Page 7

Jimmy: Hey sister, dear. Do I remember you saying (complaining) that benefits changes for babies and marriage got backdated to the beginning of the month? Something about it screwing with payroll?

As soon as I hit send on the message, I regretted it. It was late. Too late to text. My sister was going to bust my balls over this. Due to her job in human resources at a local candy manufacturer, I knew more than I wanted to about insurance from dinners where she railed about the broken system. But I should have realized my text would fire her up if she was still awake.

Andi: Wait. What? Why are you asking?

Andi: Did you knock someone up?

Andi: Did you meet someone?

Jimmy: No, just asking. It came up on trivia tonight. I wanted to rub it in that I was right.

Andi: Where were you playing trivia?

Andi: Who were you playing trivia with?

Andi: You’re lying about the trivia, aren’t you?

Andi: On the off chance I’m getting a niece or nephew out of this question, yes, qualifying changes usually begin the first of the month of the event. Depends on your contract.

Jimmy: The event? Is that HR speak? Am I speaking with HR now, not my sister?

Andi: Watch it, bud. I’ll write you up.

Jimmy: Ha! Thanks anyways, sis.

Before I could think it through, I popped up a new message, this one to Melena.

Jimmy: Will you marry me?



















Chapter 2

Melena – Proposal Gone Bad

What a hella-long day. First, seeing clients and being on my feet all day for massages wore me out, but nothing out of the norm. After five years as a licensed therapist, I was used to the physical demands, but days like today still made my feet hurt. Happy hour drinks with Jimmy were my silver lining before the kiss of death. The slush of fear and anxiety ticking off every second in the ER, adding to the hypothetical expense in my head, had pushed me past my limit. Sleep sounded heavenly. Escape from my problems. I didn’t want to think about Dr. Rai’s diagnosis. I doubly didn’t want to think about the ginormous medical bills coming my way.

I’d worked hard to establish my own life away from the small town where I grew up. My family was wonderful but tended toward smothering. Being my own woman, out from under the spotlight of the family business and my brothers’ high school sports fame meant moving away. My parents had the freedom of their own construction company, doing remodels and some new residential builds. I wanted that same freedom. To set my own hours. Take my own clients. I didn’t realize freedom came with a side of terror and uncertainty. I had put in long hours with my clients to build loyalty. But everything I had was built with my own two hands, and those hands had to work. I made time for the gym because my body was the primary tool of my trade. Jimmy was the first man I’d dated in months. I’d learned the hard way relationships came with expectations I didn’t want to fulfill. No appointments after 5:30. No work on Saturdays or Sundays. My last serious relationship crashed and burned on the banks of stubbornness. I wanted to build my clientele. Dylan wanted to see me. It should have been a sign when I wasn’t as eager to see him. Destruction ahead. So, no big relationships. Not at this stage of my career. I was better off alone until I was more established and paid off my school loans. My dreams depended on it. So many sacrifices left at the altar of success. And now my body was betraying me.