Jenna Morton didn’t mind staying late at work – which made her a favorite among coworkers. As they all raced out of the office at five o’clock every evening to pick up the kids or to make dinner or to get to another engagement, Jenna stayed and continued working on whatever project the team was working on or to answer a wayward phone call that came sometimes after the office officially closed. Jenna didn’t mind. She was the youngest employee at twenty-years-old and she had nothing at home waiting for her except an empty apartment and cold Chinese leftovers in her refrigerator.

The main ceiling lights had been turned off automatically by seven o’clock and now the small desk lamps were the only ones that remained on, giving the small office a warm glow. Outside, the city skyscrapers were still lit up and Jenna sometimes became distracted from work with the view the large floor to ceiling windows offered. She loved working there. This was her dream job in her dream office. She sometimes couldn’t believe that she was an official employer.

Hawke was a boarding company located on the seventeenth floor of an office building downtown. The owner, Mark Hawke, along with his team of artists, designers and carpenters designed and built skateboards, snowboards and surfboards. It was a small business but there was always more than enough work to do and it was popular amongst the athletes involved in those extreme sports. Jenna was one of the company’s graphic designers and had been hired personally by the owner, Mark Hawke, instead of having been interviewed by Nina, the VP and generally in charge of human resources.

At the thought of her boss, Jenna lifted her head from her white Mac computer and the design she was currently working on, and looked through the glass walls into his office. The lights were still on as well and she could see him standing at his desk, talking to someone on the phone.

He usually worked late as well. He worked anywhere from sixteen to eighteen hours a day. He had built this company from nothing. He had first started working in his parents’ garage, cutting, sanding and building each board by hand for his skateboarding friends. He was a skater himself but he had never been able to go pro like some had thought him capable of doing. He had twisted his knee during one amateur competition in high school and it had never healed right. It still bothered him from time to time so instead of skating, Mark began building the ultimate boards for everyone else who was still lucky enough.

He was only twenty-four but already, he was so successful. Jenna admired him. He wasn’t like most bosses that most of his employees had worked for before coming to work at Hawke. Jenna supposed that it had to do with his age. He was calm and relaxed and though they all worked hard, Mark insisted on making sure everyone was pleased and happy with their jobs. He held monthly reviews to discuss with each employer their performance and what they hoped to achieve by working for him. It may have sounded slightly intimidating but with Mark, it was just a way for him to talk with every one who worked for him. He allowed everyone to dress casually for work and he had no qualms against music blaring through peoples’ computers or laughter and joking around taking place – as long as the work got done.

Jenna had met Mark in the most unusual of ways. They both lived in the same apartment building – both unbeknownst to one another before they met. And both had been riding in the same elevator when the building had suffered through a blackout and the elevator had stopped. Stuck together, they began to talk and Mark had found out that Jenna had actually been on her way to his company for a job interview. He had looked through her portfolio and when the power came back on, he had hired her right on the spot.

She supposed that after that, they became something of friends. They often went to work together, riding the train downtown and since both of them had habits of working late, they would order carry-out and eat together as they discussed projects. Some of the more catty women at Hawke believed that there was something going on between Jenna and Mark and that she had been hired simply because she was involved with him but Mark told her to just ignore all of the gossip.

It was a secret she prayed that no one else, especially him, knew the truth about, but she had something of a crush on him, having developed it during the month she had worked there. She would never act upon it of course. She loved working there and people talked enough. She didn’t want to become involved with her boss. This was simply a crush she hoped would go away in time. If she ever acted upon it, she was scared that she would be forced to quit. She didn’t want to quit. She didn’t want to stop working there. Or seeing Mark every day.

Shaking her head slightly, Jenna tore her eyes away from his and looked back to her computer screen. “Tonight, Tonight” by The Smashing Pumpkins was filtering softly through her speakers and seeing as how it was her favorite song, Jenna clicked on her media player to start the song over and turn the volume up. Listening to the familiar musical opening, Jenna chewed on her lower lip as she concentrated on her color schemes for the surf board she was working on.

“Time is never time at all.
You can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth.
And our lives are forever changed,
We will never be the same.

The more you change the less you feel.

Believe, believe in me, believe.
That life can change, that you're not stuck in vain,
We're not the same, we're different tonight.

Tonight, so bright,
Tonight.

And you know you’re never sure,
But you’re sure you could be right,
If you held yourself up to the light.
And the embers never fade in your city by the lake.

The place where you were born.

Believe, believe in me, believe.
In the resolute urgency of now,
And if you believe there's not a chance tonight.

Tonight, so bright.
Tonight.

We’ll crucify the insincere tonight.
We’ll make things right, we’ll feel it all tonight.
We’ll find a way to offer up the night tonight.
The indescribable moments of your life tonight.
The impossible is possible tonight.

Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight.”

She sang along softly to the song as she worked, her right hand directing the mouse as her left elbow was propped up on the desk and her chin was resting in her hand. Her eyes were beginning to hurt from staring at the white screen of the computer for too long and she wondered whether or not Mark would want to eat dinner that night. Perhaps she should just go home. He had been locked away in his office since lunch time and it was obvious that he was working on something important.

Jenna saved her work and then shut everything down, standing up and stretching her arms above her head. She grabbed her coat from off the back of her chair and slipped it on and she began heading towards the bank of elevators, zipping up her coat, tying her scarf around her neck and slipping her bag onto her shoulder.

“Jenna!”

She stopped and turned, seeing the door to Mark’s office open and Mark standing there, watching her. She gave him a smile, taking a step back towards him. He held up a pink menu that she recognized as belonging to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant that they usually got take-out from at least once a week. He smiled at her and then opened the paper menu open, scanning over the food though both had the menu nearly entirely memorized.

“Since I have to buy you dinner to get you to stay, I’ll let you get whatever you want,” Mark grinned and Jenna laughed softly, shaking her head slightly.

“I always stay though,” she reminded him, taking the menu he handed to her. Jenna always ordered the same thing every time though so looking at the menu wasn’t exactly necessary. She was glad she reached for it though especially when their fingers brushed together. “Egg-drop soup and a #4,” she said, without looking down at the menu and instead, staring at him.

He grinned. “With a coke,” he added, finishing her order for her, and she laughed softly again.

He smiled at her and their eyes locked together – his deep blue eyes staring into hers. Jenna felt her heart thumping wildly in her chest and she was convinced that it was beating so loudly, he definitely was able to hear it in the quiet office. It was so inappropriate – to get butterflies in her stomach whenever he looked at her or smiled at her. He was her boss. She had to keep telling herself that.

Mark reached out and she stopped breathing as he tucked a wayward blonde strand of her hair behind her ear. His fingers lingered for a moment before dropping to his side and they remained standing there, staring at one another for another moment.

He turned and went back into his office, Jenna following behind. Mark’s office had the same warm glow as the rest of the office did with only the lamp on his desk and another in the corner flipped on. There were dozens of framed photographs on the walls – pictures of him, his family, his friends, Mark posing with pro-skaters, pro-snowboarders and pro-surfers, all of them holding boards designed and built by Hawke Boards. Every time Jenna entered the office, she couldn’t help but look at all of the photos, seeing Mark with the likes of Tony Hawk, Rune Glifberg, Christian Hosoi and Shaun White. He also had bits of prototypes on the floor and furniture: an overturned surfboard resting on two sawhorses in the corner, several skateboards made out of Styrofoam and a snowboard spread out across the couch. His desk was a cluttered mess around his computer of dozens of files and copies of colorful designs his artists dropped off to him several times a day everyday.

Mark picked up his phone, sitting down in his leather reclining desk chair, and dialed the number for the restaurant to place their order and Jenna unzipped her coat, hanging it and her bag on the back of one of his chairs but leaving her scarf on. She turned her head to find that he was looking at her. He gave her an unabashed grin, not at all embarrassed that he had been caught. The romantic in Jenna liked to believe that he was always secretly looking at her even though she knew it wasn’t true. The only reason he had been looking at her right then was because she was the only other person there.

There was nothing else to look at but her. This was what she told herself because if she let herself believe anything else, she would only be setting herself up for hurt and disappointment. He was her boss. She worked for him. Relationships between bosses and employees were rarely, if ever, approved of. And what she had was a crush. Nothing more than some silly stupid crush on a man she met in odd circumstances. That was probably why she liked him. He was handsome and young and intelligent and she had met him during a blackout. Her crush was just a product of odd circumstances.

“Should be here in about twenty minutes,” Mark announced, hanging up the phone.

Jenna nodded her head, looking at a picture of Mark standing with his mother. She smiled faintly. She had met Mark’s mother once when she was in town visiting. She and Mark’s father lived in a northern suburb and didn’t get downtown too often. Mark had gotten his eyes and his laugh from her. She was a such a sweet person, everyone had loved her visiting for the day.

Mark cleared his throat, standing up, watching her. She turned her head to look at him. “I’ve been meaning to tell you. You’re doing really great here, Jenna. I knew hiring you would be a smart move on my part.”

Jenna smiled shyly, glancing down at the floor before back at him. Their eyes once again locked and he took a step towards her. Something was in this action that made her take a step back to counter him. His eyebrows furrowed slightly quizzically but Jenna shook her head slightly, taking another step back away from him. For some reason, she got the feeling that he was about to kiss her. She couldn’t let that happen even though she wanted it to.

He sighed, rubbing a hand through his unruly dark brown hair. “Jenna… I love when we do this. Stay late, order food. You probably know me better than anyone because of nights like this.”

She nodded her head, looking back down at the floor. She believed him when he said that. They spent a lot of time together at night in the office. Sometimes, they would work side by side, collaborating on designs, and sometimes, they would just talk. They had formed something of a kinship through their elevator experience and Jenna considered him to be a friend. He knew her as well as she knew him.

“Jenna, you mean a lot to me.” He sighed again. “I just thought that it was time you know that.”

She looked at him, her fingers playing with the ends of her scarf. She had to do this. She supposed that this was something she had been wanting to do since the elevator. She had thought he was handsome then and after a month of getting to know him and spending time with him, he had become even more attractive to her. They liked the same food, the same music, the same movies and television shows. They had the same interests and were able to spend hours after everyone had left the office at night just talking to one another.

She knew that it was going to be a mistake. She knew that she could never do it again so she knew that she had to take advantage of the weight of his words.

Mark’s eyes widened in surprise as Jenna practically threw herself at him, her hands pressing onto his chest and her head tilting up, fusing her lips to his. It only took a moment though for his brain to register the fact that Jenna was kissing him before he reacted. His hands went to her hips and both of their mouths moved in tune with the other, tasting one another, drinking one another in.

The kiss only lasted for a few seconds before Jenna pulled back as if she had been electrically shocked. Both breathed heavily and stared at one another. Jenna noticed her hand was shaking as she lifted her fingers to touch her lips. They were tingling.

“Jenna-”

“I think I have to quit my job,” she spoke suddenly, her eyes glassing over with tears.

Mark frowned, once again with confusion. “What? Why would you have to quit?”

Jenna stared at him, taking a step away from him. She sighed, unable to look anywhere but in his eyes. “Because I think I’m falling in love with you.”