“What do you mean?”
“I mean, he doesn’t know what to do or say around you.I’ve never seen him like this.”
“Oh.”That was food for thought.“You mean he isn’t always so chauvinistic?”
Cassie hesitated.“Not like he was on Friday.Like I said, I think he doesn’t understand how to deal with you.”
I shook my head.“He doesn’t have todealwith me.I can take care of myself.”
“So true.But men like my Marcus and Asher, heck…” Cassie waved her hands.“Men in general like to think of themselves as dominant, alphas, kings of whichever hill they happen to be standing on.The reality is that the vast majority of men don’t understand the difference between control and dominance.”
“Maybe they should learn that women can take care of themselves.”
Cassie laughed.“How can I explain this?”
“What’s the difference?I dislike controlling men.”
“They don’t mean to be.Take my Marcus.”Her gaze softened, and her slight smile reminded me of someone keeping a cherished secret.“We danced around our attraction to each other.Our need for each other.”Her smile turned just a bit mischievous.“Until Marcus forced the issue.”
“How did he do that?”Cassie and Marcus looked like the perfect couple.
“He kept sending me gifts.”Cassie’s cheeks flushed.“Of a sensual nature.”Her cheeks were even more pink now, and her chuckle had the slightest self-conscious edge.“I went to see him to put an end to it and ended up agreeing to spend a weekend with him without any rules.”
I sat back in my chair.Thank goodness I’d finished eating, or I would have choked on my food.“How did you agree to that?”
“I won’t go into all the details, but let’s just say, I wanted to get Marcus out of my system.Instead, not only did he bring out a side of me I’d kept hidden, but he showed me how much fun a dominant man could be.How loving and tender.”
I tilted my head, pondering her words.Dominant and, at the same time, loving and tender?Wasn’t that a contradiction?I’d seen plenty of couples throughout the years, some of them loving and tender, but I’d seen others where one partner was controlling, even cruel.What Cassie was saying was very interesting.
“I never thought of it that way.”I hadn’t.“But Asher is more controlling, even to the point of overbearing, than tender.”
Cassie swallowed the last bite of her sandwich and dabbed at the corners of her mouth with her napkin.“Asher is still learning.I think he wasn’t expecting you.”
“Of course he was.He knew I was coming to work here.”
“That’s not what I meant.He was probably expecting a male coder, not a beautiful woman.”Before I could get a word out, she raised her hand.“I know, I know.Stereotyping, but there’s still only about one woman for every four software engineers and—what?—maybe thirty percent overall of women in STEM.”
I couldn’t argue with facts, but still my cheeks flushed.“I’m just average.”Hell, except for that party disaster, I hadn’t dated in the last year.
“One day, you’ll see it.I’m going to say give Asher some slack.He’s gone into protective mode, and he really can’t help it.”
I nodded.Cassie had given me a lot to think about.Even so, time to change the subject.“You said hardly anyone works overtime?”
“I did.Excellent pay aside, the policies to promote work-life balance were one of the things that drew me to the company.Strict overtime rules.At my other job, I was working up to sixty hours a week.I was burning out, but the company didn’t care.Then I applied here.In my interview, I was told about the overtime rule, and I knew I could be happy here.”
“It’s an interesting rule.”I was a bit confused by it.I’d always thought independent contractors set their work hours.
“Yes.Plus, the other benefits are great.”
“They are.”I held up my keycard.
“There’s more than that, but since you’re here as a contractor, the keycard and meals are pretty much your only benefit.”
My curiosity was piqued, but my phone pinged.I’d set up an app to monitor the running of my program; my phone would ping when the run was finished.I glanced at the screen.Failflashed across the screen.I sighed.
“Problem?”Cassie asked.
“The app for R&D failed.”I rubbed my forehead.“It’s a difficult one to get right.”
