“No, this is great,” Jules said with more conviction. “Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting it. It’s awesome, I swear.” She smiled. “Thank you.”

“Remember what I said at Christmas,” Vivian told her sharply. “If something’s wrong, tell me instead of stewing.”

Jules’s stomach tightened, but that was weird too. Also Vivian was strangely insistent about this. “I will. Don’t I always? At least since we started this?” Then the penny dropped. “Oh-h-h.”

“What’s oh-h-h’?” Vivian demanded.

“They stewed, didn’t they?” Jules closed her email app and looked her dead in the eye. “The husbands.”

Vivian scowled. “‘The husbands?’ You make them sound like a fifties rock band.”

“But am I right?” Jules folded her elbows and leaned in on them.

“Couples shouldn’t expect each other to be mind readers. I can’t stand it when people bottle problems up instead of dealing with them.”

Jules felt a pang of unease. Vivian wasn’t wrong; Jules had been trying to hide her reaction. “I know. I’ll speak my mind. As long as you do too.”

Vivian gave her a disbelieving look.

“Which you do,” Jules sighed.

“Frequently,” Vivian agreed.

It was time to change the subject. Vivian was starting to look annoyed, which was not how Jules wanted to spend the afternoon.

“This is the best birthday ever,” Jules said as she gave Vivian a winning smile.

“Humph.” But Vivian’s glare wobbled.

It made Jules’s stomach flip pleasantly.

“Trying to charm me?”

A low, steady throb began down below as Jules thought of what was about to happen. Yeah, this was much better. “No, I’m just being greedy.”

Vivian leaned forward on her elbows. “Oh?”

“I want another present.”

“Explain.”

About ten minutes later, back on the bed, Jules proved to a gasping Vivian that actions were better than explanations and definitely spoke louder than words.

Especially since Jules still wasn’t quite sure which words she wanted to say.

Chapter 50

Chapter 50

“Think anybody’ll notice if I slip out of here wearing the same clothes I was wearing twenty-four hours ago?” Jules asked.

Vivian shook her head as Jules refilled her water glass. They were just finishing up dinner at the kitchen table. Outside, the sky was dark.

The rest of the day had passed in a strange mélange of the ordinary and extraordinary. On the ordinary side, following their afternoon delight, they both had gotten to work: Vivian went through the mock-up of the next print issue while Jules took notes on her commentary. There was a lot of commentary.

On the extraordinary side, they broke up work shortly afterward to fool around. It started when Vivian said, “Ugh. Tell Joey we have to get rid of this photo in the big band spread. Joan Smalls looks completely ridiculous with that sexophone.”