“It’s different. Totally different. I do not want to talk about this anymore. At all. I wish Jack had never brought home that weepy girlfriend of his. I wish I hadn’t gone to that tailgate party. I wish I could take a nap.”

“Go ahead.”

“I can’t. I can’t sleep.”

“Oh, Ame.” Carol Anne came over, set her mug of tea on the counter and hugged Amy close while she let silent tears roll down her face.

“He wasn’t worth crying over then, and he’s not now.” Carol Anne wiped at Amy’s face. “Let this go.”

“I’m trying.”

“Well, I actually came over to talk about me. But that’s all shot to hell now.”

Amy wiped her face. “Something wrong?”

“No . . . I just quit my job yesterday. Just up and walked out on Farley.”

“Yeehaw! It’s about time. Come in the living room, sit down, tell me all about it so you can cheer me up. This is the best news I’ve heard in three months.”

They sat down on the couch and Amy hugged Carol Anne, spilling warm tea on her sweater. “I am so proud of you.”

“Thank you. I have a very fine line to walk now. My clients want to come with me, but they can’t. I might not have work for a year, but I’ll be able to breathe.”

“When you do the right thing like this, it always works out. Always. Remember when I had no idea how I would buy this home, or work at SCAD an hour and a half away, and it all just fell into place? Even though Phil hates when I spend the night there—he complains about it, tries to get me to change it every semester. He doesn’t understand how important it is to me. But when it matters that much . . . it all works out.”

“I know. I feel like I’ve lost a hundred pounds—or if we’re going to be literal in the case of Mr. Farley, three hundred pounds. I finally told Joe we weren’t getting a Christmas bonus and I kinda broke down. He told me to do what I needed to do.”

“So . . . you left. Wow. You knew exactly what to do.”

“Amy.” She leaned closer. “Hear me—that is because I knew exactly what was bothering me. I didn’t blame something else, or pretend I loved something I didn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I faced the real problem.”