XIX

• Author: Lindsay Cameron
• Profession: Corporate attorney
• Pages: 181-187

181

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T    aer New Year’s. Ben had been right—the

timelines were short and the pressure to sign the deal was intense.

I did not leave for work and return home on the same day for the

entire month of January. e hours were grueling and with work

consuming more and more of my time, mere seconds in the day

became precious. Everything I did, I did faster to preserve those

valued seconds. I walked faster, talked faster, ate faster. I developed

daily routines that depended on a split-second rhythm. I walked to

the end of the subway platform to be on the car that stopped clos-

est to the exit. I stood close to the door on the train to be one of the

rst out when it stopped. When anyone wasted one second of my

time with what I perceived as careless ineciency I felt cheated and

annoyed: it meant one less second of sleep that night.

A week into the new year, just when I needed it, I got an unex-

pected treat. Jason surprised me in my oce a day earlier than I

thought he was supposed to return. When I walked in and saw him

standing there behind my desk, I briey wondered if I was having

a sleep-deprived hallucination. “Jason!” I breathed. “You’re back.”

To my utter shock, without a word, he came around my desk, shut

my oce door, pulled me into his arms, and kissed me so deeply, so

passionately, that I almost tilted right back onto my desk. It was so

startling and raw and risky that it was all I could do not to lock my

oce door and rip his clothes o right there.

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