“That’s quite a pile.” Ocky scooted around Marissa to retrieve a soda from the refrigerator.

Marissa finished counting her eighteen slices before looking up. “Fifty calories, six grams of protein and a half-gram of fat. With the goat cheese, a mere hundred calories of tasty goodness. Later, I get an organic energy bar with soy protein and twenty essential nutrients for active women.”

“I was rude this morning,” Ocky said abruptly. “I’m just unsettled by how much you’ve changed. I don’t like feeling that I don’t know you.”

The apology felt genuine and something in Marissa eased. She was certain she no longer had a crush on Ocky, and maybe that would let them be more balanced friends. “Sometimes, Ocky, I don’t know me. But I’m learning more every day.”

When she got back to her desk she discovered a single truffle, her favorite dark mocha, resting on a piece of note paper which read, “You’re not just a great boss, you’re a nice person.”

The truffle tasted wonderful with her afternoon tea during the sales staff meeting. She savored every last nuance of robust coffee and hints of pepper and cinnamon. She had earned it, she told herself. She also told herself that her heart had not leapt, not even for a moment, thinking before she read the note that it might have been signed by Linda.

***

Linda turned from her study of the plaques adorning the reception area walls as a man paused near her and said, “Ms. Bartok?”

“Yes.” She shook his hand. “You must be Jim Manchuik.”

“Welcome to the Sierra Club. If you’ll come with me, I’ll introduce you to the California Senior Chapter Director.”

Tom Jawed had a firm handshake and the three of them sat around a worn desk barely visible under stacks of paperwork.

“I had to say,” Tom began, “that when I read your résumé I thought that you would be completely wasted as a Volunteer Coordinator. We don’t get a lot of Ivy Leaguers in that job.”

“I know it seems a little odd but you’ll notice that there is no paid employment on my résumé beyond what I’m supposed to call being a Food Services Industry Technician. I flipped burgers.”

The two men laughed, then Jim said, “You volunteered all over the world—that counts to us. I don’t think you’d have a Yale MBA if you were a flake.”

Linda felt a coil of tension in her spine unwind. She hadn’t been at all certain she’d be taken seriously and she was grateful to have gotten this interview. A job of any kind, related to something she really enjoyed, would help her settle and look around—and she’d be near Marissa. The last six months had been exhausting. Breaking old habits was hard. “I won’t lie and say I didn’t have some family issues that slowed down my progress at Yale but they are completely resolved now. I am very interested in this job and would be willing to make at least a year’s commitment to it. Why don’t you tell me where you would like to see the management of volunteers. You must have hundreds—”