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“Alright,” Taylor sighed. She was obviously upset, but she didn’t let

those tears spill over. She stood up slowly, gnawing at her bottom lip.

Christina passed over the paperwork. She hated to think that Taylor

would leave here, probably go straight to her car, and sob there. There was

nothing Christina could do about it. She didn’t like feeling responsible for

someone else’s failure. She wasn’t responsible.

“I’m sorry that I wasted your time,” Taylor said as she stooped to

grab her purse. She rammed the paperwork inside roughly.

“I really would like to see you work on it and come back.”

Taylor rolled her eyes. “Thanks. I’ll be sure to book an appointment

with someone else. Maybe they’ll give me the consideration my idea

deserves. At the very least, they won’t make me wait out there for half an

hour past my appointment time.”

Christina watched Taylor turn and beat a fast path to the door. She

brushed the doorframe with her purse so hard that it nearly got hung up, but

she managed to make a clean exit. Christina sat there, stunned. She’d had

people get up and walk out before. People cursed at her more often than a

person would think. Getting denied was hard. Getting your idea shot down

was even harder. She hadn’t meant to tell Taylor that she wasn’t good

enough or that her idea wasn’t good enough. She’d given her the only

advice that she could. Why was she the one who felt guilty then? It was

more than just the comment about running late. Christina did regret that.

She finally sighed and stood up. She grabbed her things and walked

back to her office. She’d hoped to shave off some time during her meeting

and she had. She’d be on time for her next one. She even had time to grab

her sandwich out of the lunchroom fridge and scarf it down. By the time she

reached her office, she was no longer hungry. Her meeting with Taylor hit a

nerve that she didn’t think was possible to press on. That confused her. She

needed to spend the ten minutes she had thinking about where she’d gone

wrong, and why she couldn’t stop seeing Taylor’s misty eyes, flooded with