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"Mike Reedy isn't the right man!"
"How do you know that? You can't even remember that I hate hot dogs. You don't know when my birthday is or my favorite singer. How would you know who the right man is for me?"
"Your birthday is April eleventh."
"Sixteenth."
"See! I knew it was in April!"
She arched one fine eyebrow at him, then took such a deep breath he suspected she was counting to ten. "I took the condom out of my purse because I felt stupid carrying it around."
"So you and Mike haven't…"
"Not yet. But we might. I really like him."
; "Like isn't good enough. You like me, too, but that doesn't mean you're going to have sex with me."
"Of course I'm not."
He felt a stab of disappointment. "Of course not."
"How could I? You're celibate."
Exactly what did she mean by that? That if he weren't celibate, she might consider it?
"And," she went on, "you're not attracted to me."
"That's not true. You're my—"
"Don't you say it!" Feathery tendrils flew and the fake diamond studs flashed. "Don't you dare say I'm your best friend, because I'm not!"
He felt as if she'd punched him. Much of his job involved counseling others. He understood the complexity of human behavior far more than most people, so why was he so clueless about her?
The clock on the screen ticked off its final minutes. He'd always been tenacious, but she'd somehow taken the fight out of him. He knew he was hurting her, even if he didn't understand exactly how, and the last thing he wanted was to hurt Kristy Brown.
"Kristy, what's happening to you?"
"Life is happening to me," she said softly. "Finally."
"What does that mean?"
Her silence lasted so long he didn't think she would answer, but she did. "It means I've finally stopped living in the past. I'm ready to move on with my life." She looked over at him in a way that made him think she was engaged in some internal struggle. "It means I'm not going to be in love with you anymore, Ethan."
He felt as if a jolt of electricity had passed right through him, except he didn't know why he should be shocked. At some unconscious level, he supposed he'd known she was in love with him, but he hadn't let himself think about it.
She gave a soft, self-deprecating laugh that made him ache. "I've been so pathetic. All that wasted time. For eight years I sat at my desk, Little Miss Efficiency, bustling around to find your car keys and make sure you had milk in the refrigerator, and you never even noticed. I had so little regard for myself."
He had no idea what to say.
"Do you know what's really ironic?" There was no bitterness in her voice. She spoke calmly, almost as if she were talking about someone else. "I would have been the perfect woman for you, but you never noticed. And now it's too late."
"What do you mean, the perfect woman?" And why was it too late?
She regarded him sadly, as if his failure to understand disappointed her. "We have the same interests, similar backgrounds. I like looking after people, and you need looking after. We share the same religious beliefs." A slight shrug. "But none of that mattered because I wasn't hot enough for you."
"Hot enough! What kind of thing is that to say? Do you think that's all I look for in a woman?"
