“Yeah,” I said, like it hadn’t been a crisis I’d forced her to get out of bed and deal with in the middle of the night.

“And now you’re here hours later, in the office, and you’re flying to Seattle tonight.”

Eleanor crossed her arms on her desk and looked directly at me. “So are you going to tell me what happened, or am I just going to have to guess?”

“There’s nothing to guess about. We were maybe going to be a thing, and now we aren’t, and that’s it.”

“Maybe going to be a thing.” She repeated my words back to me.

“Not even a thing, really.” I couldn’t tell if it was a hundred degrees in here or ten. I was sweating and freezing, and kept fidgeting in my seat.

“So you were going to cancel an entire week of important meetings for ‘not even a thing’?” She was being tough, but her tone was kind. Eleanor was handling me with kid gloves, which meant she was able to tell what a mess I was no matter how much I was trying to hide it.

I ignored her. “Did you want to listen to me run through the pitch one more time? I’m not leaving for a few more hours.”

“Oh, don’t do that, Hayes.” Eleanor gave me a sad look. “You can’t just change the subject. I’ve known you long enough to know when things are more than ‘maybe a thing.’”

I sighed and shrugged. “I’m not ready to talk about it, El.”

“Well, finally, you say something you actually mean.” She eyed me again, for a beat, and then her face went soft. “I’m sorry, Hayes.”

“Me too,” I admitted, which felt too raw, too honest. “But it was a bad idea to begin with. We made no sense together. It’s for the best.”

“And what’s the best—you being alone and miserable? A total jerk to all of us because of it?”

I just sighed and crossed and uncrossed my legs. I was exhausted.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” She spun in her chair as she thought. “What I meant is, I like you and her. Together.”

“Mmm?” I feigned disinterest, but I was genuinely curious as to where she was going with this. She’d barely seen us together. And Eleanor had never expressed any sort of allegiance to anyone I’d dated, even when it was one of her own friends. She’d obviously taken my “side” through my divorce, but even as I worked through the end of things with Angie she never uttered a negative word about her. For her to come out in favor of Franny felt like a departure from her usual neutral stance.