Work Text:
On his third day of orientation at Bishop Security, Brendan saw the blonde goddess for the first time. He tuned out his preceptor’s voice as she explained the procedure for submitting approved contracts as he watched the blonde walk, no glide through the office on three-inch heels. While every other woman he’d encountered in corporate America wore dark, muted colors, she was wearing a bright red skirt and jacket with a loudly patterned blouse underneath. Heads turned as she passed, because of course they did. How could anyone pay attention to what was going on in front of them when the most beautiful woman to ever exist was passing through their space?
“Hello? Earth to Halloran?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry.” Rather than refocusing on the computer screen, he maintained his gaze across the office, where the blonde was disappearing into a conference room after greeting the director of the Legal department, Mr. Harrison; Brendan didn’t feel like he’d been working at Bishop long enough to call his boss ‘William’ or ‘Bill,’ even in his head.
Caroline, the no-nonsense VP of Legal, was smirking at him in her navy-blue pantsuit when Brendan turned back to her. “See something you like?”
“Oh, um…I just…I was…”
“Yeah, she provokes that response a lot.” She jerked her head toward the conference room where the blonde had disappeared. “I guess it’s only fair to warn you off that one. You should know that she’s married to the boss.”
“Really? Wow.” A new wave of respect for the sixtyish-year-old, grey-haired Mr. Harrison who had hired him swept through Brendan. “Good taste.”
“Uh-huh. Now, if you’re ready to get back to learning how to do your new and very competitive job…”
“No, totally!” He hadn’t clawed his way up from a working-class Irish neighborhood outside Boston all the way through Columbia Law just to lose his first job at a major corporation over his libido. “So, once all appropriate department heads and outside parties have signed, we notarize it and digitize it with the Docu-Firm app?”
“You got it. Seems like you’re getting pretty confident with all our software procedures.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” He had been surprised to learn that a sophisticated security firm still relied so much on paper records, but Caroline had explained it was an extra level of redundancy bordering on paranoia recommended by their best penetration tester (he had held in his laughter until she had given him ‘one free one’ for the job title). “Ready to really sink my teeth into the legal aspects of the job.”
“Good. A lot of what we do in corporate law is contracts, so it’s important that you focus on the details and the wording of every single document.”
“I know. My favorite undergrad professor once said that if you can’t get through the terms and conditions of any standard app, you shouldn’t go to law school, and she taught English.”
“Sounds like a smart woman.”
“Professor Goldberg did write one of my recommendation letters for law school,” he replied, aware that Caroline had majored in English at his own undergraduate school.
Her mouth quirked up just a little more at the corners before she passed a file folder to him. “So, this is the first draft of a contract from a new company that wants to hire Bishop to design their security infrastructure. Read it over and let me know what you think.”
“I’ll have it to you by the end of the day.”
He returned to his own desk outside of Caroline’s office and took his pens and highlighters from his top drawer. When Caroline went back over his analysis of the contract, the only fault she found was the long streak of fluorescent pink he’d made when the blonde had left the conference room and he’d been distracted.
Brendan was slightly nervous about this contract. He had been with Bishop Security for nearly four months now and had written many contracts in that time, but this was the first that had made him question the legality of any aspects. Geoff and Eddie had reviewed it and both confirmed that everything was aboveboard, reassuring him that he just needed to accustom himself to the intricacies of penetration testing; he’d heard the term enough by now that he no longer had the urge to laugh. It still felt wrong on some level to be writing clauses about acceptable trespassing and allowable property damage.
He decided to run it past Caroline before putting it in the pipeline. She thoroughly perused it before saying, “Nice job. This all looks good. Take it to Belova on fourteen and get it signed. I suggest you handle it personally if you plan to file this before next month.”
“Right. No problem.” The Lashburn contract had been given to him with the explicit condition that it was to be completed before Friday. “Thanks. I’ll go down right now.”
The elevator between the Legal department on the thirtieth floor to R&D on the fourteenth seemed to last forever as it stopped on nearly every floor in between as people entered and exited. Brendan was nearly sweating through his suit coat when he finally stepped off and took a deep breath. He’d never been to this floor before and was surprised to find the elevator lobby opened into a large space crowded with tables piled with electronic components and computer parts. There didn’t seem to be anyone around or much going on in this department until a drone bounced off a wall and had him on the floor as it passed over him with a howling whistle.
A man in a white lab coat followed behind the drone, one hand on a complex remote and the other on his head. “Oh, shit! That was not supposed to go that way!”
Brendan gathered the contract back into the folder he was carrying as a crowd gathered behind the lab-coated man. He decided it was best to get off this floor as soon as possible, so he asked, “Hey, I’m from Legal. I’m looking to get something signed by someone named Belova?”
A woman in the crowed checked her watch and called out, “She’ll be in the gym in the annex. Footbridge is on the fifth floor.”
Brendan fought off his first impulse to flex and declare that he obviously knew where the employee gym was to ask, “She?”
“Yeah. Blonde, short, threatening aura. Don’t interrupt her if she’s sparring.” The man took off, following the trajectory the out-of-control drone had taken, crowd following in his wake.
“Right. Thanks.” Brendan got back on the elevator and rode to the level that included the footbridge over 56th to the new Bishop Security annex, which included not only the employee gym, where he sometimes lifted after working hours, but the daycare center, library, cafeteria and other services. Some of his law school friends had expressed jealousy that his company provided a facility with not only a fully-equipped gym, but basketball and squash courts, an Olympic-size pool, boxing and fencing equipment and even an archery range; he just shrugged and parroted the line about the young CEO advocating access to physical fitness facilities that he’d gotten during his onboarding.
The gym wasn’t very busy at 2PM on a Tuesday, but it still took him a few minutes to find a blonde. To his consternation, it was the blonde, clothed in bright pink spandex and hair elaborated braided. He’d caught only irregular glimpses of her over the past months – a flash in the hallway on thirty-six near the bigwigs’ offices, grabbing a coffee in the Starbucks on the ground floor, one all too brief elevator ride – and had yet to speak to her one on one. Was she the Belova whose signature he was here to get? She was currently spotting a bench press for a brunette who seemed to be lifting her own bodyweight.
He respectfully waited outside of both women’s fields of vision for the brunette to complete her set before approaching. “Um, uh, excuse me. Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt but…are you Belova?”
The blonde looked him up and down – he was wearing his suit and tie rather than gym attire – before saying in an intoxicating accent, “I am Yelena Belova.”
Yelena. The blonde goddess had a name. A beautiful name that made him hyperaware of the way his tongue brushed his upper incisors and lip on the second syllable as he repeated it, “Yelena.”
“Yes.” She looked at him expectantly. “Did you need something?”
“Oh, hi. I’m Brendan. Brendan Halloran. From Legal. I just…I went to the fourteenth floor to find you because I need a signature on this contract and they said I could find you here and…”
She pulled the folder from his hands as he continued to stammer, interrupting him as she looked over the document, “Ah, this for the Lashburn mission.”
“It’s not a mission, Lena,” the brunette murmured, standing from the bench and toweling sweat from her neck as she looked over Yelena’s shoulder, much closer to the woman – the space Brendan wanted to occupy.
She didn’t seem bothered by the proximity. “Of course it is! There are just different goals and parameters. Ah, I see that Caroline has reviewed this, so I will trust that this is all in order and sign. Do you have a pen, Brendan from Legal?”
“Uh, sure.” He pulled out the engraved Montblanc platinum-coated ballpoint pen his grandparents had given him when he’d completed his undergrad at Duke.
“Ah, you do have a pen. Very nice.” Yelena bent over a nearby bench to sign the appropriate pages without being prompted to flip to the tagged pages. He did his best not to check out her ass while she did, though he could admit to himself that he failed miserably – at least he didn’t start drooling. Her gym buddy didn’t seem to notice, adjusting her earbuds before she wiped down the bench she had just used. Yelena tucked the contract back into its folder as she stood and passed it back to him. “There you go. Will there be anything else?”
“Uh, well…”
He wasn’t done debating the merits of asking for his pen back versus having a reason to track down Yelena again when the brunette rolled her eyes and said, “Give him his nice pen back.”
“You are no fun, Katyusha.” Yelena pouted in a super attractive way as she handed his pen over. “See you around, Brendan from Legal.”
He managed not to skip with joy as he left the gym, although he did note that the brunette was now spotting for Yelena as she lifted even more weight.
Now that he had actually spoken to Yelena, Brendan felt like he was starting to see her more often. His newly-adjusted gym schedule had him in the facility around 2PM almost every weekday, where he often spotted her working out, either alone or with her gym buddy, who was also very nice to look at, if not on Yelena’s level. He’d even convinced one of his colleagues to accompany him in exchange for staying an extra two hours at the end of the day. Eddie was currently frowning over him rather than encouraging him as he struggled with too much weight on the bench press. “C’mon, man. Go down twenty, at least. No shame exchanging the 45lbs plates for the 35lbs on the ends.”
“No, I got this.” He took a deep breath and glanced toward the treadmills where the blonde goddess Yelena was currently running.
Eddie didn’t bother to mask his grimace as he saw where Brendan was looking. “You can’t be serious.”
“What? I’m just looking! You can’t blame a guy for looking!” Especially when she was wearing a tight, midriff-baring tank and tiny little running shorts.
“Uh-huh. And I’m just enabling you by coming to the gym with you,” Eddie replied, eyeing two men near the squat rack before turning back with a huff. “Whatever. It’s not like I don’t see enough hot guys at Justin’s club on the weekends.”
Having met Eddie’s husband and attended an event at their club, Brendan knew exactly how true it was. “You can’t just let me enjoy the eye-candy?”
“Candy? Man, you’re looking at her like she’s Thanksgiving dinner. You need to get over her.”
“Look, Caroline already told me that she’s married to the boss. I get it. I mean, I don’t get it because…I mean…” He let his gaze linger on Yelena this time, taking in the definition of her legs as she ran. “Seriously, what does she see there? Money? Power?”
“Hey, hotness attracts hotness. It may not be my thing, but…I mean, who am I to judge?”
Brendan nodded in what he hoped was solidarity. Mr. Harrison was handsome in a distinguished older man sort of way. Maybe she had a Daddy kink or…really, it was none of his business. As far as he was concerned, love was love. And he was potentially in love with Yelena, no matter who she had married for his life insurance or retirement benefits or whatever. “Okay.” He grasped the bar as Eddie held his hands under it. “I got this.”
He was still pressing his new max when Yelena stepped off the treadmill and made her way toward the locker room. He finished the set even as she disappeared from view. At least his chest and arms were looking better then ever.
The cafeteria in the Bishop Security annex was another innovation that Kate Bishop, the young CEO, had introduced to the company. It reminded Brendan of the cafés at IKEA – nothing too fancy, but a nice variety for cheap prices, especially for Manhattan. Although it wasn’t open to the public, family, partners, and friends were welcome to dine, which was why Brendan found himself eating lunch at a table with his younger sister, Siobhan, and his colleague, Geoff. As far as Brendan was concerned, Siobhan was a wide-eyed freshman spending her first spring break from Villanova shadowing her big brother at work rather than partying somewhere hot and humid with negligent bouncers and bartenders like a normal coed.
The rest of his department had taken a shine to his little sister that he appreciated, even if it got him a little unsettled when Caroline was inviting her to top-tier meetings that even he wasn’t attending. He hadn’t said anything in the interest of allowing his little sister to spread her wings; he’d learned over nearly the past year at Bishop that Caroline wasn’t one to just pay lip-service and if Siobhan could cultivate a mentorship with such an impressive woman, he wasn’t about to stand in her way. Still, he was slightly put out that his little sister was making such a splash when he was the employee getting such rave performance reviews from his superiors, including Mr. Harrison.
Brendan turned back to his overstuffed turkey sandwich and took a large bite as Geoff described an interesting contract he’d recently written. “So, this company just wants us to come in and throw up cyber barriers without any kind of physical updates to protect their servers, which was part of the contract. We literally sent in one penetration tester and found about twenty ways their servers could be accessed directly without any cyber footprint. They tried to sue us, but there was nothing there. Never be afraid of a lawsuit, especially when you’ve got a solid contract.”
Siobhan nodded and scribbled something in the notebook she had open beside her tray. “What happened?”
“Oh, Belova made them look like absolute amateurs! Never hurts when you know you’ve got a consummate professional backing up your contracts.”
Brendan’s ears perked up at the mention of Yelena’s last name, but he confined his question to the relevant information, “Wait, are you talking about the Lashburn thing?”
“Yup. Someone should have raised some red flags on that one.”
“I think we did after the initial response to Yelena’s first, uh, mission into their facility.” Brendan took a big bite of his sandwich rather than reflecting on that contract he’d written. Although he’d been reassured that he had done everything right, he was still annoyed that Lashburn’s lawyers had tried to poke holes in it. “We did our job and Yelena did hers. No reason for them to renege the moment they found out they weren’t as secure as they thought.”
“Oh, Yelena, huh?” Geoff asked with a knowing smirk. “Yeah, I forgot that you once spotted Belova while she squatted about twice her bodyweight.”
He felt the heat rising in his cheeks as he replied, “Hey, if I see anyone squatting 200lbs without a spotter, I’m gonna step in for safety’s sake. Just because she didn’t need my encouragement…” He trailed off as his sister’s mouth fell open, mid-bite. “What? Siobhan, are you okay?”
“Oh. My. God.” When Brendan turned to look over his shoulder in the direction her eyes were fixed, she nearly shrieked, “No! Don’t look! I mean…like, look really fast and don’t make it look like you’re looking.” He tried to casually glance behind him, but his gaze was immediately drawn to a table where Yelena was sitting across from her brunette gym buddy. She seemed to sense eyes on her and looked up, shooting him a wink.
He turned back toward his sandwich, hoping to become invisible. Siobhan went on, “That is totally Kate Bishop having lunch with that blonde. Holy shit, Brendan, can you introduce me?”
“What? No! I’ve never even met her.” Brendan took another glance over his shoulder to confirm that Yelena was, in fact, having lunch with the company’s CEO and that he’d just unintentionally lied to his sister. How had he not recognized Kate Bishop as Yelena’s gym buddy? Maybe because her official portraits were very formal? How did an R&D tester even come in contact with the CEO?
Siobhan was practically vibrating in her seat. “I could just go talk to her for a second, right? I mean, the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company who’s making waves even though she inherited her spot from her corrupt mother could spare a second for a simple college student trying to make her way in a cold, cruel, misogynistic world, right?”
Before Brendan could come up with a reason to deny it, Geoff said, “Yeah, you should totally go over there. I hear she likes young ambitious women.”
Although Brendan punched Geoff’s arm, he couldn’t stop his sister from interrupting Yelena’s lunch with the apparent CEO. Before he knew what was happening, Siobhan was pulling up a chair and sitting down at the table with Kate Bishop and Yelena, talking about God knew what. “Oh, God, I’m gonna lose my job.”
“You’re not gonna lose your job, dude,” Geoff said, glancing over his own shoulder before patting Brendan’s shoulder awkwardly. “I’m sure your sister isn’t the first fangirl to gush over our fearless leader. Besides, if your sister is distracting the CEO, you can ogle your totally not-obvious crush.”
“I do not…” Brendan peeked back to take in Yelena laughing at something his sister had said. Okay, maybe this wasn’t so bad. Even if Siobhan was potentially torpedoing his chances of eventual promotion, she was also possibly making a good impression on the future Mrs. Halloran, who was good enough friends with the CEO of Bishop Security that they worked out and had lunch together. It might not be a total loss.
He ignored Geoff’s continued teasing until Siobhan returned to her seat across from him a few minutes later. “I am so glad I did that! Not only did Kate freaking Bishop give me her personal cell phone number, but she asked me to come to her office around two tomorrow to talk about a summer internship! How amazing is that?”
Brendan did his best to be excited for his sister. It was a great opportunity for her. Besides, Yelena was actually friends with Kate Bishop; it could be a backdoor to…to something.
Siobhan did end up going to the meeting with Kate Bishop, but never disclosed any details before hopping on the train back to Philadelphia. Brendan chose to accept it and hope his little sister would actually get an internship at his company, no matter how much teasing he might have to endure from his colleagues.
“Ah, Brendan from Legal!”
He nearly dropped the free-weights in his hands as he extended into his full inclined fly. He completed his set of fifteen as Yelena spotted him unnecessarily.
“Ugh, thanks,” he declared as he re-racked his weights.
“Yes, that was a good one,” Yelena replied. She selected a 25lbs weight and began a set of biceps curls on the next bench. He could barely process how such elegant arms could possess such strength, but she wasn’t even straining. After a set of twenty on each arm, she set the weight on the floor and looked up at him expectantly. “Did you need me to spot you for something else?”
“Huh? Oh, no. I’m good, I think.” He glanced at the weight rack and wondered if she’d be at all impressed with his max curl weight. “Thanks for the spot, though.”
She didn’t turn back to her own workout, but graced him with a half-smile. “Ah, then you are looking for information, I think.”
“What? No. No! What could I possibly want information on?”
“Relax, Brendan from Legal! So jumpy! I am talking about your sister, Siobhan, yes?” She paused and he nodded before she went on, “Yes, well, she impressed Kate Bishop, who offered her an opportunity to work here over the summer. R&D hosts several college internships each summer and she will be working with me for at least one week. Surely, she has told you?”
He forced himself to smile in response; Siobhan had not, in fact, mentioned this opportunity to him. “It must have slipped her mind.”
“Hey, don’t take it so hard.” She gave him a backhanded pat on the chest as she exchanged her weight for a 30lbs one. “She is probably just waiting for the right moment to share in the hopes that she can crash on your couch for the summer. I’m a little sister too, and I know how it feels to live in the shadow of someone older and very successful.”
Brendan found it hard to see Yelena being outshone by anyone, but didn’t say as much, just nodding and carrying on with his own workout.
Working at Bishop Security had proved an aphrodisiac to the kind of women that Brendan liked – his new gym regimen probably wasn’t hurting either – but he had yet to find one that compared to the beautiful, strong, independent Yelena that worked at his own company. While he totally respected her marriage to his supervisor, Mr. Harrison, he couldn’t keep her out of his thoughts. He told himself that this was the reason he was attending the Bishop-hosted fundraising gala stag rather than with an ever-so-willing date.
Even without a date, he found himself enjoying the night. He was seated at dinner with some of his colleagues from Legal, the department chosen to attend this event. Otherwise, the ballroom was packed with high-powered executives, New York luminaries, celebrities and, supposedly, some of the Avengers would be making an appearance. Brendan was hoping for Iron Man, but he would be excited even for War Machine or someone.
He wasn’t convinced the entrée was worth the $1400 a plate that the high society types (but thankfully not employees there to represent the company) were paying, but the opulence of the event was novel to him. He also got to meet Caroline’s investment banker husband and Geoff’s UN interpreter wife; he already knew Eddie’s club owner husband, but hadn’t realized the man had such strong opinions on the current Met season. He was just excusing himself from the table to avoid further discussion of Rigoletto when he bumped into the head of his department. “Oh, Mr. Harrison! I didn’t realize you were here tonight!”
“Of course, of course. Have to represent the company when duty calls. And there’s no need for the formality tonight, Halloran. We’re all here to enjoy. Meet my wife, Helen.”
Brendan smiled as he was introduced to an attractive but older woman, momentarily confused. He was washing his hands in the bathroom a few minutes later when he realized he’d been punked. The department had obviously been messing with him by convincing him that Yelena was married to their boss. He had to admit it was a kind of clever and ultimately harmless case of hazing the new guy. Of course, now…
He kept his head on a swivel, searching for a certain blonde he hoped was on the guest list tonight; although he knew R&D wasn’t present as a department, he’d spotted Yelena upstairs on the executives’ floor enough times to suspect she had some sort of connection – probably her friendship with Kate Bishop.
An hour after dinner ended, he’d had no luck and found himself at one of the open bars, ordering a vodka tonic while couples floated around the large dancefloor. Eddie and Justin, in particular, were showing off their enviable ballroom skills. A woman to his left laughed and applauded the flourish they added to conclude the dance before ordering a dry vodka martini in an intoxicating accent. Brendan turned slowly and saw her – Yelena – the woman of his dreams who was definitely not married to Mr. Harrison – in a long cerulean blue dress with a slit up one leg that parted when she took a step toward him.
She smiled and said, “Ah, hello, Brendan from Legal. How are things?”
“Um, good?”
“You do not sound so sure.”
“No, everything’s great. Very legal. Very, very legal.”
“Good. Your sister begins her internship in two weeks, I believe.” Yelena took a long sip from her martini. “And yourself? Been spending time at the gym?”
“Yeah!” He hoped she was referring to the multiple times he’d offered bro nods amid the free weights and not the incident when he’d awkwardly interrupted her workout for a signature or the many, many occasions he hadn’t thought she’d noticed him ogling her. “Honestly, the gym is one of the best things about working at Bishop, y’know?”
Her smile diminished just a bit, though her expression remained pleased. “It is a good thing, yes.”
Before she could turn away, he went on, “I mean, it’s not the only thing, obviously. It’s a great company to work for, delivering necessary services and products. And we’ve got not only the gym, but great benefits, the company cafeteria, the…um, complimentary nights like this with…”
“Yes, the company is so great. Would you like to dance?” she interrupted after swallowing the rest of her martini.
Brendan took a long sip of his own vodka tonic to coat his suddenly dry mouth. “Yeah. I’d love to. Sure.”
Yelena ended up leading after the second time he stepped on her toes, too captivated by her gold-flecked eyes to pay any attention to his feet. He was going to have to take a lesson or two from Eddie or Justin if he ever wanted to do this with her again. Or maybe this wasn’t her usual scene and she’d be happier with more casual dinners or clubs or a movie. Of course, when she looked so good in a formal gown… “Sorry, what?”
“I said you need to stop being so stiff. You are acting like you are in rigor mortis! Dancing is fun! Relax!”
As if sensing his increased self-consciousness, she maneuvered them toward a corner of the dancefloor where they would be less noticed. He was thinking about leaning in for a kiss when Yelena’s brunette gym buddy who also happened to be the CEO swept in with a swish of the wide skirt on her purple gown and grasped Yelena’s elbow. “Hey, sorry to interrupt, but can I steal you?”
“Always.” Yelena winked and smiled as she stepped away from him. “Thank you for the dance, Brendan from Legal.”
The brunette barely acknowledged him, pulling Yelena toward a nearby door as she whispered about a speech or something. Yelena, however, paused and grabbed the arm of another blonde who seemed to be lurking nearby. “Mallory! There you are!” Kate Bishop rolled her eyes but released Yelena’s arm as she hauled the shy-looking woman toward him. “Mallory, meet my friend Brendan from Legal. Brendan, this is Mallory, Kate Bishop’s assistant. You should dance together!”
He blinked as Yelena grabbed Kate Bishop’s hand and disappeared in a flash. For her part, Mallory was flushed bright red. “I’m really sorry. Yelena can just be so…”
“No, no, she’s great! Really great.” He held up a hand. “So, would you like to dance?”
“Oh, sure.” She set herself far enough away from him that he felt like he was at a middle school dance rather than a swanky Manhattan fundraising gala. “So, you’re a lawyer?”
“Yeah! Graduated last year and I was lucky enough to get a job with Bishop.”
“It’s such a great place to work. Kate is, like, my dream boss,” Mallory gushed. “She’s, like, willing to do anything and everything, and she treats people so well but she also doesn’t take shit. It’s so, so cool.”
“Uh, yeah. Everyone in my department is great. Great…teamwork.”
He wondered briefly if this was some kind of impromptu evaluation, but then Mallory asked, “So, would you maybe want to go someplace quieter? Get to know each other?”
Before he could reply, someone cleared their throat over the speakers. He turned his attention toward the raised dais along with everyone else in the large ballroom to see Kate Bishop awkwardly holding a microphone. “Wow. Hi! So, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Kate Bishop, CEO of Bishop Security and Director of the Bishop Foundation, which you have all come out so generously to support tonight.
“My great-grandfather started the Bishop Foundation over ninety years ago to benefit the citizens of New York City. This year, we are focusing our efforts on aiding homeless veterans and LGBTQ+ youth, both groups who need support and protection from those of us privileged enough to be able to give it. On behalf of myself, my beautiful wife and the entire Board of the Bishop Foundation, thank you for coming tonight to show these vulnerable populations that they are not forgotten.
“Now, if you’ll all welcome our special guests…”
Brendan clapped robotically as Captain America and Black Widow stepped forward to take the microphone. He didn’t hear a word they said as he watched Kate Bishop step back with a relieved smile, directly into the waiting arms of Yelena. His breath caught in his throat for a moment when they kissed.
By the end of Captain America’s no-doubt rousing speech, Brendan had arrived at the conclusion that Yelena was, in fact, married to the boss. Beside him, Mallory applauded enthusiastically. As he turned toward her, he realized that she actually was very pretty. With one more glance back toward Yelena, now hugging the Black Widow, he made a decision.
“So, Mallory…wanna grab a drink before we find that quiet spot?”
They’d been dating for eight months when Mallory confessed in bed one night that she’d seen him around at Bishop Security and asked Yelena to introduce them after seeing him talking to her in the gym one day. Brendan wasn’t particularly bothered by the revelation. They’d just returned from a lovely night at the opera (a Justin-approved performance of La Traviata at the Met) and dinner with Mallory’s boss and her wife, after all. Siobhan, who had successfully completed her internship and returned to Villanova for her sophomore year with the intention of minoring in computer science, had nothing but good things to say about Yelena and her willingness to help people succeed.
He appreciated Yelena differently now. While he still enjoyed looking at her, he felt like he had grown to like her for more than her looks – her wit, her intelligence, her skill. Not to mention the fact that she’d introduced him to the love of his life.
He turned his head toward Mallory, tightening his arm around her shoulders as she snuggled into his side. “So, what do you think about moving in together?”