Now she was sick. She shouldn’t have been surprised. This was par for the course. She’d try to suppress her emotions and carry on, and her body would finally say: enough of this, and she’d get the flu or bronchitis or some other illness that confined her to bed. She supposed that her body, no longer buoyed by her relationship with Jake, had worn down with work stress and the Jake break-up, and it had just flattened her. Well, that blocked the question of any bold move of trying to reconcile with Jake—at least for the moment.

She’d flown in last night from London and gone straight to bed.

In London, she’d developed a preliminary strategy that the client approved. The judge granted their motion for an extension so they’d have more time to respond to the complaint. The case had now been staffed up heavily. So, there was nothing immediately pressing on the London case for her to do. She emailed the client and the partner and told them that she was going to the doctor. She then changed her out-of-office message to note that she was sick and she would not be checking email today.

At the doctor’s office, she texted Eve that she was back but sick with bronchitis. Eve said she’d make her chicken soup. She texted Max that she and Jake had broken up. Max sent her a text telling her to just talk to Jake. She said, no, on my way back from the doctor—bronchitis. Max sent many sad faces.

Max: PS. We will come up with another bold plan when you’re better.

Great, Max would probably have her sky-diving into his yard.

Max: Do u still have rock star costume?

She laughed, which turned into a hacking cough.

Audrey: Max, you were rock star. I was groupie.

Max: You’re always a rock star to me!

Audrey: Except that I can’t sing.

Max: You can lip-sync—can’t you? We’ll talk soon! Will work on this. Chin up! JJ

She was sure it was just her feverish mind playing tricks on her, but those smiling faces looked like little devils grinning. She needed to get better soon so she had some strength to stop Max’s latest machinations.

Around 8 p.m., she woke up again. Eve had texted and said she would bring over the soup whenever Audrey felt like it. She texted Eve that she was going to take a shower, but she would love some soup.

After the shower, seeing her phone blinking red, she picked it up. She shouldn’t check it. She had given herself the day off. Still, she did.

To: Audrey Willems

From: Lawrence Malaburn

Date: December

Subject: Associate Mentoring Committee

Audrey, I would like to meet with you today about the associate mentoring committee.

Lawrence M. Malaburn

Well, that wasn’t urgent. He must have seen her out-of-office message.