breath.
Her purse was unusually light without her work laptop and the files she
usually brought home with her. In fact, Christina felt wonderfully light all
over. Michelle was still in the office for another half hour or so. The
conversation that Christina was going to have wouldn’t be well received,
but that wasn’t going to stop her. She knew that she might be crazy. She
might fail. She might be humiliated. She might have to admit that she just
couldn’t make it. Admit it to everyone, even her family, but if it happened,
it happened. She was tired of being too afraid of failing to take a risk
herself.
Sometimes there were more important things than a person’s pride.
Chapter 23
Taylor
“I quit.”
“Excuse me, what?” Finding Christina outside her apartment door just
two hours after a phone call where she’d said she’d be busy all night was a
surprise. Hearing those words come out of her mouth before she said
anything else, like a normal greeting, was a shock. “Quit— quit this? Me?”
“No!” Christina said sharply. “Taylor, of course I don’t mean you. Can I
come in?”
Taylor was so confused. She had no idea what Christina could have quit
then. Her job? Certainly not her job. That wouldn’t make any sense.
Christina liked her job well enough, but for her, it went deeper than that.
Taylor had buzzed Christina in when she’d rung at the front door
downstairs. She moved back now. They ended up in the living room. Chloe
was in her room watching a movie on the laptop. She was allowed an hour
of screen time per day and she’d chosen to finish the movie she’d started
the night before. Taylor figured that as soon as Chloe realized Christina was
there, she’d come bounding down the hallway with extreme eagerness.
“Sorry,” Taylor said again when they were sitting on the couch. “You