Chapter 1
Maddy Monroe was cowering behind a ficus tree near the hostess station when her cell phone rang. Her hands shook as she silenced the phone before it drew the attention of the staff.
She jabbed the elevator button for the third time. “Come on, come on.” A star could be born in interstellar space, a polar valley carved by a glacier in the time it took the elevator to reach this floor. Stairs were not an option, as she was on the twentieth floor of the Waterford building and sporting heels.
She sniffled. Drat. She seemed to be crying. She swiped a hand under her eyes, heedless of her makeup.
She heard voices, Nick’s boisterous laugh. Maddy shrank deeper into the ficus and finally, finally, the elevator dinged its arrival.
“Maddy?” Noelle’s concerned voice tunneled down the hall. “Maddy, wait.”
“Oh, come on,” she muttered, tapping her fingers against her leg until the gold doors crept open. As soon as she could fit, she squeezed inside and punched the ground-floor button.
She didn’t draw a breath until the doors sealed and the elevator began to drop. She placed a palm over a heart that was threatening to beat its way out of her chest. Her white blouse clung to her back, and her skin prickled beneath her arms.
She closed her eyes, the scene that had just transpired playing out in fast-forward in her mind. And then, as if that montage weren’t painful enough, the image of Nick’s face appeared. The look on his face just before he’d kissed her good-bye last night.
Nick. She clamped her teeth together until her jaw ached.
There had been signs. Many of them, really, she was realizing now. They ranged from whisper-subtle to neon-sign obvious. But like so many other walking clichés before her, she was only seeing them in retrospect.
Maddy opened her eyes to the buttery sunlight streaming through her blinds. She scrambled for her iPhone to check the time. But as she did so, the events of yesterday washed over her like a tsunami. She didn’t have to get up at all, because she didn’t have a job anymore.
Her cell buzzed with an incoming call, and she squinted bleary-eyed at the unfamiliar number on the screen before declining it.
She drooped against her pillow, only now aware of how fat and swollen her eyes felt. Of the persistent achy lump pushing at the back of her throat. Her heartbeat made the bed quake. Her eyes burned with tears. Yesterday’s anger had faded, and something worse had filled its spot.
Yesterday she’d come home, changed into yoga pants, and worked in her little garden until she was too exhausted to do anything but flop on the sofa. She hadn’t fallen asleep until after three o’clock in the morning.
She didn’t want to talk to anyone, didn’t want to see anyone. She didn’t even want to be awake today. She pulled the covers over her head and prayed for oblivion.
A steady pounding pulled Maddy awake. She turned her face into the pillow. Sleep. She just wanted to sleep. But the noise was relentless. Someone was pounding at her apartment door.
“Go away,” she mumbled.
She wondered if it was Nick, coming with some lame apology. As if “sorry” could make up for what he’d done.
Her phone buzzed an incoming call on her nightstand. Why couldn’t everyone just let her be? When the buzzing stopped the pounding resumed.
“Argh!” She tossed back the covers and checked her phone as a text buzzed in. Her best friend, Holly:Open the door.
Before she could put down the phone it buzzed again.I know you’re in there.
Maddy let loose a sigh that had been building awhile. She pushed off the mattress, realizing she’d fallen into bed in the same yoga pants and T-shirt she’d gardened in.Gardenedwas such a tame word to describe her treatment of those poor weeds. She hated to think of the sight she must’ve made, tearing through her zinnias like a crazy woman.
A glance at the hall mirror also told a sad tale. A bedraggled ponytail captured only half of her hair, and dark smudges underlined puffy eyes.
She walked to the door and pulled it open, interrupting the loud banging. “All right already. Jeez.”
Holly’s brown eyes widened in surprise, whether at Maddy’s sudden materialization or her disheveled appearance, she didn’t know.
Leaving the door open, Maddy retreated into her living room, seeking the comforting embrace of her overstuffed sofa. She grabbed a fluffy yellow pillow and pulled it into her stomach.
Holly dropped beside her, the smell of fresh soil and flowers emanating off her. They’d met three years ago at the nursery where Holly worked, bonding over their love of all things green and growing.
“What happened yesterday?” Holly asked. “Noelle said there was some squabble at the restaurant and you tore off.”
Yesterday’s scene at Pirouette played out yet again in Maddy’s mind, making her eyes sting.
