Anything to make the time pass quicker.
Except once outside, she only made it two blocks before veering off into the alcove of an apartment building and pulling out her phone. She scrolled to Paige’s text message from last week, hit Reply, then paused with her thumbs over the keys.
She’d done this so many times. Comethisclose to asking for Nick’s number, only to lock the phone again and slip it into her pocket, which she did now, too.
Four whole weeks had passed without a word from him. A month.
She’d endured it, because talking would only make things harder. And she would endure another month, then another twenty more. She’dmakeherself.
Even if she had to get a cat.
Christmas Eve Eve.
It was a strange day for a gala, Aubrey thought, but attending a partydidsound better than sitting at home, doing logic puzzles by candlelight and wondering whether to open a bottle of wine for the express purpose of drinking a single glass.
So she pulled on her black satin evening gown. The dress required several different arm contortions to maneuver the zipper up, but she managed.
She frowned at the full-length mirror. Had she lost weight? The gown sagged where it usually hugged, and the fit across her chest could even be accused of gaping.
Lovely.
She found a safety pin and corrected the deficit, then did her hair and makeup. Those, thankfully, didn’t require any thought.
With her overcoat and dangly earrings in place, she took an Uber to the Manhattan Center, not wanting to brave the subway in heels. She tipped the driver and stepped out into a sparkling, frosted holiday tableau.
The Uber drove off, but Aubrey remained on the sidewalk. Across the street, a mother laughed and kissed her rosy-cheeked daughter. A gorgeous young couple strolled by, her dark fingers interlaced with his light ones. The two gave each other the kind of look that could only come from sharing a private joke. All around, lights glistened while the cheerful honks of traffic peppered the air.
Aubrey wondered if it should fill her up. All these people, all this life, and yet she felt hollow in the midst of it, like a hole punched in a piece of sequined paper.
“Aubrey?”
Her shoulders tensed. Oh, god, that voice. She turned.
A man approached, his lapels drawn up in an effort to hide his features.
“David.” Her teeth clenched. She’d hoped to never see the man who’d stolen her job again. “What’re you doing here?”
He darted glances side to side. “Hi. Sorry to show up like this, it’s just the only place I knew you’d be. Other than Osos, of course, but I’m not welcome there anymore, which has been really hard, and—”
“What do you want?” she said coldly.
“Uhm.” A nervous flush blazed on his cheeks. “I just came to say sorry. In person.”
She waited a beat, then another. A car honked long and loud as it passed. “Really?”
“Yeah. Really. I’m a jerk, and I never should’ve taken credit for your project. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
She blinked. And waited for some kind of floodgate to open. Or for the heavens to part and proclaim that everything had righted itself in the world. But nothing happened. “Well... thanks?”
“No problem.” David bobbed his head. “And I wanted to say I would’ve told Jeff myself, even if your boyfriend hadn’tcome and made me. I swear. The only reason I hadn’t is because I was still working up my nerve. But I wasgoingto tell the truth. You can understand that, right? You know I didn’t mean to—”
“Boyfriend?” She waved a hand to stall his soliloquy. “What boyfriend?”
“You know. Big muscly dude? Or maybe he said he was your friend. I can’t remember. I just. . .”
David went on. And on. Aubrey heard none of it. All the blood in her body puddled in her feet while static blotted out her mind.Big muscly dude.
David’s lips stopped moving. Aubrey found her wits somewhere. “You mean a man camehere? To New York? And made you confess?”
