwardly to the side of the line to wait for her. "I'm... Headed to the uni. Still studying."

She took hers, struggling to look him in the eye as she got brighter and brighter red. "That's... Cool... Um... What are you studying?"

"Business." He shrugged, and swallowed, "Um... Are you... Okay? I can go away. We can forget the conversations."

"No!" She said quickly, looking up at him and his dark green eyes that were just as fierce and sexy as they had been on her phone. "Sorry. I'm... Just kinda awkward."

He shrugged, "Surprised me, too. You're headed in to work?"

"Oh, shit." She said, "I gotta run!"

She took off, actually running in her heels. She'd made it up the three steps into the next bit of the square before she realised how it'd come across and span around. She waved to a bemused looking Liam, and yelled, "I'll text you!"

He nodded and waved, apparently not put out by her sudden exit, stage left. She breathed a sigh of relief and resumed her awkward sprint to the office with a clack of her heels.

She went skidding through the glass doors and into an elevator whose doors were closing. She muttered an apology to the man who held the door for her. As it rose slowly, she shook the front of her shirt and tried to get her breath back. It wasn't a video call, thankfully. Ruby cheeks would just make her look kinda fat.

Sora had composed herself by the time she got to her floor. Adam was standing by her desk as she dumped her purse and lunch, "I'm late, I know. No excuse. How are things here?"

"Crap." He said, "Check your email."

Sora cringed and logged in. As they were waiting for it to load, she tried a new icebreaker. "I read it, last night."

"Oh... Uh... Was it... Okay?"

She smiled at him, "You've got a talent. Kinda jealous, I'm not a writer. There was just one problem with it."

His facial expression changed, "Yeah? Always keen for feedback. What do I need to change?"

"You left me hanging!" Sora laughed, "You were a total tease. I mean, ending it right there? That was just cruel."

She looked down at the computer and pulled up her email. Adam gave a nervous kind of laugh, "Oh, cool. So you liked it, then? I'm still working on it. I could send you the next bit when it's done, if you like."

"Oh, god fucking damn it! What the fuck?" Sora exploded as she saw her inbox. She sat down quickly, flicking through the half-dozen emails, "Oh, you undersold this, Adam! Motherfucker!"

He cringed, "Eh... Yeah."

She waved a hand at him, eyes glued to the screen, "Yep. Go away. I'll try and sort this out. Damn it."

Sora put a hand on her phone and dialled her boss in his office, he picked up after two rings. "Crowley speaking."

"Sora, screaming." She replied, "What in the hell happened? And why didn't you give me a heads up?"

"Don't blame me." He said quickly, "I didn't have a clue."

"Our main investor just got charged as a fucking..." She bit off what she was about to say, "I have emails from everyone. Absolutely everyone, wanting to cancel. Two of them are actually threatening to sue us for tarnishing their brands! How did you have no idea? The cops had to be investigating for a while!"

Crowley sounded just as flustered as she was, "You're right. I should have. There were warning signs. I just... Didn't put it together. Look... Let's split the list. You send me who you want me to take. We'll apologise, and if we need to sweeten things, you can offer up to twenty percent. I'm putting together a public statement, breaking ties and disavowing any knowledge. We'll deal with the fallout as it happens. We will lose some."

"Yeah." Sora said tiredly, "We can forget about Tinco paying us, I expect."

"Aw crap. You were going to bug them about that today, weren't you? They'll want a writeoff." Crowley said in frustration, "Augh. We can't really afford it... But I doubt you'll be able to move them. Fine, fine. Call 'em first. I don't expect any miracles. Just do what you can, hey?"

"Yessir."

He hung up without another word, and the phone tumbled from Sora's hand. She rubbed her exhausted face with one hand and screamed internally. Losing the big contracts meant that the redundancies were about to flow. It might even kill the business.

"Adam, what have we got outstanding for Tinco?"

He looked up from his desk, "I've nearly finished their monthly. Chai is just finishing off the graphs for the report."

She glanced over to the darker skinned woman, who was chewing a nail and staring at her screen, "Twenty minutes? It's nearly done."

Sora nodded, "Great. You two prioritise that, and let me know as soon as you have it. Uh... Who was working on Altroa? Was that you, Penny?"

The woman put down a coffee, "Yup. That was me. Crowley moved me over to Pink Rose, this morning, though. I haven't touched it. I'll need three or four hours."

"Fuck." Sora cursed, "Eh... Jump back on it. Is there anything you can delegate? To speed things up, a bit?"

"It's mostly compliance. So if Jess could help me out with the versioning so we can cut a clean copy, I might be able to cut an hour down. But I won't have anything for at least an hour." Penny shrugged.

"Let's do that." Sora stated, "Jess?"

"I'm drafting the PR stuff for Crowley, but I should be free in an hour or so. I think it'll be fine." Their resident lawyer stated.

Sora collapsed into her seat. "Okay... Let's do this."

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By the time she'd finished the call with Tinco, it was pushing three in the afternoon, and her stomach was louder than her hoarse voice. Crowley had left the office an hour ago, to go to lunch with a reporter and try and nip the story in the bud. It might be a page three story, but it was still probably going to wreck the business.

Sora unwrapped the salad roll and bit into it, before she remembered meeting Liam and her promise. She winced, and pulled out her phone. Eating and texting.

$ Sorry!

$ Total mad house here.

$ My first break of the day.

$ I swear I wasn't just running away.

Her starving stomach practically inhaled her food, and she'd moved on to making the blueberry muffin vanish when he replied to her.

Bloop!

% No biggie.

% You looked flustered.

% Glad it wasn't only me.

% Need a joke?

% I can do jokes.

Sora smiled and shook her head.

$ Ok. Take your best shot.

Bloop!

% Best... Right...

% Why did the coffee taste like dirt?

Sora groaned and rolled her eyes.

$ I don't know.

$ Why?

Bloop!

% Because it was only ground a couple minutes ago.

She gave a pity laugh and shook her head.

$ Oh god.

$ You're not my dad in disguise, are you?

Bloop!

% Yikes.

% I really hope not.

%...

% So, I'm bored in a lecture on stats. I did this class last semester.

% Swear the lecturer is saying the same thing, word for word.

% How's your chaos?

She looked around the office, at the concerned faces of everyone working their butts off. She winced, and tried to think of a delicate way to put the situation.

$ PR nightmare.

$ Never had so many people say they hate me without using the words.

$ Need cat ears and pizza.

$ So... Any cute girls in your class?

Bloop!

% Why would I be looking?

%...

% Sorry about this morning.

% Maybe...

% Wanna play Questions?

% Know me a bit better?

Sora smiled to herself, and text him back as quickly as she could.

$ Sure!

$ Actually... Just a sec.

$ Something I've always wanted to do.

$ But been too scared.

She sat up on the edge of her work desk, muffin in hand, and tried to look halfway cute, before snapping a photo. Her face fell as soon as she saw it, and it went straight in the trash. Her hair was frazzled, the fringe kinked from constantly having her hand in it.

Chai stood up suddenly, "Sora, are you texting a guy!?"

The entire office stopped and stared. She blushed and shrugged, "Um... Yes? Come on. I'm taking my lunch break. I can text a guy. This isn't high school or whatever."

Chai ran around the desks and grabbed her in a hug, "Awesome! What's his name? What's he like? Oh! Where'd you meet him? You've got like, no life outside of work!"

"Ouch." Sora laughed nervously, glancing at everyone still staring, "Is it really that shocking to everyone?"

"Yes." Jess snorted.

Adam spoke nervously, "So... When did you, uh, meet him?"

"This morning? Kinda?" Sora said, feeling like she was feeding a pack of wolves. "Um... He's the coffee guy. It isn't really serious yet, or anything. Chai, you're always sending stuff to your husband, right? How do you manage to look cute when you're exhausted?"

"Bedroom hair." Penny interjected.

Chai nodded, reaching up and carefully messing up Sora's hair, before snatching the phone out of her hand, "Now, imagine the camera is looking at you across a bar... Oh, wow. That's your fuck-me face? We need some serious help here, girls."

Sora flushed, and tried to reach for her phone, "Stop it."

"Look... Sexy." Chai instructed, "Don't try and look like the girl next door. It'll end up that way, anyway, because you're adorable. But... Be confident. Twist your hips a bit more, so it almost hurts. Um... Cross your legs the other way. Lift your chest. More. There we go."

The woman then grinned.

Sora dove for the phone, but Chai laughed, dodging her. "Sent! Oh my god. Is this him? Wow! He's sexy! Hang on, this is from last night. You totally didn't meet him this morning."

She reclaimed the device, and looked at her photo, and immediately hated it. She winced, seeing it really had sent, and sat back in her chair. "Um... Yeah, we did meet this morning. We started talking because of... Something else. Just... Flirting."

"He'll love the picture." Chai said knowingly, "You really are pretty, boss. I've been waiting forever for some guy to catch your attention."

Penny shrugged, "I assumed she had a boyfriend, already."

"Well, apparently she can get a guy she's only just met to wear nothing but an apron." Chai said jealously, "I can't even get my husband to flirt over text. It's just yes or no answers. I even sent him a panty shot and he commented on the HR poster in the freaking mirror."

Penny smiled slowly, "Well, you're not looking at my phone, then."

"Sexting?" Adam said in surprise.

Sora groaned, "It wasn't... I didn't even really ask for the first one! But I had a couple of drinks and..."

"... You decided to actually be fun?" Penny smiled.

Adam looked around in surprise, "Do all of you sext guys?"

"No." Jess said firmly, and shrugged, "But everyone thinks I'm a boring old fart. Seriously, I'm only twenty two. But I've never been carded in my life. Not once. Everyone thinks of me as the old maid."

Penny shrugged, "I've never been carded either. But... I have kissed a bouncer or two to get into the club. That might have something to do with it."

"I hate clubbing." Sora said coldly, "All those guys grinding on you. I swear that some of them even feel... Wet. Eugh. I don't wanna know what's happening in their pants. Eugh."

Chai sat on the edge of a desk, "That's because, unlike Penny, you actually want a relationship and not five minutes in a bathroom. No offence. You have your fun, Penny. Me and Sora, we're in it for life."

"A husband?" Penny said and shook her head, "Nooooo thankyou. I'm too young to die inside."

"Hey, my husband has plenty to offer." Chai replied and smiled, "He might not be a flirt on the phone, like me, but he's broken two of our beds."

"TMI." Jess shivered, "Sorry. Your husband's not my type. He's just... Big and hairy and... I didn't need that mental picture."

"I think you just called him an ape." Chai laughed.

Adam looked around before asking timidly, "So, um, Sora... Is this coffee guy... Your type?"

"Adam just wants to know what your type is." Penny said teasingly whilst looking at the poor guy.

Sora shrugged, "Honestly? I dunno. To both questions. Seeing him today was an accident, and I came off super awkward, and he didn't seem overly comfortable, either. As for my type... Kinda? I like guys with beards. He doesn't have much of one, but enough."

Penny made a sympathetic noise, "Aw. Poor Adam. You can't grow a beard, huh?"

"Um, what?" Sora looked at the woman in shock.

Penny rolled her eyes, "Nothing."

"Forget about Adam." Chai said quickly, "Tell us more about... What was his name? Guy with the beard. Coffee nut. Please tell me that you know more than that, before he practically flashed his dick at you."

"Advice, Adam. Girls hate dick pics. Don't get any ideas." Penny shot at the poor guy. Who was obviously missing that the flirt in the office was very much choosing to flirt with him.

"Liam. Um... No?" Sora shrugged, "I just... I won a rewards card, so they text me. So I text back, and we almost got started talking, and maybe a bit of flirting... But it wasn't anything, yet. I know he's studying at uni. That's about it."

"You sent him photos! I saw!" Chai exclaimed.

She shrugged, "I... Mentioned I embarrassed myself with the pizza delivery, and he kinda asked me for a photo and... It felt like a good idea at the time, okay?"

"Relax, boss." Chai smiled, "We're excited for you. Half of us probably want in on setting you up with him. The other half just want to live your romance vicariously. We're just disappointed there isn't more to the story."

Bloop!

Penny smiled, "I've never managed to bag a barista before. I've tried. Like, really tried. But... I think it just comes off wrong, when someone's working."

"I snagged one, once." Jess offered.

The room's focus swung around hungrily, all eyes on the paralegal. She shrugged casually, "She had a rainbow tattoo, and I made some stupid, stupid, joke about unicorns. I didn't even put two and two together that it meant she was gay until the next morning."

"You're gay?" Penny said in shock. "But... Then the guy who sometimes picks you up...?"

"Gross!" Jess announced, "That's my brother, Penny! Ew!"

"Ew, he's my brother, or ew, he has a dick?" The girl replied, fishing.

Jess rolled her eyes, "Both. But mostly the brother bit."