“Traffic was such a bitch.” Sienna came barreling through my front door.

She dropped her bags at the door and headed straight for the kitchen.

I closed the door behind me and smiled, thankful that she didn’t ask why I’d asked her to come. I needed to break the silence and keep the dark cloud that threatened to settle inside my home away. But, more than anything, I could use the company. I was losing my mind with thoughts about Nolan, and if I didn’t get some things off my chest I was sure to explode.

“God, I’m starved.” Sienna opened a few cabinets and rummaged around. “Do you have any food here?”

I didn’t have much more than the necessities. Dairy, pasta, and a few quick freezer meals. Those tended to be my staples between eating out. “There are some bananas going bad next to the fridge.”

“Way to sell it.” She turned her head and looked at me.

“Or you can see if I have any frozen meals left.” I shrugged.

Sienna went for the fruit bowl, reaching to the back of the counter. I couldn’t help but notice how good she looked in her suit. She was tall and thin and it wasn’t any surprise that she went straight for the rotting bananas over what masqueraded as healthy but was probably packed with salt and fat in the freezer.

By the time she spun around, she already had the fruit peeled and half-eaten. “Wait,” her eyes went big, “how did you get here before me?”

I bit the inside of my cheek as I watched her eyes move from my face down to my ankles. I hadn’t bothered to dress—still wearing my pajamas from the night before. What was the point in putting in the effort just to stay home? I didn’t have anything to do, no one to see. It was days like this that I’d dreamed about when I working sixty-hour weeks, but now that I had it, it wasn’t what I thought it would be.

“Sophia.” Sienna dragged my name out as she pointed at me. “Did you play hooky from work today?”

Hiding my face inside my hands, my brow furrowed. It was worse than hooky. I could go back if I was only playing hooky. But this? This was a decision I was stuck with.

Reluctantly, I peeked through splayed fingers to find Sienna still giving me a questioning look. Then I shook my head.

“Sophia, what did you do?” She hurried over to me, standing only inches away from my face.

Her gaze darted over me as she peeled my hands away. I turned my head, not wanting her to see the truth hiding inside my eyes. I didn’t know where to begin, if I should tell her the complete truth, or only that I’d quit my job.

“Oh my God. Did you get fired?”

I snapped my head to her. Meeting her curious gaze, I shook my head.

“Then what is it?” Her lips pinched. “Did you take a sick day?”

“No, not that either.”

Slowly, Sienna took her eyes off of mine and looked around my small apartment. It didn’t take her long to find my laptop still open on the coffee table with the first draft of my résumé still open.

“I kind of quit.” I held my breath.

“You kind of quit?” Sienna quirked a brow, taking another bite from her banana.

I couldn’t hold it back any longer. I told her everything. From how I’d left her at breakfast with the confidence to walk into that office and take those men by storm. “It wasn’t like I’d planned to quit my job,” I said, continuing to tell her how my name had already been passed over before they even interviewed me.

“Whoa. That’s cold shit.”

“I know.” I finished my story by saying how I couldn’t stick around and work at a place I clearly wasn’t valued.

Sienna finished her banana as she listened, hanging on to every last word. “It wasn’t because of Audrey using Nolan’s brother’s campaign as a way to get back with him, was it?”

“No,” I said, taking her hands off my shoulders and moving back to the living room couch. That was a completely different issue.

I still wasn’t convinced that this was the best move, but there was no going back. Sienna came and sat next to me. She reached out and took the laptop between her hands before pulling it onto her lap. I watched her read over my résumé with a knitted brow.

“You don’t need this.” She turned her head to me. “Not when you’re going to start the next greatest company the city has ever seen.”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know. I’m a good employee.”

“You just quit your job.” Her tone was clipped. “Trust me. Good employees don’t quit.”

I fell back and folded my arms under my breasts. “I don’t know what I want to do.”

“Let me tell you what you should do.” She turned to face me. “You should call up your new boy-toy and have him fund your venture. The Fosters know business.”

I pulled my knees to my chest and sat in a tight ball. I was nervous to tell her how I’d ended things with Nolan. I was terrified of what she would say, how she would respond, because I knew how it looked. And it wasn’t like I was trying to quit my job and Nolan on the same day, but that was how it happened.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Sienna jutted her chin.

Rubbing the back of my neck I gave her a sideways glance. “I kinda quit him, too.”

Sienna lurched forward slapping her hands down on top of my knees. “What? Why? Because of Audrey?”

Dropping the balls of my feet to the floor, I paced my apartment and told Sienna everything. Including running into Nolan’s arms immediately after I quit.

“Wait,” she held up her hand, “you mean to tell me that he was just waiting outside of the building at the exact moment you quit your job?”

I rubbed my arms and nodded.

“Either the universe wants you two to be together, or that dude was stalking you.”

I told her it wasn’t weird, that I seemed to have surprised him as much as he’d surprised me. I went on to share that Nolan took me to the park, we had ice cream, and that we were interrupted by his father surprising both of us. “And that’s how it all started.”

Sienna tipped forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “How what all started?”

“How our breakup started.”

Sienna squished her brows. “His father caused your breakup?”

“Or was it that I told Nolan now wasn’t a good time?” I glanced to the ceiling and scratched my chin. “Whatever it was, his father was the one to tell him that I wasn’t good enough for him.”

The white in Sienna’s eyes filled half her face. “I thought my family was crazy, but that takes the cake.”

I moved to the kitchen and pulled out a new bottle of wine. Popping the cork, I poured my glass and took a swig then filled Sienna a glass of her own. I walked back to the living room and handed her a full glass. Tucking one leg under my bottom, I sat on the corner of the couch, curling my lips over the rim. “So, how was your last 24 hours?”

We both laughed.

Then Sienna groaned. “There is some stupid gala my dad is making me go to.” She flicked her eyes over to me. “He’s running for Senate again.”

“How many times can he do that?”

“As many times as he gets elected.”

Just Sienna’s last word had me thinking about Nolan again. I thought about how his brother was running for governor and how that was the cause of our breakup. I knew the stakes were high—that I could be a potential liability—but it still should’ve been Nolan’s decision to make. Not his father’s.

Then it hit me. “You don’t think Nolan will be there, do you?”

Sienna rolled her eyes over to me, biting the inside of her cheek.

“I mean, his brother is running for governor.”

She shrugged and sighed. “It’s possible.”

Turning away, I wondered what the chance of Nolan being at the same event was. Then I changed the subject. “What did Gary think about the wedding photographer? Did you show him the sample images?”

Sienna’s neck stiffened as a pained watery gaze fell over her face.

I could see that something was wrong. “What is it?” I asked.

She swallowed down a stone. “Gary and I got in another argument.”

I hadn’t known about the first, but with what Monica told me the other day I knew that something wasn’t right between Sienna and Gary—especially with how our conversation ended over breakfast yesterday. “Is everything all right?”

“Don’t ever get married.” She stole a healthy gulp from her glass. “It sounds fun to start planning the biggest party of your life, but that’s when the secrets start coming out.”

“Secrets?” I reached up to touch my throat.

Sienna tucked her hair behind her ear and turned to me with a knowing look on her face.

Suddenly, I was glad that I was single and didn’t have to go through the relationship struggles that she was experiencing. Heartbreak was the worst. And though I never admitted it before, it was partially the reason why I tended to focus on my career instead of on building a relationship. “Like what?”

She set her glass down on the coffee table and leaned back, shrugging her shoulders. “Gary is acting weird, it’s like he’s forgotten I exist.”

Seeing my friend doubt the man she was supposed to love made me shrivel up inside.

“Monica thinks he’s cheating on me.” Her words lacked the life that was generally there.

“Monica has always hated Gary,” I said.

Sienna chuckled. “Yes she has.” And then she looked at me and said, “Mind if I stay here tonight?”

Scooting across the couch I wrapped her up in a tight hug. “I would love to have a girl’s night.” I kissed her forehead as she melted into me.

“Now, let’s tighten up this résumé.” Sienna reached for the laptop, pulling it back on her lap.

“That sounds like a great idea.” I smiled.