“You had a great time last night?” Micheal asked Steve as they stood at the coffee maker in the common area of the Watts Research office building.

Steve laughed and said, “I think I have found my next conquest.”

“Naw, Janet said this girl is a church girl.”

“Well church girls are the best ones. You fuck em Saturday night, and they leave you at home on Sunday morning.”

“Not this girl, at least according to Janet.”

“Sounds like a wager to me…I bet you I can get her into bed in 1 week.”

Michael laughed, “One week…So you got it like that?”

“One week…” Steve repeated himself.

“I ain’t betting you a damn thing and you need to stop playing with women, one day you are gonna get played.” Michael said seriously.

“Whatever dude…Bet or no bet, this time next week I will have done the deed.” Steve said arrogantly.

Steve had no question in his mind that he would have sex with Penny. He was a little concerned though in that he had not dated many African American women and the ones that he had known were all firebrands like Janet.

“I didn’t think you liked back women.” Michael said.

Steve smiled and said. “I agree with Martin Luther King Junior, I don’t judge people by the color of their skin…but by other important assets, like the size of their ass…Or maybe that was Sir Mix-a-Lot”

Micheal walked out of the breakroom. While walking out he said, “One day somebody is gonna kick your ass and I hope I am there to see it.”

Steve walked back to his office and sat down to do some work. Janet knocked on the door and walked right in as she normally did.

Steve said, as he often does, “You are supposed to wait until I say come in.”

Janet stood there with a slight smile and put her hand on her hip and said, “OK, I will wait until you say come in.”

“What do you want…” Steve smiled.

“We need to work on this VanderHolt project, I need some help on this equation.”

Steve asked her to come over to the table. They worked for about 10 minutes. Steve couldn’t help but allow his eyes to see Janet’s attire. Her business suit couldn’t hide her ample bottom and very attractive figure.

For a second he wondered what it might be like to be with Janet. But one thing he did know from experience is that relationships with co-workers is very difficult. And besides he didn’t want any relationship anyway. His “Fuck it and leave it” attitude would kill a work relationship.

“Ahh, what about this variable here?” Janet said while pointing to the left side of the paper.

“No, if you change that, it won’t help you.” Steve responded. “But what about this?” Steve asked.

“I tried that an hour ago.” Janet said. “But wait…I got it…” Janet picked up her papers and was about to leave.

“Aren’t you going to tell me what it was?”

Janet smiled and said, “I got it, I just needed you to bounce some ideas off of.”

“Hey, but, can you tell me something about your friend Penny. Penny seems nice.”

“Yeah she is nice. She goes to the same church I go to. We hang out sometimes.” Janet said nonchalantly.

Steve perceived that Janet was either hiding something or she just didn’t want to talk about it.

“So you are not going to help me?”

Janet laughed and said, “If you are asking me, am I going to help you add another notch to your bedpost so you can win some sort of bet then, no…”

The blood left Steve’s face and he said, “So you heard that.”

“Yeah, I heard that…”

“You aren’t going to tell Penny?”

“No, I won’t tell Penny. She is gonna see through your line of bullshit in a minute anyway.”

She walked out.

********************************

Janet was angry very angry about Steve and his attempt to simply have sex with her friend. She walked over to Ashley’s office and stuck her head in.

“Hey, I been meaning to thank you for inviting me to that card game. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun.” Ashley said.

Janet looked like she was hardly paying attention to Ashley. Janet said, “I am glad…but I gotta talk to you about that Steve…”

Ashley smiled, “What about Steve?”

“He is about to try to screw my friend and leave her and it is pissing me off.”

“Steve will be Steve.” Ashley said.

“Naw, I brought this girl over and he is about to try to make the moves on her.”

Janet felt a lot of emotion welling up in her. Ashley’s face looked a bit confused.

“Well Penny is an adult…”

“That’s not what I am saying…”

“Well even if you are right, everyone needs some sex every once in a while. It has been months since I have…”

Janet interrupted, “I’m sorry, now I know you are in a bit of a dating slump, now, but Penny, she is like a lamb going to the slaughter.”

“Don’t worry about Penny, what is the worse thing that can happen?”

Janet thought about what the worse thing could be. She was trying to convince herself that the worse thing would be that they have sex and Steve moves on, but that actually wouldn’t matter much, she wondered if her fear was that they would start a relationship.

“You are right, I am overreacting.” Janet said.

“But if you are in the setting up mood, when are you gonna help me out?” Ashley asked.

“As soon as you find my man a job so he can move from New York.”

They both laughed and Janet walked out of Ashley’s office. Janet walked over to her cubicle and sat down. She began working on the equation that she talked to Steve about until the end of the day.