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Just do it. It’s company policy.

He’s never done this before, he tells the cameraman excitedly.

He wonders how they’ll proceed from here. Is it his responsibility or hers? He decides he’ll let her choose. He’s a nineties kind of guy.

She calls, but it isn’t to say she misses him or to ask for his spare key. He tries to reassure her, but she doesn’t want it and it doesn’t help that the cameraman won’t even leave him alone.

That night it occurs to him that it would have been Toby he’d talked to anyway, so it’s really better that they decided not to continue.

She’s never done this before.

She’s pretty sure he should’ve been the one to do it, because doesn’t it fall into the same category as first kisses and proposals? But he’d just said she should do it and changed the subject. She knows Toby better than he does, anyway, so it’s all right.

She wonders where this stands in the order of relationship milestones. Should she have gotten him a gift or something? She guesses not, since he hasn’t given her anything yet today.

She goes online to her favorite clothing site and by five o’clock she’s decided what she’ll wear when he takes her out for their one-month anniversary.

He would never tell Toby about something like this. Neither would she, so it works.

She knows technically they’re supposed to do this.

But he’s kind of her boss and it’s still new, so they decide to keep it to themselves for now. She agrees with him when he suggests they not even report it to Toby and tries not to think about why that makes her feel uneasy.

She dresses more feminine than usual for the Christmas party and hates herself a little for hoping he’ll notice. But when he comes in she catches him staring and it’s not at her and then she knows why.

She’s glad now that they didn’t do it.

He’s never done this before.

He thinks it’ll be embarrassing.

He decides he doesn’t care.

He makes his way to Toby’s desk, and before he can say a word Toby’s handed him the pertinent sheet of paper, his name already written next to hers in the blank below the company policy.

Toby meets his startled gaze and shrugs. “I’ve had it filled out since November.”

He wants to be mortified, but instead he smiles and takes the form back to her desk.