I’d never pushed back on this; I’d wanted things to work between us more than I’d wanted to be right in the situation. But she had also devoted long hours to a career she loved. Maybe it was easier for her to blame work than to tell me the hard truth, which came out later: She had fallen out of love with me and was questioning if she’d ever been in love with me at all.

And so I’d thrown myself back into work as my relationship crumbled and was left in the hands of lawyers to resolve. I quit therapy, because I was too busy at the office. I focused on building Arbor into something bigger than we’d originally imagined. Without my job, and this company, I felt purposeless and bored. Eleanor knew this about me too. That’s why she stopped pushing it.

“But look,” I said, holding my hands in front of my chest as if to say “Ta-da!” “I didn’t wear a tie today. Doesn’t that count for something?”

She laughed but didn’t otherwise respond, choosing instead to plop back down in front of her computer and take a giant sip of her seltzer.

“Hey.” I cleared my throat as I stood to toss my food wrapper in the trash. “Do you think I should contact Franny and apologize for how weird I was on New York News?”

“What is this about, exactly?” Eleanor squinted at me and pursed her mouth to the side, her telltale sign that her brain was chewing on something.

“I’ve been feeling like an asshole since I made those stupid comments on TV.” I rubbed a hand along the back of my neck. “And clearly I was, if people emailed us about it.”

I really didn’t want to rehash our awkward televised conversation again, but I also hadn’t been able to let it go.

“I’m sorry I pressured you do to it,” she said, a regretful look on her face. “But I didn’t think it was that bad.”

“Trust me, I was…” I blew out a sigh, trying to figure out the best words to describe myself. Instead, I went with: “You know…how I can be.”

“Yes, I do. Proud and stubborn and occasionally an idiot when it comes to expressing anything that even resembles emotion.” She leaned forward and gave my arm a squeeze.

Well. Leave it to Eleanor to find all the words. I opened my mouth to protest, but she waved me off.

“But I also know how truly kind you are, Hayes,” she continued. “And I know this whole thing blew up in your face, but try to remember it started from you doing something nice.”

“If I recall correctly, you and Perrine agreed that I acted, and I quote, ‘borderline chauvinistic.’”