"Hey, we're heading out. Are you coming?"

David looked up from his keyboard at his boss, standing just outside the office doorway. He'd forgotten he had promised Leo to go out for drinks tonight. They'd made plans last week - something about a new cigar bar that just opened in Midtown.

Not that David even liked cigars. Leo didn't either, for that matter. It was just an excuse, and they both knew it. Leo had been trying for weeks to pry him away from the office and back to some semblance of his normal social life. It was almost humorous, the way the two of them had undergone a complete role reversal lately. David had always been the one trying to tempt Leo back out on the town. Now Leo seemed to feel the need to return the favor.

"Come on," Leo said, sensing David's hesitation. "A cigar. Some scotch. You'll feel like a new man."

"Sorry, boss. It totally slipped my mind," David replied. "I'll have to take a raincheck."

"Dave." Leo stepped further into the office and clicked the door shut behind him. "How long are you going to keep moping around-"

"I'm not moping around," David cut him off impatiently. "I have other plans."

Leo raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Right. Do your other plans involve spending the whole night here in front of that computer?"

"No. Really. I'm going home. I have a house guest."

Leo squinted at him suspiciously. "You have a one-bedroom apartment. Since when do you have house guests?"

"It just came up." David shrugged. "It was kind of... sudden."

"Sudden, huh?" Leo continued to study him. "So I'm guessing this house guest is female?"

David turned back to his computer and pulled up the spreadsheet he'd been working on. "Seriously, Leo. I can't talk. I'm just trying to finish this up so I can get home-"

He was interrupted by the sound of Leo's laughter. "Wow. David Powers has a house guest. I thought you had a rule against shacking up."

"I'm not shacking up. It's just a guest. She's sleeping on the couch."

"Who?"

David swiveled in his chair again. He rolled his eyes in irritation when he saw Leo had made himself comfortable in a chair on the other side of his desk. "Why do you care?"

"I don't know, David. Maybe because you haven't even looked at a woman in weeks?"

David groaned. "Don't get excited. It's not like that."

"Please. You've got a woman staying at your place for the first time in - I don't know - ever? And I know for fact you don't have any close female relatives-"

"It's Penny. OK? Are you happy now? It's just Penny!"

The grin on Leo's face was wiped away, replaced by a look of wide-eyed surprise. "The secretary?"

"It's not a big deal. She just needed a place to stay-"

"Well it's about damn time!"

David leaned forward and buried his face in his hands. He knew that look on his boss's face. No way was he getting out of this conversation now until he'd told the full story. "Leo, it's a non-starter. Trust me."

"Last I heard, you didn't even have her phone number, so-"

"Trust me, Leo."

"What's the problem?"

"She's moving to Minnesota. She needed a place to stay for a few nights. That's all. It's nothing. I'm just doing a favor for a friend-"

"A friend? Did you tell her how you feel?"

"I don't even know how I feel-"

"You've gone through 17 different secretaries since she left, Dave. The entire firm knows how you feel."

"It hasn't been 17," David protested. "Maybe ten. Eleven? Whatever. Seriously, Leo. I don't want to talk about it. Go smoke your cigars." David pointed a finger in the direction of the doorway, but Leo didn't budge. Instead, he propped his feet up on top of David's desk and scratched thoughtfully at his cheek.

"I could swear we had a conversation in this very office, somewhere around secretary number five..." Leo mused. "Or was that secretary number six?"

"Do you have a point?" David pointed back at the computer screen behind him. "Because I have some work I need to finish right now."

"Tell her how you feel, David. Don't be a pussy."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"Leo, you don't know what you're talking about."

"So you're not in love with her?"

David felt his face start to flush at Leo's words. "I-No-I don't know. It's beside the point-"

"Let me guess," Leo said, turning his eyes upward toward the ceiling. "You have a rule against telling women how you feel?"

"I have a rule against telling them how I feel when I know they aren't interested!"

"Bullshit."

David could feel his temper starting to slip. Anyone else, and he would've shut the whole conversation down by now. But this was his boss. He had to at least try to keep his cool.

"Look, Leo," he said. "I appreciate your concern. I really do. But I think I have a little more experience than you do with the female half of the population."

"Oh sure." Leo took his feet off the desk and leaned forward. "Very experienced. How many rules are you up to at this point? Three hundred? Four hundred?"

"This isn't about the rules."

"Dave." All traces of laughter had left Leo's face now as the two of them locked eyes across the desk. "Don't you think maybe it's time you threw away the rulebook?"

David squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, willing the man on the other side of the desk to disappear. He should never have said a word about Penny in the first place. This was what he got for confiding. Never again, he thought. New rule: Don't talk about your personal life with your boss.

Not that there was going to be much of a personal life to speak of, after tonight. Penny had booked her plane ticket. She'd told him this morning as he headed off to work. By tomorrow afternoon, she'd be out of his hair.

He had one night left. One night before his entire so-called 'personal life' ground to a complete and total halt....

Leo had no idea. Not really. David himself hadn't truly understood just how deep his feelings went until the past couple nights. She'd been sleeping in his living room since Wednesday, and he'd spent each night alone in his bedroom, staring up at the ceiling, going over it and over it in his mind.

How had he let it get to this point? That's what he kept asking himself. How could he have let it happen? This was the whole reason why he had rules in the first place. To protect himself. To keep himself from falling for the wrong girl - the girl who wouldn't stick around.

He still didn't quite know what had happened. He hadn't seen it coming. Somehow he'd let down his defenses, and she'd managed to sneak her way past. And now it was too late. Now he felt the way he felt, and he couldn't undo it.

And he couldn't say a word.

No way.

His hands were tied. He couldn't tell her. Not after that conversation she'd overheard - like she was some kind of shiny trophy to be held up in front of other men. He'd promised her it wasn't like that. He didn't see her like that. He'd put his hand on his heart and given her his word.

"I will not touch you. I will not manhandle you. I will not hit on you. I will not do anything that could possibly be construed as a sexual advance...."

He'd boxed himself in. Painted into a corner. No way out.

Anyway, she didn't want to hear it. She'd made that crystal clear. She'd ditched the bikini top and traded it in for the most sexless wardrobe she could muster. Yesterday, he'd come home from work to find her curled up in front of the TV in one of his ratty old track suits, rolled up at the wrists and ankles. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Not a trace of make-up on her face. No mascara. Just those eyes looking up at him as he walked in the door. Hazel eyes, fringed in pale white-gold. He'd had to turn his back away from her - pretend to watch the TV instead - so she didn't see the effect she had on him.

He couldn't tell her. He knew that. She was leaving, and all he could do was let her go. Move on. Leo was right about that much, at least. David hadn't been on a date in weeks. He needed to get back out there. Stop moping around.

That wasn't the only thing Leo was right about.

"Don't you think maybe it's time you threw away the rulebook?"

Leo didn't even know how close he'd come to the truth. David hadn't gotten halfway serious with anyone for the past two years, and he knew the reason why. His boss thought it was all those other rules: she has to be over 26.... she has to make six figures.... But those weren't the problem. Those weren't the real rule - the rule that he'd never quite acknowledged, even to himself - the secret yardstick that he'd been measuring every woman against for the past two years of his life:

She has to make me feel the way Penny makes me feel.

That was the rule. And as long he stuck to that rule, he was never going to find someone. Penny was Penny, and no one else would ever be her. He needed to let it go.

"David," Leo said, leaning in at him across the desk. "Just tell her. Just suck it up, and be a man, and tell her."

David met his boss's eyes with a steely gaze of his own. "Let it go, please. I'm asking you nicely."

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life alone?"

"Kinda like you, Leo?" The words were out David's mouth before he could stop them. He winced as he saw Leo flinch and turn his face away. "I'm sorry. Leo. Hell. I shouldn't have said that-"

Leo waved a hand to silence him. He stood with a sigh and started making his way toward David's office door.

"Leo. Don't...."

His boss had his hand on the door knob, but he dropped it. He turned back around with a look on his face like he'd just figured out the answer to a riddle that had been eating at him for a long time.

"That's what it is with all those rules, isn't it?" he said softly. "It's because of me. So you don't end up like me."

"No," David started to argue. "Leo, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"Let me tell you something, Dave. I'll let you in on a little secret."

David opened his mouth to apologize again, but Leo continued before he could get a word in. "Yes, I fell in love. And it didn't last. And I got hurt. And you know what? If I had to do it over, I wouldn't change a thing. I'd chase her all over again. I'd marry her all over again, too."

"How can you say that?" David shook his head. "After everything she put you through."

Leo shrugged. "I loved my wife. I still love her. I'll probably always love her. I'm telling you, Dave. Even if it doesn't last forever. Even if it's only temporary. Better to be alive for a little while than to let your whole life pass you by because you're too afraid to try."

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