Free Plum Girl (Romance) by Jill Winters

Granted, the bar was loud that night, and it was difficult to hear over the din of the crowd, but whispering directly into your boss's ear? That seemed a little too intimate for Lonnie. And whispering into Lunther's ear seemed a little too icky. But it was typical of Delia to be clueless about behavior that was not appropriate.
    She turned back to face B.J. and he had a smug grin on his face. "Something's up," he said. Then he raised his eyebrows expectantly. It took her a few seconds to realize that he'd meant it as a double entendre. And in light of the subject matter—double ick.
    To avoid commenting, she glanced around the bar casually. Okay, so she also stole another peek at the door.
    All of a sudden, her stomach dropped, her heart raced, and her pantyhose burned on her skin. Dominick! What was he doing there? Could it be a coincidence? Obviously this was a popular happy hour spot, and his company was just as geographically close to it as hers. He couldn't possibly have come to meet her or he would've answered her e-mail. Wouldn't he?
    Before she could gather herself together, she felt an arm around her shoulder, and instantly, she was pulled against a man's chest. It happened so quickly that she didn't even have a chance to be disoriented. She lifted her face up to see who had grabbed her. It was Matt. "Hey, it's our raven-haired temp," he said loudly to B.J. and then smiled down at Lonnie, who was in the comfort equivalent of a half nelson at the moment.
    "Uh, hi," she said, lacking some of her usual friendliness as she tried to push away from him. He slowly let her go, sensing her resistance.
    B.J. commented, "Yeah, I know, I've been telling her about Jennifer's engagement."
    "Here's our raven-haired temp," Matt said again, and Lonnie realized he was a little drunk. "The girl's probably smarter than half the people in the office and she's the friggin' temp." His remark came with a sneer, and Lonnie wasn't sure how she was supposed to take it. Was it intended as a compliment or a put down? Whatever it was, Matt was acting like an asshole, and she didn't feel like indulging in small talk. She wished Peach were there. Plus, she'd lost sight of Dominick and now had no idea where he'd gone.
    Lonnie extricated herself from Matt and B.J. with the old "going to the bathroom" line, and made her way around the bar to try to find Dominick. Finally she spotted him—sitting in a booth, talking to an attractive redhead. From what Lonnie could see, there were two other girls in the booth, too, who were talking to each other. They all appeared to be in their early twenties.
    Great, so not only had Dominick lost interest in her altogether, he'd moved on to someone else, and decided to meet her at the exact place Lonnie would be. Talk about tactless. Not that they were an item or anything, but still...
    She clutched her drink tighter and sighed. Could this have been more of a disaster?
    * * *
    Dominick was laughing agreeably as Mo, a graphic artist with a cubicle adjacent to his office, told him a story about her latest designs being rejected by upper management. She didn't seem to mind that he was upper management himself while she told him the story. Maybe it was because their departments had nothing to do with each other. Although, he also figured out that she was interested in more than just business talk. It may have been a while for him, but he wasn't completely clueless. Mo was looking up at him from under her lashes, edging her drink closer to his and laughing at nearly everything he was saying. She was cute, and from what he could tell, smart and entertaining. Too bad the entire time she was talking to him he couldn't stop thinking about Lonnie.
    He'd gotten back from his business trip only a few hours ago, and stopped in the office to check his messages, because the network had been down for the last couple days. He'd never expected the e-mail from Lonnie asking him to meet her at Whiskey's. His trip had been completely