“Hello, Earth to Erika,” Luna said, and waved a hand in front of my face. “You totally zoned out there for a second.”

“Sorry,” I replied, and twirled the long-stemmed glass between my fingertips. “Sorry, it’s been one helluva long day.”

“It’s Christmas Eve, girl. Tonight is the night for celebration.” Luna’s version of celebration had always been different from mine. She preferred upper-class dining, champagne, and gentle tinkling music, while I’d have settled for a homemade pizza, a beer, and a night in front of the TV watching cheesy Christmas movies.

Maybe that was why we’d become such good friends. We were total opposites in most regards, and because of that, we experienced totally different things with each other.

Right now, all I had to experience was a deep sense of regret, and a sharp pain in my chest each time I thought of Noah.

Around us, everything was perfect. The tables in the restaurant were filled with couples or families dining quietly by candlelight while waiters flittered around bringing pea-sized portions out to be devoured. I’d already had two appetizers, and I still wasn’t satisfied.

“We should have just grabbed a pizza,” I grumbled, and Luna clicked her tongue at me.

“Do you really think I’m going to let you sit alone in some crummy hotel room stuffing your face full of pizza on Christmas Eve? Come on, girl, don’t you know me at all?”

“Oh, I do, but that doesn’t stop me from protesting,” I said, and took a sip of the champagne. “Where’s your dad, by the way? Thought he would join us tonight?”

“No, he’s decided to sleep in. The old man’s, well, getting old, I guess. Besides, this is way better. You and I haven’t had an opportunity to girl talk since the apartment’s plumbing crapped out. I’ve been dying to talk to you about everything.”

I hadn’t been dying to discuss anything tonight. “Luna, I’m really, oh, I don’t know. I’m just an idiot I guess.” I shrugged, refusing the lump in my throat. “I fell for it. I fell for him. I knew from the start that it was dangerous, but I did it anyway. Noah was always emotionally defunct, and I just let myself fall for it.”

“So? Maybe that’s what you needed? This was just a rebound, that’s all. Now that you’ve gotten it out of your system, you can focus on you again.”

“Focus on me?” I asked. “What part of me? There’s nothing much left to focus on right now. I tendered my resignation at work, I have nowhere to live until the apartment’s done, and after this next hellish month of working at St. Katherine’s and possibly running into Noah there on an almost-daily basis, I’ll have literally nowhere to work. Oh, and it’s Christmas, and I’m not with family.”

“Yeah, you’re stuck here with me. Boo hoo,” Luna said.

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

“Wouldn’t hurt you to say it once in a while.” Luna drained the last drops of her champagne and held out the glass. A waiter materialized, as if out of nowhere, and whisked it out of her hand, replacing it with a full one. “Why don’t you just stay at St. Katherine’s?”

“I can’t,” I said. “Just, ethically, that doesn’t sit well with me. I feel like I didn’t earn that position, and that’s… It’s like everything I’m doing there is corrupted. I don’t like that sensation. And anyway, it would mean being around Noah, and doing that is just damn stupid. Apparently, I can’t get over my high-school crush.”

“Hmm, I think you’ve moved past high-school crush by now.”

“True, but you know what I mean.” I drank the last of my champagne and set the glass aside on the table. A waiter, once again, appeared and removed it, then replaced it with a full one. It was like being followed around by a friendly, champagne-producing ghost.

“Well, look,” Luna said, “it’s not too long until the apartment will be ready. I’ll lean on daddy dearest and ask him to lean on the contractors. And then we’ll have a place to stay. And you can look for another job. Problem solved.”

“Is it? I’m still rooming with you. I’m thirty-four. Normal people our age have houses.”

“They do?” Luna asked, and slurped on her champagne like she was sippin’ on tea. “My, I am behind the times. I’m still allowing my daddy to pay my bills.”

“You’re a trust-fund baby, Luna. It’s different for you.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe you’re right, but I don’t see why that should worry you. You’re paying your rent, and if you miss a few months, I know you’ll make it up to me. I trust you. Don’t stress about it, OK?”

“I’ll try my best not to,” I said, and licked my lips as the waiter appeared with our impossibly small mains. Thankfully, I’d thought to order two. One plate of lobster ravioli with a braised butter sauce, and one portion of the Christmas goose.

We tucked in, me disregarding whatever order the knives and forks were supposed to be used in, and Luna cutting her bite-sized portion into even smaller portions.

“Maybe I should just leave New York,” I said. “Maybe I should go back to Chicago. I’ve got a license to practice medicine in both.”

“You’d really do that?” Luna asked, pausing with a pea halfway to her mouth. “Chicago? After everything that happened there?”

“Maybe,” I said.

“Wow.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Just tells me that you were more hurt by what happened with Noah than what happened with Jason, and that says something to me,” Luna replied.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. It says that you feel more for him than you’re letting on. Something I’ve suspected for a while.”

I waved my fork at her, chewing neatly. “Let’s change the subject. I’m not a fan of dissecting this even further, thank you very much.” My gaze danced past Luna as three men entered the restaurant through the glass, bronze-trimmed front doors. My heart twisted into a knot of frayed arteries and veins. “Oh. Fuck.”

“What?” Luna asked, turning in her seat. “Oh. Shit.”

“Yeah.”

It was Noah. Noah was here, with two other men, one ginger, the other graying, but refined. Neither of them was Marc, thank god. I lowered my gaze to the plate and refused to look up. “This isn’t happening,” I muttered. “Why would he be here? Why tonight?”

“This is the place to be for Christmas Eve dinner in New York,” Luna said. “They’ve literally manufactured their menu for it.”

“Well, can they manufacture me an escape route? A passage directly through the earth and to the molten core? I’d rather burn alive right now than—”

“Shush,” Luna hissed. “He’s coming over.”

“Please, please tell me you’re joking.”

A presence swaggered into view and made itself known next to our table. I sipped my champagne and ignored the suited man standing next to us, forced myself to put the glass down and cut up my tiny piece of roast goose.

“Erika,” he said, sending prickles of anger and need down my spine.