The worrisome thoughts raced through her mind as she kissed Walt Jenkins. But without too much effort, she forced them away and enjoyed the feel of a man’s hands on her hips for the first time in over a year. She pushed him backward as they kissed. They stumbled across the suite, through the bedroom door, and onto the bed. Buttons popped and zippers buzzed.

CHAPTER 41 - Manhattan, NY Sunday, July 4, 2021

CHAPTER 41

Manhattan, NY Sunday, July 4, 2021

ON SUNDAY MORNING AVERY TOOK A LONG RUN THROUGH CENTRAL Park. It was peaceful, quiet, and, unlike any other time she had run these trails, nearly empty. Normally crowded with joggers, bikers, and dog walkers, this morning the park belonged only to the few remaining souls left in the city who were up early on the Fourth of July. Avery nodded at the joggers she passed, sensing an unspoken message in the way they smiled and delivered their good mornings that the once-a-year emptiness and tranquility of the country’s most populated city was a secret shared by only a select few, and that Avery was now part of the group.

Thirty minutes earlier she had quietly snuck out of Walt’s hotel room while he slept peacefully among the knotted bed sheets. The aftermath of long-awaited sex had filled her with an urge to sweat and run and wring from her body any second thoughts or doubts that would surely surface. For some sophomoric reason Avery had decided on a clean getaway. She had slipped out of bed with catlike poise, and resisted the urge to use the bathroom before leaving for fear that flushing the toilet would wake him. Why, she asked herself as she jogged, is the idea of sharing coffee and breakfast with Walt Jenkins so uncomfortable? Because those situations always had a way of leading back to her childhood and her upbringing and her parents and her brother, and Avery didn’t have it in her this morning to tiptoe through the land mines of her past and figure out what to divulge and what to avoid. She had already managed to share more about herself with Walt than she had with any other man in recent memory, and wasn’t sure it was a good idea to offer any more.