She poured herself a glass of wine, got out a piece of paper and a pen, then sat down at her desk. The numbers on the answering machine were flashing, too.

“Great.” Now she’d have no idea who had tried to call her after the outage. She hit the replay button and began the slow, arduous task of going through her messages. Halfway through, she made a note to speak to her assistant about voice mail.

She was barely paying attention when Kate’s voice roused her.

“Hey, Tul. It’s me. Kate.”

Tully sat up sharply and hit the rewind button.

“Hey, Tul. It’s me. Kate. I can’t believe you haven’t called to apologize to me.”

A loud Click. Then: “Tully? Are you listening to this? Tully?” and then another click followed by a loud busy signal. Kate had hung up.

That was all there was. It was over. There were no more messages on the machine.

Tully felt a disappointment so sharp it actually made her flinch. She played and replayed the message until all she could hear was the accusation in Kate’s voice.

That wasn’t the Kate she remembered, the girl who’d promised all those years ago to be friends forever. That girl would never have called to taunt Tully like this, to berate her and then hang up.

I can’t believe you haven’t called to apologize to me.

Tully stood up, trying to distance herself from this voice that had invaded her home, tricked her into hoping. She hit the erase all button and backed away.

“I can’t believe you haven’t called me,” she said to her empty apartment, trying not to notice how thick her voice sounded.

She went to her purse and burrowed through the mess inside for her cell phone. Finding it, she scrolled through her huge contact list for a name she’d added only a few months ago, and hit send.

When Thomas answered, she tried to sound flirty and light, but it was hard to pretend; a weight seemed to be sitting on her chest, making it hard to breathe. “Hey, Tom I just got back from the icy beyond. What are you doing tonight? Nothing? That’s great. How about getting together?”

It was pathetic how desperate she suddenly felt. But she couldn’t be alone tonight, couldn’t even sleep in her own apartment.

“I’ll meet you at Kells. Say, nine-thirty?”

Before he even said, “It’s a date,” she was on her way.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER
THIRTY-FOUR