Like Jules needed to be reminded that she was on the lower end of both ladders. “Come on, I’m working on it. I want to get regularly published, and I want to be at the forefront of whatever changes are happening in fashion. Who knows what the industry’s going to look like in ten years?”

“It’ll look like whatever I decide.”

Vivian’s face was serene, her voice confident at her assertion. It made Jules’s heart flutter. She had to stop herself from blurting out you’re incredible.

“I’m sure it will,” she said instead. “You’re at a place where you can do that. I’m not yet. I’ve still got to bust my ass to move up even a little, just like you did. How would we even have time for each other if I’m trying to get ahead? How could I give the baby what I want to?”

Then she stopped, nearly tripping over her own words. She’d meant to say, How could I give the baby what they need? She looked at Vivian, stricken.

“I’d understand,” Vivian said. “More than anyone in the world, Julia, I would understand.”

“But how would it work? Well, you’ve started going home early. I can stay a little later at the office and then join you. Have dinner or whatever, and then go back out, if I have to, or go home and write.”

“You can write at my house, and what do you mean ‘stay a little later’? You wouldn’t be at the office.”

Jules took a deep breath. “I don’t want to leave Du Jour. I get why you think I have to, but I love it, and—”

“What? Julia, we couldn’t—”

Jules gave her a flat, unblinking stare. “We can try.”

Vivian appeared frozen in place. She shook her head. Then she managed, “You’re my employee.”

“Yeah. How’d it go without me today? Smooth as silk?”

Vivian stuck her tongue in her cheek.

“I thought so,” Jules said. “I belong at your side. You said you needed me.”

Vivian fisted her hands in her skirt. “I do need you, but not like that. I have ethical limits, believe it or not.”

“If we’re not having sex, why does it matter? We’re having dinner, we’re—doing whatever you imagine us doing, hanging out and talking. I don’t know. How is HR going to fire anybody for that?”

“I don’t care about HR!” Vivian rose to her feet, hands clenched at her sides. “I can stand anything except you feeling obligated or coerced.”

“If it’s not working out, then I’ll quit. I know I won’t work at Du Jour forever, but I don’t want to deal with adjusting to a whole new job while we’re figuring things out. Especially with this.” She gestured at Vivian’s abdomen.

“So there’s something to figure out.”