He shrugged his shoulders. “I can’t believe it either, but it might be a power play to test your commitment. I’ll see you Tuesday.”

“Me too.” “Have a good New Year’s.” “See you at corporate.” The rest of the associates shook my hand and walked away.

I turned back around to get another look at the red haired goddess, but I didn’t see her anymore.

Was I dreaming? How much did I drink tonight?

I scanned the pier again and—there she was. She’d moved several feet down.

I watched her sip her beer and sigh, wondering if she was attending that party alone.

“I think that went pretty well.” My trust advisor Vanessa smiled. “You’re a great conversationalist. It’s a win-win for Statham Industries either way.”

“Don’t thank me yet. We still have to get them to close on it.” I stood up. “Thank you for coming tonight. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“You’re leaving? Don’t you want to stay and have a few drinks with me? It is New Year’s Eve and I don’t have anybody to kiss after the countdown...”

“Vanessa, we’ve been through this. You know I don’t date employees.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not a regular employee. I’m a chair on the board.”

Even worse...

“Yeah well, mixing business with pleasure? It’s more than a cliché. Besides, I don’t want things getting complicated between us.”

“They won’t get complicated.” She reached up and touched my face. “You and I would be perfect together and you know it...”

I sighed. Vanessa and I did have good chemistry and we’d come close to kissing in my office several times over the past year, but I always broke away. Even though she was extremely beautiful—curly coffee-brown hair, ocean blue eyes, and an amazing body—there was something missing, and I wasn’t quite sure what that was.

Maybe it’s nothing...Maybe I should give us a chance after all...We are really compatible and—

Out the corner of my eye, I saw the redhead moving down the pier again.

“I’ll see you at the next meeting, Vanessa.” I pushed my way past the café tables and looked back over my shoulder every few seconds, making sure the redhead was still there.

I rushed over to the front doors of Pacific Bay Lounge and made my way inside. I looked around the room and stopped.

There was a banner with the word “Jiggy” on it. There were little napkins on the tables that read “Cheers to the first middle-aged mixer of 2013!”

The majority of the people in the room were clearly in their forties and fifties. Some of them were even wearing party hats with their ages written on them in glitter. There were a few younger people scattered about, but those people were holding serving trays or cleaning off tables.

There’s no way the woman I saw was middle-aged...

I made my way out to the pier and looked around. I leaned on the railing and looked both ways.

She wasn’t there.

I walked back and forth along the deck, aimlessly searching, trying to find her. I went back inside and waded through the crowd, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Hello there.” A woman’s hand landed on my shoulder, making me turn around. “What brings you out tonight?” She purred.

She was an extremely attractive older woman—I guessed at least fifty years old, and I could tell by the way she was looking at me that she was the assertive type.

“Good evening.” I smiled. “I just came in looking for someone particular.”

“She’s right in front of you.” She rubbed her hand across my chest and batted her eyes.

Oh god...“Umm...”

“You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t interested in older women.” She reached up and playfully ran her fingers through my hair. “Those young girls don’t know how to treat a man right, do they? But I do. We should get out of here before someone tries to steal you away from me. My place?”

I started to say, “I’m sorry. I can’t do that,” but my breath caught in my throat once I felt her hand sliding down my pants.

I gently grabbed her hand and moved it away. “I’m not here looking for—I don’t... I was really here looking for someone else.”

“Oh my god! I’m sorry!” She gasped. “I thought...I’m so sorry.” She looked embarrassed.

“If it’s any consolation,” I said as I adjusted my pants, “you’re very attractive and I’m sure you’ll find the right guy soon.”

Before she could reply, I turned around and bolted out of there.

I walked into the security director’s office and shut the door.

“You’re here on time?” My best friend Corey rolled his eyes. “What am I supposed to be doing for you again? Stalking some woman you met?”

“It’s not stalking.”

“Whatever you call it, it’s highly illegal. But since you said it was love at first sight, I guess I can make an exception.”

“First of all, it’s not love. Second of all, I don’t even know who she is.”

“So, why am I hacking into the security footage of Pacific Bay Lounge at seven in the morning?”

I sighed. “Because you’re my best friend and an employee. Don’t act like this is against your morals or something, Corey. You do this all the time.”

“I do, huh?” He laughed. “What’s the time frame?”

“New Year’s Eve between eleven thirty and midnight.”

He began typing away at his keyboard and the twenty massive screens that covered his office wall began to illuminate in grids and static.

“Wait. You were having a business dinner that late at night? Since when do you agree to those?”

“Since the client is worth five hundred million dollars.” My eyes focused on the screens that were now showing people walking in and out of the lounge. “She was wearing a short black dress. Is there any way you could color code this thing by clothes or search for people by their hair color? She’s a redhead.”

He looked at me and raised his eyebrow. “You said you saw her on the pier, right? I’ll just tap into those cameras...Give me a second. They have some pretty outdated software...And surprise, there’s no audio, only visual...”

The screens started to show the pier action in slow motion. People were lounging on couches, drinking beers, and dancing next to the speakers.

“Wait.” I stepped closer to the screens. “That’s her. Pause it.”

The images suddenly froze and I looked the woman over again.

She was walking out onto the deck with a beer in her hand, slightly pursing her plump, pink lips. From the angle of the cameras I could see that her fitted black dress cut right above the top of her thighs and gave way to a set of perfectly toned legs. She was even sexier than I remembered.

“I’d probably waste company resources trying to find her too.” Corey nodded his head in approval. “You said she was fifty? She looks pretty damn good to be fifty. I say go for it. I would.”

“What? I’m not sure how old she is. She can’t be much older than me though.”

He pressed play on the video again and paused it when she leaned over the railing. “She has C-cups...Not bad.”

“How old are you again?”

“It’s a habit. If I had to guess, I would say she’s thirty or a tad bit younger. Any older than that, and she knows where the Fountain of Youth is hidden. Actually, now that I think about it, I meant to tell you that there was an article about—”

“Please not today.” I shook my head. “You need to stop reading those conspiracy books. There’s no such thing as the Fountain of Youth.”

“Really? Well explain Johnny Depp.” He crossed his arms.

I rolled my eyes.

“Exactly. If I wasn’t making so much money working for you, I’d be out there trying to find it myself.”

“Good to know. Is there any way you could access the cameras in the parking lot? I need to get her license plate number and–”

“And what? Show up to her house and say, ‘Hey. I tried to find you at the lounge the other night but you were already gone. But don’t worry, I had my friend hack the security system so I could get your tags to get your address and come ask you out?’ Seriously?”