"Oh?" he asked as we made our way to the door.

"Frozen yogurt!"

"Frozen yogurt?" His question carried a chuckle that battered down the defensive walls I had put up around my logic and reason. I kept telling myself, he's my boss, he's my boss, but with every subtle smile and every light laugh, it became harder and harder to remember that he was my superior and not a friend, or more specifically, dating material. There were rules put in place specifically to stop this sort of thing and I wondered who, out of the two of us, was more endangered by breaking those rules. But it was only frozen yogurt, right?

"Yeah," I said with a nervous smile as I directed him towards the shop I had planned to take Emily to. "I kind of had a craving. Is it not okay?"

"No, it's great. Good choice."

We crossed the few blocks over to the store, filling the cheery night air with stories about anything other than work. I told him about my latest addiction to the show Beige's Taxonomy, while he described the fascinating photographs he recently saw at a gallery. Our words kept chipping away at my armor and no matter how much I told myself to turn around and not look back, I kept moving forward, telling myself it was all in my head and there was nothing to fear. I just wanted to enjoy the attention. Attention that was strictly platonic, because it was just frozen yogurt between friends, between a boss and his employee...

My hands were shaking when I grabbed my cup at the store. I then busied them with forming an elaborate concoction of frozen yogurt, fruits, nuts, candies, and syrups. I paid for our treats, though Alec still offered to cover his despite the recent trip to the hospital that I had cost him, and then we headed out to the tables seated on the plaza.

Trees twinkling with little lights dotted the large open space. Store fronts illuminated the border of the paved courtyard and quaint tables with matching chairs were scattered about for the various stores' customers. The usually bustling plaza was quiet with most people staying indoors to avoid the chilly autumn night. Which meant, Alec and I were practically alone when we took our seats just outside the frozen yogurt shop.

Despite this, I felt somewhat more comfortable outside. Being out in the open felt far less controversial should someone walk by. It all simply depended on the viewer's perspective. To the wandering eye, being out in the open certainly appeared casual, but as we sat there, the only ones seated out on the plaza, it all suddenly felt incredibly intimate, to the point that my hands regained their tremble and a blush colored my face and ears.

"Cold?" asked Alec, whose own nose was starting to show a bit of redness on its tip.

"What?"

"You're shivering and you are looking a bit wind-whipped. Do you want to go back inside?"

I wanted to tell him that, if anything, I was burning up, but I felt that may cross the already well tread line that was separating our relationship between professionalism and flirtation. "Thank you, but I'm fine. I think it's actually kind of pleasant out here."

"I like it out here too. I usually go up to the mountains every other weekend, so I've grown a pretty thick skin when it comes to the elements."

My ears perked up at this new bit of information that Alec carelessly shared as he dived into a cup of chocolate yogurt and raspberries. I'd worked at Quinto's PR department for seven years, all of which included Alec serving as my superior in some form or another. Not once during those years had I really gotten to know him as anything other than a kind boss, a dedicated employee, and a professional voice of reason. Yet, in just a week of working together, side by side, I'd learned that he had a habit of star gazing, visiting art galleries, and apparently some form of hiking or camping.

It was all a bit surreal really. After hearing him describe the constellations only a few nights prior, I had built up this image in my head of Alec just sitting at his desk looking out his window at the stars. I couldn't even conjure up a house with furniture in it for him. He was my boss, he only existed at work as far as my head could comprehend and now I knew he actually had hobbies to pass the time and a love for the outdoors. Obviously he had a life outside of Quinto, but for some reason it all felt like a grand revelation to me that he was, in fact, human.

"Do you mean like camping? Or do you go to a lodge or something?"

"I own a little cabin not too far from here. I keep my telescope up there. I just spend my time disconnecting from the world and reconnecting with the stars." He put his cup down on the table and leaned back as he smiled towards the night sky.

"You must see so many out there," I said, joining him in his observance of the deep blue ocean above us. "Can't really see a single one tonight." I sighed as the memory of the clear, dark night of a few days ago flooded back to me. I imagined his body up against mine as he pointed out some cluster of stars telling me the story of two lovers who overcame impossible odds. Although, as my memory went on it morphed and mutated. Instead of the executive patio, we were at a cozy log cabin surrounded by towering pine trees. A warm fire crackled inside, waiting for us to come back in and snuggle up under a flannel blanket. "It's too bad," I said with a sigh, the longing heavy upon my tongue. When I turned back to face him, I saw him looking at me with a inquisitive smirk and a raised eyebrow.

I cleared my throat and clarified. "It's too bad they aren't out. I would like to have heard more stories about the Greeks and their constellations."

"You'd have to go to the mountains one day if you really want the good stories."

"Is that an invitation?"

I almost smacked a hand over my mouth, but what little sense I had left, kept it rigid upon my spoon. I feared giving him any indication that I noticed my own embarrassing slip of the tongue might just make matters worse. Instead, I kept my eyes trained upon my cup, while my breath tightened in my throat, waiting for Alec to say something.

"Well, I suppose I could lend you the cabin one weekend if you wanted, but I couldn't invite you up while I was there. That wouldn't be appropriate."

I couldn't bear to turn to face him and his voice didn't offer enough intonation to convince me one way or the other about how he reacted. I heard both a humor and a sadness in there. With a painful gulp, I cast my eyes up and found a subtle, maybe even teasing, smile on Alec's face.

"Oh, well," I said in a stuttering sort of mumble, "I meant should you decide to host a department wide trip or something. I..." Feeling the hole around me getting deeper, I shoved a spoonful of yogurt into my mouth to stop it from continuing. I waited for Alec to pick the conversation back up, but he never did, he just watched me with an enigmatic smirk. Once I managed to swallow, I made one last stab at cleaning up the mess my Freudian slip caused. "I'm just...should an opportunity to visit the mountains ever present itself, it would be nice to go and see stars as they were meant to be seen."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Now there was no subtlety to his smile. He openly grinned with a light laugh on his lips. I sighed with relief and a smile burst across my face. There we sat, looking up at the starless sky and enjoying a dessert that was far too cold for the autumn night. There were no words left to utter. I wouldn't have allowed them to escape my tongue at that point anyway. There was a perfect silence between us, where a warm smile and a comforting gaze spoke more than words could. It seemed we had, for just a moment, a happy balance between us. Boss, friend, crush, whatever, at that moment it didn't matter.

I didn't know how I looked to the people at the hospital or to the grinning nurse who directed Alec to me. I couldn't imagine how we appeared to the people walking by us as they meandered through the plaza. I didn't want to fathom the gossip my coworkers would conjure up if they stumbled upon us in that moment.

Whatever an outsider's image of us was, it didn't matter. I knew how I felt. It was not the feeling one has when sitting across from a boss to discuss business. It wasn't the sensation of being forced to awkwardly socialize with someone that was just a coworker. It wasn't the stiff struggle that comes with conversing with a mere acquaintance. It was warm, it was familiar, and it was lovely.

I wanted to hold onto that moment and remember it as something that wasn't a dream. It was as real and as wonderful as the stars themselves.

***

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