Page 140 of No Such Thing as Serendipity

I motioned toward the space next to her. She nodded, so I moved across the deck and sat beside her.

I held her hand as she continued. “My coworkers told me I lost it in a meeting. I still don’t remember it.” She squeezed my hand. “Apparently, my partner was pushing me to get our new product line out the door, but it wasn’t ready. I’d been workingaround the clock to figure out the glitch. Apparently, she told me I wasn’t trying hard enough.”

Robyn paused and held her face up to the sun. “If I hadn’t seen the video, I wouldn’t have believed it. We were on a video conference with our satellite group, so it was all on camera.” She swallowed hard. “I trashed the room. Literally.”

I let go of her hand, put my arm around her, and pulled her body against mine.

She remained stoic, as if she were telling the story about someone else. “I smashed laptops. Kicked over chairs. Ripped a television off the wall. Tore down curtains. And I don’t remember any of it. The doctors say I went into a temporary psychotic state brought on by lack of sleep, stress, and toxic levels of caffeine and sugar.”

“Oh, Robyn,” Emma said. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

“I’m not,” Robyn said. “It brought me here.” She smiled. “Granted, I would have preferred a less dramatic wake-up call, but it’s what I needed. That’s why I do this. I know what it’s like to hit bottom, so I can relate to the retreat-goers.”

“It all makes sense now,” Helena said, pointing at Robyn. “After my diagnosis, I spoke with many professionals, but I never felt comfortable. Opening up to you has been easy, sharing things I’d never done with anyone else. I just felt you got it. You heard me.”

“Thank you. That means a lot to me.” Robyn put her hand over her heart. “If my experience allows me to help people, then it was worth it.” Robyn smiled and nudged me. “So how’s that for serendipity?”

I smiled back at her, knowing she wanted to lighten the heaviness in the air. “You’re such a showoff. You had to one-up me.”

Robyn threw her arms around me and hugged me tight. “I thought there was no such thing as serendipity.”

The others laughed. I suspected they were relieved to have the heaviness lift.

“What happened to your company?” Annie asked.

Robyn pursed her lips and gave me a side eye. “Please don’t hate me.”

“Hate you?” I said, confused.

“I just wanted out,” Robyn said. “My partner was done with me. She visited me in the hospital once, right after it happened. I sold my share of the company to her for next to nothing. I had enough money to buy my store and live modestly. She eventually sold it to Google for an obscene amount.”

My back stiffened. “I have lawyers. High-powered ones. We can fight this.”

“No, Blake. I don’t want to fight it.”

“But she exploited the state you were in.” I scowled, thinking of someone doing this to Robyn.

“Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. I made the choice. She didn’t force me, and I’m at peace. It was another lifetime. Nothing I ever want to revisit. I live in the present, not the past. I don’t know why I’m even telling all of you.” She looked into my eyes. “I guess I want you to really know me. All of me.”

“Thank you.” I kissed her, nearly forgetting the others were there.

She kissed me back but soon broke the kiss. “All right.” She slapped her thighs. “I didn’t mean to end this on a low note.”

“Group hug.” Emma leaped to her feet.

We all followed Emma’s lead and stood in the middle of the boat, hugging one another.

A somber mood washed over us once we returned to the pier. After unloading the boat, we stood staring at one another, unsure what to do next.

“Okay, we’re not doing this,” Annie said. “We’ve got two days left.”

“Blake only has one,” Katlynn pointed out.

I shot her a look, but I said nothing.

Emma put her hand on my back. “But she’ll be back to show you all her hidden talent.”

“Girl, you better come back.” Annie pointed at me. “You owe us one more day before New York swallows you back up.”