Nina sat next to Tony at work or close enough that he saw her all the time. They had to work together but he'd stare at her when she wasn't looking and pretend to be focused on the task at hand when really just wanting to lean over and kiss her graceful neck which her short haircut only highlighted.

It wasn't a contest, because in the fight for her heart he was at best an afterthought. Her affair with Jack was the worst kept secret in intelligence agency history. The kind where he wondered if people were just pretending not to know because they were waiting for the chance to use that knowledge in a better way.

Tony would have to be blind to not see the way Nina was always finding an excuse to touch Jack but Tony knew that this kind of thing couldn't last, especially not when he heard Jack on the phone to his wife several times a week checking up on things, telling her he's changed and how much he misses her. So, maybe Tony had a chance of winning after all.

It was only when Nina came into work a few minutes late one day, without make-up, wearing low heels, sitting down without saying a word and speaking curtly to everyone that Tony knew it was over.
A week later, Nina walked over to Tony's desk and smiling in a secretive way asked, "What are you doing tonight?"

I'm not going to be your rebound, Tony almost said, but then he saw her eyes and her delicate hands and remembered all the nights that he couldn't stop thinking about her and pushed aside any misgivings and instead said, "Nothing, why?"

Inwardly, he thought, I win.

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