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I covered my mouth with my fingers to suppress a smile. “I’m sorry. It’s not funny.”
She waved off my comment and I relaxed. She was still laughing at herself and shaking her head. “My son, Dominic, has been sick all week and sleeping in bed with Jeff and me. Which isn’t the most restful situation, to say the least.”
“Aww. That sounds rough. I hope he feels better soon.” I’d met her sons before. They were both hurricanes when at full strength, and I imagined it being a handful keeping them contained even when they were sick. “Anything I can do to help before I head out? I’m ducking out early this afternoon.”
Paula ran an online clothing boutique for one-of-a-kind, high end items she found, or worked to create with her own design team. We had gotten to know each other pretty well in the year that we’d shared a wall between our offices, and she’d often let me come over to get a glimpse at new items she was posting on her website.
Currently, her office didn’t look set up for a photo shoot. Her desk was covered in paperwork, a tablet, and a laptop both lit up with different web pages, and her phone had buzzed three times since I’d entered. Whatever she was in the middle of was definitely not something that looked like much fun.
“No, no, that’s all right, Holly. Thank you though.” She fluffed her auburn hair back, but seconds later it fell forward again, just barely longer than her shoulders. “My virtual assistant up and quit on me last week. No notice. Nothing. Just gone! So, now I’m trying to learn all this web stuff that I know nothing about. It used to be an easy, click, click, done, but now…this…” she shook her head as she stared down at the mess across her desk. “I’m afraid it’s a little out of my depth. Especially when I’m running on caffeine and fumes.”
“Yeah, technology isn’t really my best friend either,” I replied, frowning. “I do, however, have a great website guy. I’ll email you his info.”
Paula looked up at me again, and her eyes lit up behind her thick, black reading glasses. “Really? Oh, Holly, thank you!”
“No problem. So, why don’t you get back to your little guy and give him a call in the morning.”
She smiled down at her desk and, without another thought, reached over to power down her computer. “You don’t have to tell me twice!”
I laughed. “Probably safer that way. You don’t wanna break your leg and leave Jeff to taking care of the kiddos all alone.”
Paula rolled her eyes as she straightened. “No kidding.”
I waited as she grabbed her purse and walked out of her office with her. We stopped at my office so I could shut down my own computer, and with a jolt, I realized I’d left it open to Jack’s email thread. With a huff, I closed the windows and shut the machine off.
“How have things been since you got back from your vacation?” Paula asked. She’d stopped short of my desk and was eying the artwork hanging above the small couch that I’d positioned at an angle in the corner. I’d initially purchased it just to fill out the office space since I was the only resident, but it had come in handy during some of my twelve-hour days during tax season and proved to be quite a comfortable place to take an afternoon nap.
“Pretty good. A lot slower than last month, obviously,” I replied, waiting for the screen on my computer to black out. When it did, I pulled my purse out from the bottom drawer of my desk and made my way to the door of my office, ushering Paula out with me. “Some days I can even hear myself think!”
Paula laughed and waited as I locked the door. “What a luxury! Just wait till you have a few kiddos chasing you around. You’ll think back on these days with a fond, faraway smile,” Paula advised, still smiling, as we walked toward the elevators.
I forced a smile on my face, ignoring the urge to remind myself that having a family of my own wasn’t likely in the cards for my future. At least, not any time soon. At the thought, I realized that Jack and I had never talked about family and whether or not that was a common goal.
Thinking back, it struck me as odd that in all of our conversations about life and our pasts, neither of us had brought up the idea of having kids someday. But then again, things had already moved incredibly fast. Throwing heavy-duty, future talk would have made things feel even more serious than they already were.
I shook my head, brushing the thoughts away. There was no sense in worrying about it now. It certainly wasn’t a conversation to bring up when he was thousands of miles away, living on a giant ship in the middle of the ocean, preparing to go into a war zone.
