“I can’t tell with you either. You seem so confident.”
Christina nodded. She didn’t know what to say to that, because she
knew that she projected a certain image. She’d worked hard to make it
appear like she had it all together. Her father taught her all about how to
perfect that and not much else. She suspected that under the brusque, hard
surface, her dad was quite unhappy and had been for years. She grabbed her
bag and her coffee. She knew she was taking a seriously huge leap, but at
thirty-five, if she didn’t jump sometime, would she ever? Taylor wasn’t just
any lake or river, or whatever water fit best with that metaphor of diving in.
She was special. She was the most beautiful, placid, sweet water on earth.
Water with healing properties. Water that was just so cold and delicious,
and Christina felt so, so parched.
“I guess we should go if we want to make it back to get any work done.
I brought my tablet. I have a bunch of brochure and pamphlet designs to
show you.” There was her confidence, slowly returning. She didn’t feel like
she had to fake it. She felt strangely comforted by their conversation. Like
she didn’t have to run and hide and figure out a strategy for avoidance. In
fact, she’d lost the need for escape altogether.
Taylor grinned. She grabbed her coffee and her bag too. “I thought you
might.”
Chapter 18
Taylor
Time might officially run and order the world, but it was ultimately an
illusion. Taylor had often remarked that time changed as she got older.
Maybe not time, but her perception of it. Since she’d made the pitch for her
business, it was hard to believe that so much had changed. So much had
been accomplished. Time itself seemed to speed up.
Taylor wasn’t sure where the weeks leading to Thanksgiving had gone.
That day in the coffee shop where she fought for something that she didn’t
even know that she had wanted, for someone that she realized was so much