LOVE ME OR HATE ME

ia'

t mo

erent. That today I would stop feeling what I had been feeling since the very first morning Daniel Cole walked past m

telling myse

that I had grown to love. Keyboards clicking. Phones humming. The smell of fresh coffee threading through the cool conditioned air. I loved this place. I loved this job. I

d his c

added my usual note beside the lunch slot the way I always did, the way that had become less of a professional

at what I

re settling on something that sounded less like a

and only one of those t

But I crossed the floor toward it anyway because there was always something to check, always a reason to step inside, alw

proud of t

imeter to the left and then back again. I stood in the middle of that office for a moment longer th

w I existed beyond the

ill I

I heard it. That easy familiar sound that meant my

ri

e already arranged on his face. The smile that arrived the moment he saw me and never quite left until we parted w

t feel li

keeping my voice even and my ex

desk. "You look tired," he said, and the concern in h

fine," I

ways sa

it's alwa

Reed had never been difficult to read. He wore his feelings the way he wore his suits, cleanly and without apology.

what he

could not gi

man that women in books described as husband material without hesitation

no business going and it had gone there so completely

very corner of it. The way he sometimes paused in the middle of a s

y desk," I said to Marc

said he understood more than I was saying. "Of

ingers flat against the cool surface and asked myself the question that

seen. Not the way a woman waits to be seen by the

may never look up, while someone else who

t have a

calendar ag