Everything sucked. And he couldn’t fight his way toward what he wanted. Not this time. He didn’t understand where it all went wrong. What had pushed Gloria to embrace the doubts. They were going to move in together.

He’d been planning to propose. Maybe after she moved in, making things more official. Now, he had a damn ring and no Gloria. The gloomy winter morning was looking gloomier by the second. But if he called off work again, Jamilah would make good on her threat to show up at his door with the entire office staff so they could all work from his home.

So, he’d suited up and headed out for a head-clearing, frosty morning run. The ring tucked carefully in the inner pocket of his windbreaker. He felt stupid for it, but he believed Gloria would come around. She’d tell him what was wrong, they’d fix it together, and get back to their joint happily ever after. He felt it in his gut.

But these days without her were starting to chip away at that hope, that faith.

“Moretta!”

Linc jogged up to Aldo from a side street and fell into step with him. “What the hell happened to your face?” Aldo asked.

“You didn’t hear? Me and your BFF Garrison got into it in the beverage cooler at the grocery store.”

“You fucking with me?” Aldo asked, his breath puffing out in a silvery cloud.

Linc snorted. “Nope. I was in there keeping Harper warm—”

“I bet you were.”

“Ha. Poor girl is pretty broke up about him. I was hiding Harper from Garrison. Then doesn’t the sonofabitch poke his head in the door?” Linc shook his head ruefully.

“He look as bad as you?” Aldo asked.

Linc grinned. “’Bout the same. But if he’s out getting into bar fights in the grocery store, you might want to have a talk with him.”

He’d been neglecting his friend duties, sinking into his own depression.

“Harper break up the fight?”

“Nope. Bunch of people called Deputy Do Right. He got to pop Luke one right in the jaw,” Linc mimed a punch.

“Fuck,” Aldo sighed.

“Just thought you should know.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

* * *

Aldo went in to work an hour early, burying himself in schematics and ordinances and five hundred emails until noon. He worked with the fervor and focus of a man who didn’t want to think about anything else in his life.

The interns and the associates, probably under Jamilah’s orders, kept to themselves. The entire office buzzing away in silence.

Finally, he switched off his monitor and stretched his arms over his head. “J, I’m taking a long lunch.”

She raised a thumb over her head without taking her eyes off her screen.