I shook my head so hard I felt my earrings lashing the side of my face.

“It’s me, Theo. It’s me. I’m ambitious and I’m okay with that taking precedence over my personal life. It’s who I am.” He stiffened at the sharp impatience in my voice and finally backed off. I had to dig my nails into my palms to keep from reaching for him.

“If that’s what you want.” He sounded crestfallen. I hid my eyes from the pain in his.

“It is, that’s what I want.” After he left the room, I sat down at the sewing machine and worked until I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

Chapter Sixteen

Alba

Pro tip: do not schedule a Brazilian wax on a day when you’ll be running around doing errands, because you could end up by the side of the road somewhere “rural” with no undies on and a rental with two flat tires.

“I’m sorry, babe!” Julia lamented while I fought back the urge to scream. “I can’t come down to get you. I have to go pick up Blue at preschool for Sofia. She and Rocco are in Waco today doing that campus tour.”

“Shit, I forgot about that.” Sofia, Rocco’s sister, had just gotten accepted to an MSW at Baylor University and would be moving there in the fall.

“Did you try Salome? She’s usually got a more flexible schedule.” I groaned internally, realizing I was well and truly fucked since Salome had been my next to last call, before Julia.

“She’s got her department meeting until seven,” I reminded my bestie. Salome hated her department meetings with a fiery passion and just that morning had asked us for thoughts and prayers in the chat group.

She clicked her tongue in sympathy, but I knew no offer for a ride was coming. “José and Tariq are out of town. Dani’s got that photo shoot for the new beer brand he’s partnering with.” The silence that stretched between us after that spoke volumes and it was mostly saying you know who you need to call!

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.