Love, Your Secret Admirer. SUSAN MEIER

as the morning wore on and the parade of men continued, Matt began to get tense. He also noticed something else. Not one other executive in this company seemed concerned about dating a subordinate. True, none of them was Sarah’s immediate supervisor as Matt was. But they were still supervisors. And supervisors didn’t date subordinates! They all should be staying the hell away from her.

      The flirting and silliness went on throughout the afternoon, and Matt’s irritation grew. The whole world seemed intent on thumbing its nose at rules Matt held sacred. He became more and more angry at the injustice of it, until he snapped at Carmella that night when she stopped in his office to deliver a copy of a confidential memo from the head of the company, Lloyd Winters.

      “Sorry,” he said, then ran his fingers through his short hair, spiking it.

      Carmella smiled at him. “That’s okay. It’s nearly eight o’clock,” she said, obviously referring to the fact that he was working late. Not only was the quarterly report due in six weeks, but also he did his staff review for Lloyd the first two weeks in September. “It’s been a long day for you.”

      “Yeah. A long day made longer by the parade of men stopping by to flirt with my assistant.”

      Carmella grimaced. “I’ll talk to her.”

      “It’s not Sarah that’s the problem. It’s the guys coming to ogle her.”

      Carmella studied Matt for a second and he felt his face redden as she smiled knowingly. “You’re not angry. You’re jealous.”

      “I didn’t say that.”

      “You didn’t have to.” She took a seat on one of the captain’s chairs in front of Matt’s desk and grinned at him as if this were some sort of game. “So, what are you going to do?”

      “Nothing,” he said, tossing his pencil to his desk, confused that he seemed to be the only reasonable person in this company since Sarah got her makeover. “In the first place, she’s my assistant. Asking her out is a sexual harassment suit wait to happen.”

      “I don’t think Sarah would…”

      “It doesn’t matter,” Matt said, interrupting her, deciding that the entire office had gone around the bend and there was no sense trying to persuade Carmella with an argument she wouldn’t understand. Particularly since he had a better argument up his sleeve. One she couldn’t dispute. “There are more considerations here than just the boss/assistant thing. For one, I’m not in a position yet where I could ask somebody to marry me.”

      Carmella only stared at him. “Are you kidding?”

      He stared back. “About what?”

      “Oh, come on, Matt. I know you’re one of those people who likes to be prepared, but don’t you think it’s a bit overboard not dating a woman because you can’t ask her to marry you?”