She had to take several deep breaths to calm down, now shuddering, but she finally calmed enough to go to the sink. She turned on the cold water, holding her hands under it before putting them on the back of her neck and dripping over the basin. She took several more deep breaths of the humid air, still thinking she might rattle apart. She clutched the edge of the sink with her fingers for support.

When she finally saw her reflection, she was ghostly pale, eyes circled in a dark purple. She still felt a little weak on her legs and continued to clutch the edges of the sink. She couldn’t stay in here long—Stuart would send Maddie in after her any time now, and that idea was enough motivation to gather her wits. She met her own eyes again, startled at the fright she saw there.

“No, goddamn it,” she told herself. “You don’t get to fall apart right now. Go back out there, get back to the hotel, order yourself a nice stiff drink, and forget all of this.”

The idea settled her enough that she was able to leave the restroom. Stuart was standing in the middle of the room, staring up at the skylights, and he turned toward her at the sound of the door. He was holding their coats and winter wear, and he handed hers to her. They took a moment to get wrapped up again, giving her longer to gather herself.

“Hey,” Stuart finally said. “You okay?”

“Fine.”

He moved closer, holding out his hands so she could take them. They stared at each other for a beat before he said, “You don’t look fine. And neither did Maddie. You rushed to the bathroom when I came back in, and she was really flustered, which is totally unlike her. She even made an excuse to leave.”

Her stomach dropped. “She left?”

He nodded, face hardening. “What’s going on between you two? What happened?”

She met his eyes, desperately wanting to let him in on everything. Stuart was her best friend, but really, he was her only friend—the only friend she would ever talk about things like this with, anyway. She had some friends like Ted that she got drinks with occasionally, and a few friends from yoga and Pilates she brunched with sometimes, but truthfully, all of them were surface-level friends, at best. Still, she couldn’t burden him with any of this stuff with Maddie—certainly not now, and maybe never. She tried to look reassuring.

“It’s fine. It was a misunderstanding.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Okay. If you’re sure. I can always bring out a can of whoop-ass if she’s giving you a hard time about something.”

“Don’t worry about it, Stuart. I’ll see her tomorrow, and I’m sure we’ll work it out together. Alone.”

He looked unconvinced, and she made herself smile wider.