I open my laptop on the table and show her our finances.

“See, everything looks fine here,” I say, showing her the page with our current numbers. Then I click to another page. “I recalculated everything with predictions for what would happen with an increased rent and a smash success of a wedding.”

“That looks pretty good,” she observes.

“But then . . .” I click to the next page. “Look what happens when I calculated for a rent hike and no wedding.”

Her face falls. “We run out of money,” she says softly.

“We run out of money fast,” I confirm.

She bites her lip and hesitates before asking, “You don’t think . . . you don’t think there’s any way to get Blake back, do you?”

The thought of facing him again makes me want to disintegrate. “I’m not giving up just yet, but I think we need to prepare for a reality in which the wedding is off,” I say.

She smooths her hands over her furrowed brow and is quiet for a moment.

“What if we lay off Jess?” she asks, just softly enough so that her voice won’t carry into the other room.

“I would feel so guilty doing that,” I whine. “And we really do need her help. You have more than enough on your plate with design and filling orders, and I can’t always be available to do sales. We rely on her to make this place run—you know we do.”

“What if we shut down the brick-and-mortar store and went online only?” she asks.

We’ve talked about the merits of a physical storefront versus a digital-only presence before, back when we were first planning to launch the company and weren’t sure how big we dared to dream. Back then, we agreed: a storefront brings in foot traffic and lends a covetable air of legitimacy. It’s a sign of a healthy business. And selfishly, we both felt that we grew up in a store—so damn it, we wanted one of our own.

Not all of our competitors have brick-and-mortar stores. Some rent tiny work spaces in nondescript office buildings where they see customers by appointment only. Some work with clients over FaceTime, though I’m not sure that would require enough man power to necessitate keeping Jess employed. There’s a precedent for this; I’ve seen other jewelry businesses make it work. But it wouldn’t feel as special. I’d feel like a failure.

“I know it’s not ideal, but it seems like our only real shot right now,” Sophie says.

“I worry about what that would do for our reputation,” I reply.

“What, because being forced out of business entirely would be better?” she points out.