“I see.” Jill grabbed her phone off the table and shoved it into her pocket. “Since that seems to be it, then I’ll be going. I’m glad we were able to nail down most of the details. Soon this will be over and I’ll be out of your hair.” She nodded and walked out of the room.

As she stepped onto the sidewalk, her shoulders drooped. Never before had another person called her out so thoroughly. She expected anger to bloom in her chest, but she mostly just felt sad that Reagan saw her that way. Jill knew she hadn’t projected her best self when she was around Reagan, but she wanted to, and that was something completely new for her.

Jill sighed and glanced at her watch. It was early enough that she should head back to work but that had zero appeal. Instead, she wanted to make a quick stop before heading home.

As Jill walked into the lobby of Happy Tails Animal Shelter, its sounds and smells inundated her senses. Strangely, the cacophony of barking and the smell of dogs and cats comforted her. While she didn’t have time for much outside of work, she had made it a priority to stop by the shelter at least once a month to volunteer. She made regular contributions as well and increased those on months when work made it impossible to stop and help. These extra contributions also helped her skirt around the shelter’s volunteer requirements of spending a set number of hours volunteering each month. She never liked to use her money to her advantage because she had seen too much of that growing up, but this was the one time she allowed her money to open doors for her.

With a nod to Stacey, the intake coordinator at the front desk, Jill headed to the staff locker room. She quickly discarded her work clothes for jeans, long-sleeve T-shirt, and a pair of hiking boots. After stuffing her bag away and locking it up, she went back to the front desk to look at the list of things still left to do for the day. Knowing she didn’t want to interact with others, she picked the most isolated job. Moving a large quantity of dog and cat food from a truck into a storage room sounded like the perfect way to keep her body busy and her mind occupied. Jill had never shied away from physical labor, which was frowned upon by her affluent upbringing.