It was just one of those days. I didn’t hear my alarm clock, couldn’t find matching socks, missed my bus and was thirty-four minutes late for work. Exactly. I know because my boss told me about sixteen times when I walked through the door. Everybody has one of those days every once in a while, but lately it seemed like every second day it was my turn to have one of those days. Everything was catching up on me and I was beginning to feel like I would never outrun any of my problems.

When I got to my desk there were files piled high and I knew it was going to take me all day plus some over-time to get through them. Just my luck, I had arranged to cook dinner for Greg, my boyfriend of a year and a half, that night and had left him with instructions to set up what he could before I got home. I was going to have to call him now and tell him that I was going to be late and that most likely he would be fending for himself for dinner. I hated letting him down and breaking our plans, I loved to look after him with dinner because of the reward I’d get from him for dessert.

I looked at the clock, ten past two, and I still had six full files to work on. On top of that I had just received an email from Jack McCarthy, the man in charge of the man in charge at my company. I was filled with dread even before I opened the email, and even more so after I’d read it. He wanted to meet with me at three o clock.

Jack McCarthy was a sort of mythical figure around the office. Everyone knew he was there, watching, but no one had ever seen him. He came and left before and after everyone else and as his office was a floor above the open-plan office I shared with the rest of my collegues, nobody ever saw him. Granted we could have shared an elevator ride at one point or another but you would have never known it was him. I knew this meeting could only spell one thing for me. I was going to be fired to top off my already shit day.

It was five to three when I stood up to leave my office and take the walk of shame. I decided to take the stairs to waste another two minutes as I didn’t want to come across as too eager to be fired. I checked in with Mr. McCarthy’s receptionist and she told me that he wouldn’t be long and that I’d be called in a minute. My hands were shaking as I paced up and down the waiting area and when the receptionist told me that I could go in, my stomach literally flipped upside down.

I don’t know what I was expecting McCarthy to look like, but it certainly wasn’t what I saw. We had guessed about his appearance in the office a few times but we were all so far off, it was scary. Instead of the fifty-something grey haired heavy set man we’d all imagined, was a man who was maybe thirty, blond hair, green eyes, tall and broad shouldered. I was certain I’d never shared an elevator ride with him because him, I would have remembered.

I was so distracted by McCarthy’s looks that I completely forgot what I was doing in his office, it was only when he asked me to take a seat that I remembered that I had been summoned. He started his spiel the way I expected him to, told me that he noticed my work had been slipping of late, that I hadn’t been as focused as I usually was and that he’d had a few complaints from Paul, the office supervisor. I knew where this was heading, the files on my desk didn’t matter at all now as someone else would be working on them next week.

“Is everything ok?”, McCarthy asked, I must’ve looked like I was about to cry but I nodded that it was, “It’s just that I’ve been in charge of this company for five years now and I’ve never seen such a great worker fall so quickly. I really don’t want to lose you so I need to know if there’s anything I can do for you as the man in charge.” What a turn around, I had expected to be fired but actually my boss was trying to help me. I decided that there was nothing to it but to be honest with him.

I told him all about my odd socks and missed buses and not being able to outrun the bad things in life. He sympathised and told me that he felt like that at times and that there was nothing to it but to take a week off, maybe go on vacation, get some fresh air. I couldn’t believe my luck, such a bad day had suddenly gone in an amazing new direction. I was even told to take the rest of the day off, forget about the office for a while.

I thanked McCarthy and left. I decided to surprise Greg by getting home early and preparing his favourite meal and for the first time in a long time, I had a spring in my step as I made my way there.

I pushed open the door of my apartment, the door was always slightly jammed and there was a knack to it, and I could hear laughter but put it down to the neighbour’s t.v. simply being turned up too loud. I walked into the living room and noticed Greg’s jacket on the back of the couch. Strange, he usually worked until half five. I continued on into the kitchen forgetting about his jacket but as I opened the fridge to put the shopping away I heard an almighty moan. I knew straight away what was up.

I stormed into my bedroom and found Greg on top of a strange girl doing what I knew Greg did best. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ten minutes later when I was sitting on the sofa crying I couldn’t remember what I had said or what I had thrown at them to make them up and leave. I loved Greg, and he was supposed to love me. He was supposed to care and I was certainly the only one he was supposed to be treating with his magic stick. Even cloudy with anger I knew how great he had made her feel. I knew how good Greg was and how he knew how to hit every spot. I was usually praising him left, right and centre for his skills, but right now I was cursing them.

The ups and downs of the day had me completely exhausted and with raw eyes I drifted off on the sofa. I couldn’t tell you how long I slept for but when the phone ringing woke me up, I felt like it had been days. Who it was I didn’t know, but I answered the phone anyway, still half asleep.

“Hi, it’s Jack McCarthy, can I speak to Michelle please?”, I strained my eyes to look at the clock sitting on the fireplace. It was almost seven, way too late to be making a business related call.

“Um hi Mr. McCarthy, Michelle speaking, what can I do for you?’, I tried to sound as chirpy as possible but it was kind of tough.

“Oh you can call me Jack, we’re about the same age aren’t we, the Mr. makes me feel so old”, he laughed and I laughed and something told me this was more of an informal phone call than one would usually receive from their boss.

He continued, “I know it’s late and this is probably so totally inappropriate but I was just wondering if you’d like to grab a coffee. You know, just talk. I’m a good listener”.

My mind was still so caught on Greg and the girl that I was wondering how Jack had found out, then it dawned on me that he was talking about our earlier conversation.

“Sure Jack, why not, give me an hour and I’ll meet you in town”. We said our goodbyes and I got up to change. Standing in my bedroom my heart was breaking thinking of Greg’s betrayal. I could barely hold it together and was wondering why I had even said yes to Jack. I had just lost the man I loved forever because there were no second chances for cheaters in my book and yet I had said yes to a maybe-date in the same breath. My head was all over the place.

Maybe it was a rebound thing or maybe it was me just wanting to be appreciated, but I decided to wear my favourite dress to try and impress Jack. Being a big girl it was hard to find a dress to suit my figure but whenever I wore this particular one, I got loads of compliments.

Happy with the way I looked, I made my way into town. Jack was standing outside waiting for me and when I waved to him from across the street, he smiled. Wow, he was breath-taking.

Even foggy with heartache I could appreciate his beauty.

The coffee shop Jack picked was a small one with only two or three tables inside. We took our seats and sat for what felt like hours talking about everything and anything but never once about work and never once about Greg, and it felt great. The waiter was making it clear that it was time for us to leave and as I stood to put my coat on I could feel Jack’s eyes on me.

We decided to share a cab home as we both lived in the same direction and it made more sense than one of us having to wait for another cab in the cold. The closer we got to my house, the closer it seemed we got to each other. As the cab pulled over to let me out, jack kissed me, and there and then I decided that he was my rebound, he was going to make me feel better. It was so selfish of me, but it was what I needed and he wasn’t exactly saying no.

Jack was so different to Greg but as we went through the motions I couldn’t help but compare the two. Greg had always been that bit rough in bed, biting and extracting pleasure with pain, Jack was sensual and sweet, kissing me softly, nibbling on my ear, planting butterfly kisses on my breasts.

Jack and I never made it to the bedroom, but on the couch he made me feel like a queen. He caressed my clit with his tongue and gave my breasts attention like they had never received before, each little touch making me whimper.

He made me orgasm so many times that I lost count and when he entered me, it felt like heaven. With Greg I had always known when it was coming, the awkward moment before he actually got up inside, but with Jack it was like we were a perfect fit.

He made me moan so much louder than Greg ever did and I was beginning to understand why people had sex to get over heartbreak, it worked.

His cock tensed up inside me, and my body almost shut down, shuddering, I started to moan. “Oh Greg, that was amazing”.

As soon as I said Greg’s name it was over. The best sex I’d ever had, ruined. And it was my fault. Jack was interested. If I’d waited a few months I was sure this wouldn’t have happened, but I decided that he was going to be my rebound. I was selfish.

Jack got up, dressed himself and slammed the door on his way out, and who could blame him. I certainly couldn’t.

I couldn’t sleep that night. The whole of the days events raced around my head and although I had left the office earlier on vacation I didn’t know now if I would have a job to go back to.

How could I have been so stupid, in the few hours I had spent with Jack I was more comfortable than I had ever been with Greg. I thought I was in love with Greg but Jack made me doubt it all. I knew if I had screamed Jack’s name he would’ve held me until the next morning, with Greg I knew that that would never happen.

As my mind raced I discovered that not only could I have truly fallen for Jack had I not ruined it, I had simply settled for Greg. Yeah he was good in bed but he wasn’t that great at anything else got to do with me.

I spent the whole of the next day kicking myself and staring at the phone. I knew it wasn’t likely that Jack was going to call, but at the same time I couldn’t give up hoping. I lay on the couch where Jack and I made love and brought myself to an orgasm just thinking about what had happened the night before.

It was late the next evening when the phone rang.

“Hello”, I answered.

“I need to know who Greg is”, Jack’s voice made me tremble.

Without hesitation I told him everything, the girl, the heartbreak and the rebound. There was silence on the other end of the line and I was sure that I had scared him away.

“You know, I don’t wanna be your rebound guy. I like you, like really really like you, but you need to be sure you’re over Greg before we can have anything. There’s so much I want to share with you but I can’t settle for someone who’s too stuck to love me back. I’ll see you at work Michelle, goodnight”.

I hung up the phone, happy that there was still an oppurtunity for me and Jack but confident that I needed to get over Greg completely before Jack would even look at me again. I started there and then, taking down all of the photos of us and throwing them in the fire, it wasn’t like either of us were ever going to need them.

As the weeks went by, I got my groove back at work. Jack returned to being Mr. McCarthy and I only ever heard from him in random emails he’d send me every once in a while. I was still holding out hope that maybe one day we’d have something, but I was sincerely happy on my own for now, holding my own heart.

About six months after my night with Jack, he emailed me and told me to meet him in his office, it was urgent. I tried scanning my brain for mistakes I might have made, for anything that would require an urgent meeting.

I climbed the stairs to his office and was told to go straight in, he was expecting me. Seeing him again made my heart jump. I closed the door behind me and took a seat.

“Mr. McCarthy if I’ve done anything wrong I assure you I’ll correct it”, I stammered as I tried to get the words out.

“What happened to Jack, huh?”, straight away he put me at ease, “actually I asked you up here because I think you’re ready, well at least I hope you are”, there was a smile in his voice as he spoke.

Now it was my turn for a question, “um, ready for what exactly?”

“Come on Michelle, you know what I’m talking about”, suddenly serious Jack continued, “I’ve wanted you every single day for the past six months, I know you haven’t forgotten. I see you everyday from up here and you’re looking better than ever, I just know you’re over him, I can feel it”.

Even though I had hoped for this, I was still surprised when it happened. To think that Jack had yearned for me everyday I had yearned for him made me feel amazing. To know that my feelings were reciprocated made me feel on top of the world. I was sure I had never been in love with Greg.

Jack gave me the rest of the day off under the condition that I would spend it with him, and I wasn’t about to start arguing. We walked hand in hand down almost every street in the city, we sat on park benches, leaned against walls and finally got a cab back to my place. I wasn’t about to ruin this one.

This time we didn’t dive straight in. I poured us some wine and we sat outside on the balcony staring up at the stars. For me that was enough but it was an added bonus that I could feel Jack’s body wanting me. His rock-hard cock was telling my body that he wanted me.

I turned and faced him and while passionately kissing him, undid the button of his suit trousers. The last time we were this close he did all the pleasuring so I took this as my chance to say thank you.

I took all 8 inches of his cock in my hands and stroked his shaft. I brought my face down closer and pleasured him with my tongue. I was determined to make him cum, but he had other ideas.

Telling me to stop, he rolled us over and pinned me underneath him. He unbuttoned my shirt and unzipped my skirt. With every touch of his hand I felt my body tremble. God he knew how to make a girl swoon. As before, we were a perfect fit. Our bodies were totally in sync. I was used to hard and fast but Jack made me want it soft and slow. With every thrust up inside me I thought my heart was going to burst. He was absolute perfection. My body reacted so quickly to him that before long he had me screaming his name. “Jack, Jack, Jack”.

Realising that he had brought me to a climax sent Jack over the edge, he blew his load inside me. We didn’t move, both afraid that our perfect moment would come to an end. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep with Jack, now soft, still inside me.

For the first time in my life, I felt complete. Not yet in love, but so very close it scared me.

What true love is you’ll never know until you truly have love.