She looked at her screen, at the sentence that wasn’t advancing and hadn’t budged for the last ten minutes, and heaved a sigh. She took longer than most to get used to changes, but that didn’t mean she didn’t adapt eventually. The words would be flying from her fingers again soon. She’d jump out of bed raring to go, because the alternative would be not to deliver a book on the deadline she had set herself and communicated to her readers. Jane had always felt confident announcing such a deadline because there was no doubt in her mind she could meet it. Not one single doubt—as long as she could adhere to her routines and everything was right in her little world.

A few more weeks of this, however, and things would be even more wrong. She gave up on the sentence, got up, and paced around in her office. She looked at the picture of her and Annie in New Zealand where they’d married, both of them dressed in white. That picture always made her smile. Because it was much more than a wedding picture to her. It was the culmination of a great relationship that, at the time, had already lasted fifteen years, even though there had been times Jane had believed they wouldn’t make it. That picture was the proof they had. What it said to her was that relationships, just as lives, go through ups and downs, and when you get through those lows, and celebrate the highs, you will end up coming out stronger on the other side.

They would celebrate twenty years together—and their fifth wedding anniversary—in a few months.

Jane touched a finger to the spot in the picture where Annie smiled widely. Oh screw it. Annie was just downstairs. Perhaps seeing her in the flesh would make Jane feel better. Take away some of this anguish about her lagging word count.

But then she would have to change into something respectable. The past few years, the book shop had had so little clientele, Jane often nipped down in her shabby writing gear, but she couldn’t do that now. Annie was never alone in the shop anymore, even when there were no customers. Mia was always there, and Kristin often came in and so did Sheryl during her lunch break, often bringing along colleagues.