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She seriously considered calling in sick to work, but in the end decided that there would be no point. She would have to face Vivian eventually and putting it off wouldn’t make things any easier for her when she had to do it.
Emma didn’t know what to expect when she walked into the office, but she wasn’t entirely surprised to find Vivian’s office door firmly shut. Well, she could do her job just fine on her own. If Vivian didn’t want to see her, then Emma wasn’t going to beg for her attention. They could communicate about work matters via email if necessary.
She didn’t see Vivian for most of the day, but as the clock neared five, Vivian strode into the open plan office area, heading straight for Emma. She looked immaculate in a black pant suit. She was so strikingly beautiful, with fine cheekbones and deep dark eyes that Emma wanted to lose herself in. Only right now those beautiful eyes were as cold as black stone.
Emma braced herself, not knowing if this was going to be a personal confrontation or a simple work matter.
“Emma, our client is requesting that we move that meeting scheduled for Thursday to tomorrow. Can you check my calendar and reschedule it if possible?”
“Sure thing, Vivian.”
Emma should have known better than to think Vivian might want to talk about anything personal. She was in full Ice Queen mode, her gaze cool and remote. It was as though the last few months had never even happened.
Emma’s heart squeezed as she watched Vivian walk away to talk to a few other people. The place where the missing piece was ached, but there was nothing she could do about that now. Time healed all wounds, right? Emma had survived so much worse, she knew she could survive this. Things with Vivian would get easier. She had only to wait.
It seemed that time did not heal all wounds.
Three weeks later, the hole in Emma’s heart was as empty as ever. Every time she saw Vivian, it felt like a stab in the gut. She thought she was doing a relatively good job at hiding it, but she couldn’t hide from herself.
Lily was her only solace. She did her best to focus on her daughter and ignore her own pain. Lily didn’t deserve to suffer for Emma’s mistakes.
Without Lily’s light in her life, Emma didn’t know how she would have managed. It was hard, but she needed to keep her life together for Lily’s sake, so she soldiered on.
She would face this like she had faced every other challenge—with determination and drive to get through it. She had gotten herself this far and she wasn’t going to let this thing with Vivian derail her life.
Lily’s voice drew Emma out of her dismal thoughts.
“Mom, why can’t we see Vivian anymore?”
The dismal thoughts intensified.
Emma didn’t want to lie, but she certainly wasn’t going to get into the whole tragic affair.
“Vivian and I had a fight, and we’ve decided not to see each other outside of work.”
“Why not? You told me that if I fight with someone, I should talk to them and try to make things better. Can’t you make them better with Vivian? I miss her.”
Emma grimaced. Nothing tasted quite so bad as having to eat your own words.
“What I told you is true, but it’s not going to work for Vivian and me.”
“Have you tried?”
Emma sighed internally, trying to figure out how to explain this. “Trying isn’t going to help in this situation. Sometimes, there is no way to fix things. It’s an adult thing.”
Lily pouted. “Adult things are stupid.”
“I suppose they are,” Emma conceded. She decided that a distraction was in order. “How about we go out for ice cream?”
“Yes! Ice cream!”
The distraction worked well on both of them. Lily jabbered away about a science project she was doing for school with little prompting from Emma.
When they were home, however, Emma’s thoughts wandered back to the conversation they’d had earlier in the day. What she had said to Lily was true. There was no fixing this and staying around Vivian was only hurting her.
Perhaps it was time to move on.
The thought hurt, but not more than seeing Vivian every day did.
