Bette smiled at the comment and then pulling the phone back up to her ear, continued her conversation.  After she hung up, she went back to her office and tried to get some work done.  Her thoughts kept straying though to the conversation that she had had with Ansley.

She hoped that she had done the right thing in saying no.  She knew that she was absolutely in no way shape or form, ready for a date, regardless of who it was with. 

“And let’s admit it”, she thought, seeing someone who had any connection with work was not exactly the wisest thing to do.

“Do I find Ansley attractive?“ she wondered.  “Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean anything.  I have found plenty of women attractive over the years, but took no action on that attraction.  Why am I spending so much time thinking about this?” she asked herself.

But she knew why.  She knew that the reason that she had a smile on her face was not because she wanted to go out with Ansley, but because Ansley wanted to go out with her.  She admitted that it felt good to be wanted, at least by someone, by anyone.  She guessed that her ego had taken quite a pounding from all of the rejections from Tina, and the knowledge that someone else found her attractive was regenerating.

But alas, back to what she had originally thought.  She was not ready for any type of relationship at this point and so knew that she had to stick to her guns and remain focused.  She knew that she would not wait around forever and that when the time and the right person came around, she would act upon it, but that was a ways down the road.

“No”, she thought.  She could safely say that she had made the right choice. 

The rest of the day passed pretty uneventfully.  She was able to get through quite a bit of paperwork and left James out front to deal with the construction workers.

At 6pm, she gathered her things and headed out.  James was in the process of wrapping things up as well and so the two walked out together.