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Julia sidestepped quickly If she’d be touched right now, she’d fall apart She ether

Gwen stopped “It’s not your fault”

“Thank you I … guess I’ll take a vacation” She tried to sone anywhere in years”

“It’d be good for you”

“Yes”

“I’ll cancel the flowers and call the building one for … a while”

I’ll cancel the flowers

Funny how that, out of all of it, broke the skin Julia held on to her composure by the thinnest strand, as she ood bye

Then, alone in the office, Julia sank to her knees on the expensive carpeting and bowed her head

She wasn’t sure how long she sat there in the darkness, listening to the strains of her own breathing and the beat of her heart

Finally, she got aardly to her feet and looked around, wondering what she would do next This practice was the very heart of her In her pursuit of professional excellence, she’d put everything else on the back burner—friends, family, hobbies She hadn’t even had a date in almost a year Not since Philip, in fact She went to her phone, and stood there, staring down at the speed-dial list

Dr Philip Westover was still 7 She felt an ache of need, a bone-deep desire to hear his voice, hear hiue of his For five years, he’d been her best friend and her lover Noas another woman’s husband

That was the thing about love—it was unreliable