She always knew the right thing to say. He had been in love with her from the beginning, and his feelings had just grown stronger over time. He sat watching her now as she gave their order to the waiter, a young man with long sideburns and a Vandyke beard, holding his attention with her eyes, with her voice, with her very presence. The waiter wouldn’t look away if a bomb went off, Ross thought. When he left with the order, the wine steward, who had been by earlier, reappeared with the bottle of Pinot Grigio Stef had ordered. He poured it for Ross to taste, but Ross indicated Stef was in charge. She tasted it, nodded, and the wine steward filled their glasses and disappeared.

They sat close within the dim circle of candlelight and stared at each other without speaking. Silently Ross hoisted his glass. She responded in kind, they clinked crystal softly, and drank.

“Is this some sort of special occasion?” he asked finally. “Did I forget an important date?”

“You did,” she advised solemnly.

“And you won’t tell me what it is, will you?”

“As a matter of fact, I will. But only because I don’t want to see how long it takes you to remember.” She cocked her head slightly in his direction. “It was one year ago today, exactly, that Simon Lawrence hired you to work at Fresh Start.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I don’t kid. Josh, yes. Tease, now and then. Never kid.” She took a sip of her wine and licked her lips. “Cause for celebration, don’t you think? Who would have thought you would end up writing speeches for the Wizard of Oz?”

Ross shook his head. “Who would have thought I would have ended up living with Glinda the Good?”

Stef arched her eyebrows in mock horror. “Glinda the Good? Wasn’t she a witch?”

“A good witch. That’s why she was called Glinda the Good.”

Stef gave him a considering look. “John, I love you deeply, madly, truly. But don’t call me Glinda the Good. Don’t call me anything that smacks of the Wizard of Oz or the Emerald City or Munchkins or Dorothy or the yellow brick road. I get quite enough of that at work. Our life is separate and distinct from all this Wiz business.”

He leaned back, looking hurt. “But it’s the date of my hiring. Isn’t the analogy appropriate under those circumstances?”

The waiter returned with their salads, and they began to eat. The sounds of the main dining room seemed distant and disconnected from their little haven. Ross thought about all the years he had dreaded night’s coming and sleep, plagued by the knowledge that when he slept he was condemned to dream of the future he must prevent and of the horror he must live if he failed. Once, he had thought he would never escape that life, and that even if he did, its memories would haunt him forever. Stefanie had saved him from that, helped him find his way free of the labyrinth of his past, and brought him back into the light of possibility and hope.