Eve had suggested he might come around, that he’d realize it was silly to give up what they had just because she’d had to miss one romantic getaway for work. But it wouldn’t just be this one time. And both she and Jake knew that. They had barely seen each other this past month as she’d prepared for the trial, working nonstop at the office, sometimes only going home to sleep between midnight and 6 a.m. She remembered a year ago, one of her favorite senior partners shaking his head when their arbitration hearing was scheduled for the week before Christmas, which meant living in a hotel in Louisiana for the month of December. He’d said, “My wife is going to kill me for missing all the holiday parties. She hates going alone.” And he was sixty-two. It didn’t end. She felt terrible to have canceled on Jake. She’d done exactly what he’d feared would happen.

But it wasn’t a real choice. You didn’t walk away from making partner at Howard, Parker & Smith for a guy you’d just started dating. They could date for a year and then find out they were irreconcilably incompatible, for reasons other than the current fundamental difference of attitude towards work and life—something probably more mundane, like leaving the toilet seat up—and then it would end, and she’d have given up a partnership for that. No guy would do that—except maybe the broken-hearted paralegal.

She’d called Hunter to get his take on the situation, and he’d said that this was her partnership bid. If it were him, he’d just reschedule and go on a vacation trip when he returned from London. But Hunter’s wife didn’t work—and Jake couldn’t just take off on a whim. Hunter said Jake should understand the demands of careers nowadays, unless he had some crap job, in which case, she should be aiming higher. But Jake understood only too well the demands of her career.

Max had immediately suggested that she fly from London to Costa Rica if she was able to leave London early and surprise him there. That would have been a bold move. And she would have been willing to do that, had he gone to Costa Rica. Instead, they had canceled everything, and her firm had reimbursed the amount of the plane tickets and any cancellation fees.

She had not learned this from a phone call with Jake, whose voice would have told her if there was still hope.

He’d sent an email with the details.

Chapter Fifty-Six

Chapter Fifty-Six