I stood at the door and stared at it. My feet felt like they were glued to the floor. How the hell was I suppose to ask such an awkward question? “Hey Mike did you strap up before we had drunk sex?” The entire situation was awkward enough. Just as I began to turn around the door opened. “SHIT!” I screamed in my mind as he showed a young girl out of his apartment. “Thanks for the light bulbs Mike, you know my mother never buys that kind of stuff” The girl said stepping out of the apartment. She looked over at me and I wanted to disappear. “No problem tell your mother I said-“, he paused in the middle of the sentence and looked over at me curiously. “Tell her I said hi” his gaze never left me as a smirk appeared on his face. The girl looked over at me and said hi. I just flashed a smile and nodded as she walked pass me. Michael went into the apartment without speaking and I stood there like an idiot. “Michael, I have to uh ask you something” I said looking in the apartment trying to find him. I couldn’t get a glimpse of him so I stepped closer into the door frame. There was no response and he was nowhere in sight. I stepped in and as much as I didn’t want to I closed the door. I walked around and spotted him in the kitchen eating grapes. I walked in and took a deep breath. “I have to say I’m a bit shocked you came back here” he looked up at me wearing the same smirk. “Yea well I kind of wanted to uh ask you a question about last night?” I said wishing I was anywhere but there. “Do you need me to refresh your memory?” He asked with a lower tone. “No, I think I can connect the dots it’s just something I’m not so clear on.” I responded fiddle with my sweater. He started to notice that I was getting nervous and he started to smile from ear to ear. “Um did you, before we you know, did you um use a uh you know?” He started to giggle and my face became red. “What are you trying to ask me Margret?” He popped a grape in his mouth and continued to giggle. “You know what I’m trying to ask. Did you use protection?” I asked looking everywhere but at him. “Maybe” he said leaving the kitchen and walking past me. “I’m not playing Michael can you just tell me so that I can go” I said following him into the living room. “Are you sure you came all the way over here to ask me about that or did you come for something else?” He bit his bottom lip and looked down at my dress which angered me. “Michael, stop being such a pig and answer the damn question.” I said raising my voice and pulling down my too tight dress. “I like your dress” he said giving me no I contact. “Ok you know what I’m going to go” I said walking towards the door. “Okay okay I’m just messing with you, you don’t have anything to worry about.” He said following me to the door. I looked back at him with and irritated expression. “That’s all you had to say” I faced him while looking for my keys in my purse. “Do you want to know anything else from that night?” He asked with a big smile. “Uh no I’m cool with it being a mystery” I said looking up at him with a fake smile. “I’d rather you know. It was kind of like it use to be just a lot louder, on your part” the smile on his face grew wider and my entire face turned blood shot red. “Yea I’m going to go now, don’t speak to me at work unless you have paper work. Oh and from this moment on that never happened. I’m glad I don’t remember most of it” I said leaving his apartment as quickly as I could. Before I could get out of the door he grabbed my arm and pulled me back in. “Oh but I’m not done” he said satisfied with my embarrassment. “Let go of me” I looked up at him with an emotionless facial expression. He let go and headed back to the kitchen. “Tootles” he said disappearing into the entrance. He irritated me so much that it wasn’t explainable. I left the apartment and headed back to my apartment. “So how did it go?” Gigi asked scooping stew onto her spoon. “It went how everything else goes with Michael, horrible” I stated grabbing a bowl and scooping the food into it. “Did you ask him?” She asked as I sat across her. “He did” I said not even giving her I contact. I couldn’t stop wondering why he was messing with me the way he was. It seemed like he had gotten even more immature since high school. “What’s wrong with you?” She asked breaking into my thoughts. “Nothing I’m just thinking about something.”

“Hello Ms. Haul” the security guard in the lobby said waving at me. “Why are you so polite?” I asked looking over at him before swiping my ID. “I can’t be nice?” He asked with a big smile. “Ooo Franks got a lady” I said swiping my car and heading towards the elevator. When I pressed the 23rd floor button Ms. Bronze quickly stepped into the elevator. “Hello Ms. Haul I’d like to congratulate you on the foundation project. I’m highly impressed that you got it done so quickly.” She said this with a big smile and I was confused because I hadn’t even looked at the proposal Carlton handed me. “Michael emailed it to me today” still I was confused and I decided to just play along. “Yea well we worked on it a few days ago” I said this trying not to show her how confused I was. When we got off of the elevator I headed towards my office. “Hey girl” Brittney said as she spotted me coming in. “Hey Brittney” I said walking right pass her going into my office. I plopped down at my desk and looked for the proposal Carlton had given me. “Maybe I worked on it without knowing” I thought to myself scanning for my signatures. It was blank; every line where my signature was suppose to be was blank. I got up and left out of my office. “Take messages okay” I said to Brittney as I left the waiting room and down the hall. I walked to Michael’s waiting room and the old lady sitting behind the desk looked up at me. “May I help you?” She asked peering over her glasses. “Uh yea I just wanted to speak with Michael really quick,” I said trying to be as nice as possible. She buzzed in and said, “Mr. Jackson Miss Haul is here to see you” she said with a grin on her face. “Send her in” he said quickly and then buzzed out. I opened the door and he was laying on top of his desk as if he was at the beach. “Very professional Michael” I said sarcastically looking at him. “Did you come all the way across this floor to insult me?” He asked with his eyes still shut. “Uh no I actually wanted to ask you about the project. Ms. Bronze was congratulating me and I didn’t do anything.” He got up and sat there facing me. “Let’s just say it was kind of a I scratch your back you scratch mine kind of thing.” His eyes left mine as they casually traveled down to my legs. “Nice dress” he said in a low tone, almost as if he was saying to himself. “What are you talking about? I didn’t tell you to do that for me.” I said while pulling my dress down as he stared at my legs intensely. Then he finally looked up at me and shrugged his shoulders. “Then we’ll call it blackmail” he said it so casually but I was shocked by this comment. “You wouldn’t do that” I challenged him crossing my arms. “Actually I will blackmail you. I’m taking you on a date” he sat behind his desk and smiled up at me. “You’re forcing me to go on a date with you? You’re insane, that’s all you want, a date?” I asked completely confused. “That’s not all, the date lasts all weekend. We’ll get a hotel out on the beach and don’t worry I’ll pay” the irritation came back and I felt that burning sensation in my stomach. “Michael, I’m not going with you anywhere. What if I just want to be friends?” “I don’t want to be friends.” He said quickly and I just stood there confused and irritated. “Michael you can’t force me to like you again” I said trying to get to the root of his crazy behavior. “No I can’t force you, but I can convince you. Face it if I tried to do this the normal way you would have said no and turned all red. I’m not taking no for an answer.” I didn’t know what to say, I just sat there staring at him as he smiled back. “Pack that dress from yesterday” he said looking back down at my legs. “I have to go” I said quickly walking out of his office. The last thing I wanted to do was to spend an entire weekend with Michael. I had a feeling that my weekend would be interesting.

When I got home that afternoon I took my shoes off and head back to my room. I took my hair out of its bun and messed it up. “Hey Yoyo!” I heard Gigi yell from the living room. She came into my room and I looked over at her for a brief second and then I started to scream out of frustration. “Are you okay?” She asked shocked after I ran out of breath. “No I’m not okay, guess what I’m doing this weekend?” I asked her, she looked at me sideways as if she was scared to answer.”Buying tampons cause it seems like it’s about that time” she said jokingly. “I’m not in the mood for jokes Gigi, I’m going to the beach” she looked at me with narrowed eyes. “That’s what you’re angry about, a vacation?” She asked as she was about to leave. “A forced vacation with Michael, as if it isn’t awkward enough between us.” I said grabbing pencils off of my dresser and breaking them. “What? He’s really out doing himself these days” she said while sitting on my bed. “How is he getting you to go?” I sat beside her and held my head in my hands. “He’s blackmailing me. We were supposed to work on this project and he did it without me knowing.” She looked over at me still confused. “How can he blackmail you with that?” “I forged his signature for some forms and he probably saw it when he was doing the project.” It was stupid for me to do it but I wanted to go home early and he wasn’t in his office. What was I suppose to do? Wait all day until he came back. “Well you should have fun, you are in love with him” she said this getting up and now I had a confused expression. “I’m not in love with him, I hate him” she smiled and gave me a “I don’t believe you” look. “Let’s be honest here. If this was any other guy you wouldn’t have even stepped foot in his apartment the day you got drunk. You wouldn’t have had sex with him regardless of how many margaritas you had. Face it you’re in love all over again” she said walking out of my room. Was everybody crazy today? Just because I went to his apartment doesn’t mean that I love him, I wanted to get the project over with. I took a deep breath and lay back thinking of ways out of this trip. If he told Ms. Bronze that I forged his signatures I’d get fired. I had to think of something fast because the weekend was two days away. How would I get out of this one?