Separation Anxiety

"It's not funny," she snapped.

He swung over to her side of the table.

"Here, let me kiss it and make it better," he said as he kissed her cheek,

"Stop it," she shrieked as she pushed him away. "I have a boyfriend." Even as she said it, she felt the warmth spreading from where he kissed her.

"Yes, but he's in Boston, and I'm here," he said as he got up and left the break room.

What was she doing? She loved John, she did, and she knew she did. So why was she having these feelings about Aaron? She was so confused.

She spent the rest of the week avoiding Aaron. Fortunately, Sally re-joined her and helped her keep her head on straight, but she was still having to fight her attraction to Aaron. What was happening to her?

Friday, Aaron tried to get her to join the usual group, but Emily begged off.

"John is coming in tomorrow and I need to clean and make sure I'm well rested, if you know what I mean," she said with a wink.

"Oh, of course," he said with a smile as he seethed inside.

Emily grabbed a quick bite on the way home, then spent the evening getting ready for John, all the while trying to push Aaron out of her head.

John drove down, and they had a fun weekend, going to some clubs and taking in an Off-Broadway show, and they made love several times, but there seemed to be something missing.

Even though the sex was as great as always, thoughts of Aaron kept creeping into her mind, throwing her just a bit off her game.

All through the next week, Emily was troubled by her continued attraction toward Aaron. How could she be attracted to Aaron while in love with John? She started to doubt her love for John, but shook that off. She DID love John; she knew she did. What was she going to do?

She allowed Aaron to take her to dinner a couple of nights. Nothing happened beyond cheek kisses, but she was weakening.

After the Friday night gathering, Emily and Aaron hung around after the others had left. During a slow dance, Emily allowed Aaron to get closer than ever before, she could feel him rub his erection against her, and didn't push him away.

Aaron was getting frustrated. He had never spent so much time pursuing a woman. Emily was hot, but he'd had hotter, but it was a matter of "professional pride" at this point.

They returned to their table and he took her hands in his and with his best phony sincere look into her eyes poured it on.

"Emily, what are we waiting for? We have a connection. I can feel it, and I know that you must feel it too."

"I do, Aaron, but I'm in love with John, and I can't... I won't betray him."

She got up and ran off in tears.

Aaron sat back with mixed feelings. He had been here before, and it was always a toss-up. Sometimes their curiosity, their hunger for some strange won out, and he had another notch on his bedpost; other times their "love" won out, and he had to seek a new target. He would know soon.

Emily tossed and turned until exhaustion overcame her, and even then, she had the most restless night's sleep of her life.

Saturday morning she just stared at her phone for what seemed like hours, but she knew that John would call soon if she didn't, so she picked up the phone to make the hardest call of her life.

"John," she said, "this is very hard for me to say, but I've started to develop feelings for Aaron, his persistence is wearing me down. We haven't done anything yet but I've thought about being with him."

John flipped out. "I TOLD you that you should have tried harder to shut him down, but no, you knew better, that you could handle it."

"You're not being fair," she cried, "I still love you, I'm not interested in him."

"Now you're not making sense! You say that you're 'not interested in him,' but you've 'thought about being with him.' Those are two contradictory statements. I want to trust you, but you're making very difficult. Maybe I should come out and have a little 'chat' with Aaron..."

"No, you can't," she pleaded, "I'd be mortified!"

"More mortified than you'd be cheating on me?"

"I'm not cheating on you!"

"Not yet, but you've been thinking about it! The way I see it, we have four choices. One, you shut him down HARD. If that means threatening or actually charging him with sexual harassment, so be it. Two, I come out and set him straight. Three, you request reassignment back here. Four, we end it."

"End it? What do you mean?" she asked.

"Just what I said. We break things off and you can do anything you want with Aaron. Of course, I will be seeking my own companionship. When you come back... IF you come back... we'll see where we are. Maybe we'll be able to re-connect; maybe we'll part as friends; maybe we'll just go our separate ways."

"B...But I don't want to break things off," she cried.

"Excuse me if I have a hard time buying that when you say that you've thought about being with Aaron."

All that he could hear was some quiet sobbing from the other end of the line.

"Listen, Emily," he said, "I'll give you one week. Call me next Saturday with your decision."

"I don't need a week; I want to be with you."

"So, what are you going to do about Aaron?"

"I... I don't know," she said softly.

"Well, I need to know. I'm not going to spend the next few months going to bed wondering if this is the night that he gets you into his bed. One week, Emily, then I want a decision that I can believe in."

"O... Okay, I'll try," she said.

"For both of our sakes, I hope that you can do better than try. Good night, Emily," John said as he hung up the phone.

As she hung up her phone, Emily was in full crying mode.

'What am I going to do,' she thought, 'I love John, I truly do, but Aaron is just so... so...' She couldn't find the words, but it was like there was some sort of animal magnetism that was almost impossible to resist drawing her into Aaron's orbit.

She knew that she had to find a way to break free, or she would lose John, of that she was certain.

She made up her mind; it didn't even take the whole week. Two days later John got a call from Emily.

John was tense. For all his bravado, he was terrified about what Emily would do. What if she called his bluff? Could he... would he break up with her? What if she chose Aaron and he lost her forever? Nervously, he answered his phone.

"John, I've decided," she said, "you're right, I don't know what got into me, maybe it was the loneliness from being away from you; maybe he just knew how to play me. It really doesn't matter now, because I'm going to end it and make sure he knows it!"

"I can't tell you how happy that makes me," John said, "I'm so sorry that I came down so hard on you, I was so afraid that I was going to lose you."

"Don't be sorry, John, it was just the wake-up call I needed. Look, things are a little quiet on the project right now, why don't I knock off a little early on Friday, come home and we'll have a nice romantic weekend."

"That sounds wonderful! Call me when you know when you'll be arriving and I'll pick you up. I love you."

"I love you, too," she said, hanging up with a sigh of relief.

John also heaved a sigh, and began making plans for a very special weekend.

Friday was only a few days away, so Emily decided to postpone her confrontation with Aaron until she came back from Boston. She was able to avoid Aaron for the most part until Friday afternoon, when he came over and sat his butt on the corner of her desk.

"Hey, Emily," he said, "how are you doing?"

"Just fine, Aaron," she said, "could you please get your ass off of my desk?"

With a slight hesitation, Aaron got off her desk. He was a little puzzled; he was sure that he had her.

"Thank you," she said coolly, "now what can I do for you?"

Aaron was a little taken aback, but carried on.

"A few of us are going to O'Reilly's for a couple of drinks after work, and I was wondering if you'd like to join us?"

"No, thank you, I'm leaving a little early to go to Boston to spend the weekend with my boyfriend, John." Emily wondered if he noticed her deliberate omission of "I'd love to, but."

"Well, maybe next time. Have a good weekend," he said as he walked away, trying not quite successfully, to hide his disappointment.

Emily wrapped up her work and caught the Acela train to Boston.

It was such a relief being back in John's arms, so comfortable, as if she was back where she belonged. The best part was, unless she deliberately thought about him, Aaron was no longer intruding into her thoughts. It was like fighting off an infection and building up a resistance.

Returning to New York, Emily wondered how it was going to be working with Aaron. While he seemed to accept it when she said she was going to spend the weekend with John, she could tell that he didn't like it.

As she got back to the office Monday morning she saw Aaron watching her, and she was honest enough with herself to admit that she still felt an attraction.

She loved John though, he meant too much to her to let a silly infatuation destroy them. It was only a few more months; how hard could it be?

If she only knew!

For the first couple of weeks, it seemed to be working; she made an effort to stay away from Aaron, and they were both so busy that there weren't any problems.

The first cracks appeared when a key part of the project was completed and there was a small celebration at a local bar-restaurant.

Aaron wasted no time before he took a seat next to Emily.

"Boy, it sure feels good to have that out of the way," he said.

"It sure does," Emily said, "maybe I'll be able to take another long weekend and go see John."

A cloud passed over Aaron's face, but he pasted a forced smile on his face.

"What about us?" he asked.

"There IS no 'us,' Aaron," Emily said, "I'm committed to John, I made a bad mistake letting you get so close, and I'm putting a stop to it, right now."

"You have to know how much I love you, I've felt our connection and I know that you've felt it, too."

"Aaron, I can't deny that you're an attractive man, but I'm in love with John and have been lonely being apart from him for these past few months. Maybe not deliberately, but you've been able to take advantage of my loneliness; it's not real, at least not for me. Real for me is back in Boston, with John."

Aaron stiffened.

"You've been talking to your wimpy boyfriend again, haven't you?"

"He's not a wimp!" she said.

"Only a wimp would let a hot babe like you go away for a year."

"That's called trust, asshole," Emily said, "I can't believe I ever let you weasel your way into my life!"

"You let me in because you recognized me for what I am, an Alpha male. You instinctively knew you belonged with someone like me. You'll realize it sooner or later," he said as he turned and walked away.

'God,' Emily thought, 'I must have been out of my mind to even THINK of risking my relationship with John for him!'

The first chance she had, Emily called John to give him the good news.

"I'm so sorry, John," she said, "You were so right about him, I'm disgusted at myself that I almost threw away what we have for that arrogant ass."

"Don't worry about it, Emily," John said, "The important thing is that you realized what he was really like before things got out of hand. Why don't I come down next weekend and we can celebrate?"

"That would be wonderful!" she said, "I'll be looking forward to it, I love you! 'kiss'."

"Love you, too, 'kiss'."

John hung up, relieved, but still concerned. There were still a few months to go, and he knew all too well how lonely it could be. He had to resist temptations himself.

Emily stayed as far away from Aaron as she could, only speaking to him when work required it. Her coldness toward Aaron didn't go unnoticed, and she was soon being "interrogated" by the girls at lunch.

Karen was back with them. Sally had explained that it had been Aaron taking advantage of Emily, not Emily seducing Aaron.

"Gosh, Emily, what happened with you and Aaron?" asked Sally, "You two seemed like a real hot item, and now you won't go near him with a ten-foot pole."

"Well, you know about my boyfriend John back in Boston, right?"

They all nodded.

"We'd been dating for 18 months before I took this assignment, and were getting pretty serious, but it's been hard being apart, and I've been lonely. Aaron's been taking advantage of my loneliness and weaseling his way into my life, and I have to admit that I wasn't fighting him as much as I should have been.

"I guess you all could see how I was weakening, beginning to give in to him."

They all nodded again.

"I confessed my attraction to John, and boy, did he let me have it! He wanted to come here and give Aaron hell, or have me re-locate back to Boston. He even threatened to break up with me if I didn't make it clear to Aaron that I was off-limits.

"I didn't want to give up the project or have him come down and confront Aaron, and I certainly didn't want to break up. That left me with one choice: Shut Aaron down.

"I told John my decision and planned a fun weekend with him, and I could tell that Aaron was upset that I wouldn't be joining the group at O'Reilly's that Friday after work..."

"Do you mean the Friday a couple of weeks before the celebration?" asked Sally.

"Yes," Emily said, "Why?"

"There was no gathering that night," Sally said.

"That asshole!" she said, "God only knows what he had planned.

"I don't know if you noticed him at the celebration. He really showed his true colors. He seems to think that he's God's gift to women, and couldn't believe that I would choose John over him. He's being a real ass, and I just hope I can get through these next few months without slapping him into next year."

They all laughed, finished eating and went back to work.

John left work early on Friday and got to Emily's office in time to pick her up for dinner. As he was helping Emily into the car, he saw her stiffen and look back towards the building. He looked back and saw Aaron staring at him with a sneer on his face.

"Maybe I should go have a little 'chat' with him," John said.

Emily went pale and grabbed his arm.

"Please, John, no, I still have to work with him for a few more months!"

"That's why I should talk to him, to make sure there are no more issues before this project is over."

"John, please, I've already spoken to him. I admit that he didn't take it well, but I made him understand that he has no future with me."

"All right, Emily, I'll let it go for now, but I want your promise that if he gives you any grief that you will report him."

"I... I promise."

"I'd feel better if your answer sounded more confident, I guess that will have to do for now."

John and Emily had a nice steak dinner, more or less successfully pushing their recent difficulties to the back of their minds. They were in a good mood and decided to try out a club, have a few drinks and dance a bit.

Emily was feeling good; this was a relatively new club, and not one that her friends had been going to. Her good mood was crushed when she saw Aaron there, and tried to steer John back out the door.

John had also spotted Aaron, and stood his ground.

"What's the matter, Emily?" he asked, "Why don't you want to stay?"

"It's Aaron. He's over there by the bar."

"So what if he is? There's no reason for us to be afraid of him... is there?"

"N... No, nothing like that. I'm just afraid that he'll make a scene."

"Why would he make a scene? It's not like you're his girl..."

"... No, but he's been a real jerk since I shut him down and I don't want any trouble."

"There won't be any trouble unless he comes looking for it. Come on, let's grab a table."

As they made their way to a table, Emily glanced over at the bar and saw Aaron wink at her and stumbled, but recovered her composure as she and John reached the table.

They had a drink and danced for a couple of tunes, then returned to their table and ordered another round when Aaron walked over with a swagger.

Ignoring John, he smiled down at Emily.

"Hey, Emily," he said, "Fancy meeting you here. Care for a dance?"

John could barely control his temper.

"A gentleman," he said, "asks the lady's escort first."

Aaron could barely conceal his contempt.

"I wasn't aware that we were living in the 19th century," Aaron said.

"I wasn't aware that good manners had gone out of style," John replied.

"What do you say, Emily?" Aaron said.

Before John could react, Emily spoke up.

"Just go, Aaron, before you make things any worse."

There were a couple of uncomfortable moments as people at the nearby tables wondered if they should move away, but finally, Aaron smirked and walked away, seething inside. He wasn't used to not coming out on top.

John kept an eye on Aaron until he left the club, then he and Emily relaxed and had a good time before going back to Emily's apartment.

Saturday, Emily came out of her bedroom wearing the same little black dress from the phone sex email, and John's heart skipped a beat.

"Are you wearing the same ...?"

"I guess you're just going to have to wait to find out, aren't you?" Emily said with an evil grin.

John gulped as they left her apartment.

Neither really noticed the delicious meal and went straight back to the apartment, where Emily recreated the slide show live.

This time, John didn't have to imagine the feel of her lips or her pussy on his cock, and they fell into a deep satisfied slumber.

Before John returned to Boston, he had a serious discussion with Emily.

"I really didn't care for that asshole's attitude Friday night," he said, "Are you sure I shouldn't have a 'chat' with him?"

"Please, John, no. Didn't I handle it Friday night?"

"Truthfully? Not as forcefully as I would have liked. You were pleading with him, not TELLING him. I wonder what might have happened if I hadn't been there."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, John, you're just going to have to trust me. If you can't, then maybe we SHOULD break it off," she said, and went into her bedroom and closed the door.

John was rocked back on his heels. Things were getting out of control. Despite his earlier ultimatum, he didn't want to break up with Emily. She was all that he wanted; he needed her. He walked slowly to her door and knocked gently.

"Honey," he said, "I'm sorry, I DO trust you, I was just upset, please come out."

It felt like a lifetime, but a few seconds later the door opened slowly and Emily came out. She fell into John's arms, sobbing as he gently stroked her back.

"Don't worry, Honey," he whispered in her ear, "This is just a bump in the road, pretty soon that asshole will be a distant memory."

It took a little while, but Emily finally settled down.

"Well, I've got to get going," John said, "It's a long drive back to Boston."

Emily pulled herself together, gave John a big kiss good-bye and closed the door with a sigh. She wished she felt as confident as she told John!

She cleaned up, took a nice, long bubble bath and went to bed early, but had a hard time falling asleep, worried about how she would deal with Aaron Monday morning.

Things were definitely tense in the office. Emily avoided Aaron as much as she could. When she had to deal with him for work, she rebuffed all attempts by Aaron to get personal.

While Emily was feeling better, stronger, Aaron was getting more frustrated; there were only a little over three months until the project was complete and Emily would be returning to Boston, and out of his life forever.

Aaron dialed back the seduction attempts and returned to a charm offensive, and while Emily was wary she gradually softened and they returned to a friendly working relationship. She gradually lowered her guard.

Most weekends either John traveled to New York or Emily visited him in Boston, and Emily wouldn't do more than dine with the group, if that.