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“Shit,” she said and hung up, but stared at her phone.“I hate you for leaving me.How can I tell you the good stuff that happens to me or vent about the bad?Why didn’t you love me enough to stay here?”

As Morgan sobbed, her phone began ringing.She wasn’t going to pick up until she saw it was Charlie.She answered but couldn’t say anything.

“Morgan, what’s wrong?”Charlie asked.

“Everything,” Morgan said.

“You were thinking about Mom, weren’t you?”

Morgan nodded as if Charlie could see her.

“It still hits me every night when I get home from work.As soon as I put my keys down, I remember I can’t call her and I start crying,” Charlie said.

“Are we ever going to feel normal?”Morgan asked.“The grief sits on me and won’t move.It’s like this bulldozer that refuses to bull or doze---you know what I mean.”Morgan took her phone into the bathroom to get a tissue to blow her nose.

“I hate to admit it, but sometimes I wish Rick was around to distract me.”

“Please tell me you aren’t thinking of going back to him.”

“No, but right now I wish I’d waited a little longer to end it.”

“Eleven years wasn’t long enough.You ended it at the right time,” Morgan said, throwing her tissue in the trash and taking iced tea out of the fridge.

“So, other than sobbing uncontrollably, how’re you doing?”Charlie asked.

“Let’s see…well, I just called Mom.”Morgan took a sip of her drink.

“Did she answer?”

Morgan couldn’t help but laugh.In the process, she did a spit-take, spewing iced tea all over her pj shirt.“Now look what you made me do,” she said as if Charlie could see her.

Morgan tried to wipe the tea off, but the liquid had already soaked in and felt sticky against her skin.She gave up, yanked the shirt over her head, and dropped it on the floor.

“I’m tired of being angry and sad,” Morgan said, grabbing another shirt from her bedroom.“I want to feel like me again.”

“Wouldn’t you rather feel like someone better than you?”

“You can’t see this, but I’m sticking my tongue out at you,” Morgan said, and she knew Charlie was smiling.

They talked for a while, trying to give each other moral support.After they hung up, Morgan sat at her desk.She placed her glass on top of a file folder that had a stack of papers sticking out of it.Then she remembered what was inside that folder and opened it.She combed through all the research she’d been collecting on how to become an addiction counselor.She had gone over the information many times over the last year but hadn’t moved forward.

She signed on to her computer and contacted the admissions offices at a few different colleges around the country that had substance abuse counseling programs.She was ready to move into the future and create the life she wanted for herself.

CHAPTER 38

Charlie

Charlie was busy all week with a full load of clients.By Friday night, she didn’t want to go anywhere, do anything, or talk to anyone, so she kicked herself for letting her friend Amy talk her into checking out the new escape room in town.Charlie didn’t feel like she could cancel, because Amy was so excited and had put in for a reservation the moment she’d heard it was opening.

“This is going to be so much fun,” Amy said when they pulled into the parking lot at what looked like a commercial office building.

“I’m not sure my brain will be much use for escaping anything.We could get trapped in the room forever.”

“I’m an expert at puzzles.We’ll be out in less than thirty minutes, and then we can go for a drink.”

“Or we could just go straight to the drinking,” Charlie said.

The women lined up at the desk to sign in behind two men.Amy insisted on paying for Charlie, and Charlie didn’t have the energy to fight her.The two women put their purses in the lockers against the wall and moved to a bench to wait for instructions.The two men stood a few feet away from them.Five minutes later, an energetic staff member in her early twenties stepped up.