A man can dream, right?

While Laila was in the car making her way over, Noah re-entered the venue where I.E.'s event was taking place. Although he had only been gone for a few seconds, maybe a few minutes at the most. By the time he came back into the room, several guests had arrived and it appeared that their event was in full swing.

He immediately was greeted by people and pulled into conversations, not even allowing him to re-join Maria and Steve, who had been pulled into a surprising conversation of their own as one of Steve's past flings had entered the room as a guest. It wasn't too surprising that some of Steve's past romantic interests would be in same field of work as him or related to his work somehow, since he spent a lot of his time at work. Be it network events, fundraisers, meetings with potential clients, there were many different ways for him to come into contact with people of the opposite sex. Each of those were successful individuals and had a busy life just like him. Making this the way they ran into potential dates as well.

For Steve they had a type of appeal. The strong independent type that always managed to pull him in. But a lot of them missed the soft side that Maria possessed that ultimately made attraction turn into love. The ability to be vulnerable. To have a weakness and show it, even if it was done as unwilling yet somehow straightforward as Maria did. With hers showing on her face in a way that screamed it out to Steve as if she were an audio book, but remained as ever hidden in front of most others.

Despite her being so easy to read, Maria continued to surprise him in ways he didn't think were possible anymore. And by now he just loved everything about her. So, even if he one day managed to reach the last page of that book, he would gladly read it all over again. Rediscovering each page, each fascinating fact about her, with more detail than before. Repeating that process however many times as he was given chances to do so, until they had to say their goodbyes in their deathbeds. Although he didn't mind or fear that moment, Steve was certain that there were so many pages still unwritten, that it would be impossible for him to stop discovering new things about her. And today, he was given the opportunity to discover her jealous side. Induced by a beautiful, alluring, provocative ex.

The moment she walked in the room, several heads turned and eyes were drawn to her. She was looking around the room and the moment her eyes landed on her target, she locked in and walked straight towards it. Her target being none other than the man that still resided in her dreams, the one that she could not seem to break free from, could not get over and did not want to give up. Even if she could never fully possess him. He was the lesson she couldn't seem to learn, but boy did she like being taught.

Once she had crossed the room and they were standing face to face, the woman completely ignored Maria's existence and had her eyes solely fixed on Steve. With a seductive look in her eyes that made it clear she still wanted him, the woman extended her hand in Steve's direction. Then, in a warm, almost infatuated voice, she said, "Steve, darling, looking dashing as ever in that suit and, as I recall,...". She then leaned in closer, till her face was close enough to whisper something in Steve's ear, and finished her sentence in a tone as teasing and seductive as her eyes had been before. Saying, "-even more dashing without it."

She then pulled her body back and said, "We should get together again sometime. I would love to negotiate like the olden days and see if we can be of service to each other, both on and off the clock, if you know what I mean." Steve knew very well what she meant and so did Maria. Who now cleared her throat as Steve came back from his surprise at this woman's bold and unexpected advances. The throat-clearing seemed to have caught the woman's attention as well as remind Steve that this was his time to take action. As the woman looked at Maria, Steve said, "Maria meet Ally, Ally meet Maria. Maria is my girlfriend."

The woman, who had now been introduced as Ally, no last name, was clearly surprised to hear this and expressed her surprise by saying, "Oh really? Girlfriend is it. Where did that title suddenly come from. I don't recall having ever been offered that position or hearing someone else mention having carried the title before?"

While Ally was busy looking Maria up and down to take her in as the woman she had apparently lost to before she even knew she was competing for Steve, before she even had a chance to throw her name into the hat, Steve added oil to the fire by saying, "That is because she is the first girl in like forever that I have even considered worthy of the title. I would have given her a higher rank, but she has not yet allowed me to, otherwise you would have been looking at Mrs. Branson." As he showed a content smile he added, "But a man can dream, right?"