“I’ll be back in an hour,” Natalie said, tucking his scarf into his collar. It was a windy day. “Are you going to be warm enough?”

“He’s in good hands,” said the director. Round-faced and smiling, she had kind-looking eyes.

Natalie drove to Pinnacle Fine Wines and did the thing that she dreaded. She’d never turned in her employee access card, and it still worked at the reception scanner. As she made her way to Rupert’s office, she passed the cube farm of her old department. Like a couple of prairie dogs, Mandy and Cheryl popped up to watch her over the dividers.

She used to worry so much about office gossip. What a waste of headspace, she thought now.

“Natalie, what brings you here?” asked Mandy, checking out her jeans and sneakers. It was quite a contrast from the way Natalie used to dress—A-line skirt, blazer, too-tight shoes.

Natalie smoothed her hands down the front of her jeans. This was who she was, who she’d always been. Comfortable clothes, no pretenses. “Looking for Rupert,” she said, and took the stairs to his corner office.

She’d called ahead, and he was waiting for her. “Welcome back,” he said, greeting her with a politician’s smile. “Or should I say, welcome home.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“I was glad to hear from you,” he said. “I think we can mend that little rift.”

“Of course,” she said, all business. “Do you have the contract from HR?”

“Right here. You can take a bit of time to go over it, but don’t take too long. The inventory department hasn’t been the same without you.”

No surprise, she thought. “Thanks again, Rupert,” she said. “I’ll get back to you soon.”

As she left the building, a gust of wind snatched the pages from her, and she had to chase them down. Mandy, who had stepped out for a smoke at the side of the building, stopped them with her foot. “Whoa there,” she said, eyeing the HR letterhead.

Natalie picked up the form, now stamped with Mandy’s boot print. “Thanks,” she said.

“Guess I’ll see you soon.” Mandy blew a plume of smoke into the wind.

Natalie didn’t want to acknowledge the knot of anxiety in her stomach as she drove away. She knew she’d be welcomed back to Pinnacle. The job was waiting for her. But she hated the idea. She used to think it was the perfect job. Now she knew her time was too precious to spend on a pursuit that didn’t mean anything but a paycheck.

She needed something else, then. Something that felt better, like the comfy sweater and lived-in jeans she had on at the moment. It wasn’t an outfit her mother would have worn to work, but it suited Natalie. Maybe the bookstore in Archangel would hire her.