Free The Hang Up (First Impressions) by Tawna Fenske

meet with them again, but what if he didn’t want anyone else to know they’d gone caving? As the new CEO of a prestigious company, it was possible he wanted to keep his personal time private.
    Miriam fished into the dryer for the other glove, weighing her options. He’d pointed out where he lived the day they first met. Blue duplex, white shutters. It wouldn’t be hard to run the gloves over, maybe tuck them in his mailbox or leave them on the doorstep with a note—
    Liar. You just want to see him again.
    True enough. Was that so wrong? At least this way she’d spare them both the awkwardness of having their business colleagues know they’d been hanging out together socially.
    His business colleagues, she amended. Holly already knew all about the cave outing and the kiss, since Miriam had told her every last detail the moment they’d returned.
    “I can’t believe he kissed you in a cave,” Holly had said.
    “I can’t believe he stopped.”
    “Well, what did you want him to do, take you from behind up against the wall of the cave?”
    Kinda…
    Before she realized she’d made up her mind, Miriam had her clothes on and her makeup done to perfection. Nothing too dramatic—a little mascara, some blush, a hint of lipstick. She wore a pale yellow cotton sundress chosen to look like she’d thrown it on haphazardly after work instead of standing in her closet for twenty minutes trying to choose just the right thing. With a light spritz of perfume, she picked up the gloves and headed toward the door.
    “Be back in just a second,” she said to Phuzeei as she scooped up the bottle of red wine she’d chosen from her well-appointed wine rack. “But don’t wait up just in case.”
    She walked more quickly than usual, her sandal-clad feet easily covering the two blocks from her house to the blue duplex he’d pointed out earlier. She hesitated on the doorstep, realizing she didn’t actually know which place was his. The doors were identical, but the one on the right had a tiny bronze nameplate on it. Miriam squinted at the letters, trying to make out the word.
    Sanders. Yep, this was definitely his place. She’d just lifted her hand to knock when the door flew open.
    A slender blond woman with her hair in a ponytail stared back at Miriam. She pushed wispy bangs off her forehead, revealing an enviable pair of blue eyes that looked stunning without a trace of makeup.
    Miriam resisted the urge to want to gouge out those eyes.
    “I’m sorry,” she stammered, glancing at the nameplate again. “I was looking for Jason Sanders, but I must have the wrong—”
    “I’m Ellie,” the blonde said, and offered a friendly smile that made Miriam regret thinking evil thoughts about her eyes. “Jason just ducked out for a sec, but can I help you with something?”
    “Ellie,” she repeated, trying to make sense of things. Had he mentioned a roommate?
    The woman smiled and leaned against the doorframe, giving Miriam a glimpse of the framed photo on the wall behind her. It was an image of Jason and Ellie perched side by side on matching mountain bikes on the edge of a canyon. Before Miriam could peer closer to see if they were holding hands or striking a friends-only pose, Ellie shifted again.
    “He’ll be right back,” Ellie said. “He just ran to the grocery store to grab me some tampons and baby aspirin, but he shouldn’t be more than five more minutes.”
    Tampons? Baby aspirin? A faint buzz started in Miriam’s ears, filling her whole brain with a chorus of self-doubt and dread.
    But that crescendo was nothing compared with the sound she heard next.
    “Mommy! Who’s there?”
    Miriam felt her gut hit the floor. She looked down to see a little blond boy with pale blue eyes magnified by plastic-rimmed glasses and a dimple that matched Jason’s.
    Holy shit.
    Miriam took a step back, feeling like an idiot. For crying out loud, the guy had a wife and a kid. She’d locked lips with a married man.
    Before Ellie or