Oh no!

Her shoulders slumped while her heart pounded. Vicky forced herself to maintain eye contact as Patrick walked towards her. Maybe she was reading too much into the look on his face. Maybe …

“You’re broke,” her accountant said, dropping a file on her desk before planting his hands on the wood surface and staring down at her.

Vicky knew her finances were bad. She hadn’t realized they were quite this bad. That it had happened this fast. “Broke, as in …?” She widened her eyes, sucking in a deep breath. Maybe he was being a bit too dramatic.

His stare softened. Patrick took a seat in the chair across from her. Oh boy! “Broke as in, sell your wheels. Broke, as in, watch your furniture get carted away. Broke as in, you’re in the minus.”

“Shit!” She pulled the file closer, not opening it. “Dammit! I can’t believe this. How is this possible?” She knew the answer to her own stupid, stupid question.

“You have very little revenue still coming in. The overhead on this place is through the roof.”

“What about my half of the money from the sale of the house?”

“Gone. I repeat, your overhead on this place is high.” He looked around them, making a whistling noise. Vicky knew exactly what he would see. A spacious, well-appointed office with a waiting room out front. There was also her personal assistant. And the view. Her magnificent view of the park. “Image is everything,” she mumbled.

Patrick snorted. “You’re telling me. Problem is, image costs money. All of this costs more money than what you have coming in. A lot more.”

“I don’t get it.” Anger burned inside her. Vicky tried hard to get herself back under control and failed. Her world was crashing down around her. Just when she had started to feel marginally better. Just when she thought she could get over what that bastard had done to her. She jumped to her feet and paced to the large window, for once, not even seeing the green grass, the trees, the dogs on leads, the joggers, the ducks on the lake. None of it. “How is it that Jeff cheats on me and he’s doing better than ever, while I’m on the verge of losing everything?”

“I’m so sorry, Vicky,” Patrick offered. “It isn’t fair.”

It didn’t make her feel any better. “No,” she responded. “I really need to know. He lied, he cheated, he’s the bastard in all of this.” Her business partner ‒ make that ex-partner. Ex-husband. He was her partner once though, for better or for worse. In both business and life. The Love Doctors. The two of them had been the couple to see. The relationship specialists. “I got to keep the name, yet, he still manages to get the clients.” The Love Doctor. She felt like laughing. It hadn’t helped her one bit. Her clients had disappeared quicker than candy a birthday party. They all went to him now.

“He’s a bastard. No doubt.” Patrick shook his head. “What he did to you, Vicks …” More shaking of the head.

“Why then?” Her voice broke. “How is he still in business? Moreover, how is he still thriving? I don’t get it. I don’t.” She shrugged her shoulders once. They felt heavy. Everything inside of her felt leaden and weighted.

“He may have cheated but he ended up moving in with her. Jeff and his fiancée are very happy. At least, they look it on the surface. You said it yourself, image is everything.”

Jeff and that woman were happy and it made her feel physically ill. They had the family home, the dog, the … Arghhhh! She couldn’t think about it without getting upset. Let alone talk about it. Would it be rude if she covered her ears and started to make noises so that she didn’t have to listen to any more of this?

“Kerry is starting to show.” No more, please. “She has that whole glowing thing going on. She’s young and pretty and glowing and they make a really beautiful family. The wedding date has been moved up so that they can get hitched before the baby comes. I don’t say this to hurt you, Vicky.”

It did hurt though. Vicky bit down on her lower lip to stop it from quivering.

“I really don’t.” He reached over, looking for a second like he was going to clasp her hand and then thought better of it. “Point being,” Patrick continued despite her discomfort, “they look happy. They paint a perfect picture. The general population would rather buy advice on love from Jeff.”

“So, I’m the woman who couldn’t keep her husband? There’s something wrong with me then?” She pointed to her chest.

Patrick didn’t say anything. She pulled on her ponytail, letting her fingers slide down the length of her hair. “He cheated with a woman almost ten years our junior. I left him. I left his sorry ass. It wasn’t the other way around. No one knows that, do they? They don’t know how he begged me to forgive him. How he got on his knees. No, they see them playing happy families and assume there’s something wrong with me.”

“It’s not fair. It’s really wrong and yet …” Patrick shook his head, “that’s what the numbers are saying. I told you not to get that billboard. It cost more than what you had, Vicks.”

“I was so sure it would work.” Vicky pushed out a heavy breath. “Business has picked up.”

“You needed that phone to ring off the hook. You got … what? Three, maybe four new clients?”

“More like two.” She sat down on the edge of her desk, looking down at her shoes. “I really thought it would work.” Stupid, stupid billboard idea. “What now? What next?”

Patrick shrugged. “If you want to try to make a go of the business, you need to drastically downscale.” He looked around her office. “You can start by letting your PA go.”

She sucked in a breath. “I can’t do that. Maggie and Will just put a down payment on a new home. I—”

"You have no choice, Vicks." He looked at her pointedly for a few seconds, something flared in his eyes. It was a pity. Her stomach rolled.

“I would suggest filing for bankruptcy though. I don’t think you can salvage your business at this stage, unless something major happens.”

The blood drained from her face. Her limbs felt weak. Her mind raced. “Major like how?”

“Like a serious influx of cash ‒ but we both know that isn’t going to happen. You need to be realistic at this stage.”

“I would lose everything if I filed for bankruptcy. I’m thirty-five years old, I can’t lose everything I’ve worked so hard to build.”

“You can still start over. You’re resilient, someone who always lands on her feet. You are a qualified relationship therapist. You have a degree and that’s got to count for something.”

Vicky covered her face with her hands and huffed out a breath. “I don’t think I—”

“You don’t have a choice.” He spoke softly, but with conviction. “File for bankruptcy, close the business, and get a job.”

“How the hell do I go back to counseling couples with marriage problems? How do I possibly campaign on keeping them together when I no longer believe in love? In happily ever after?” It shocked her to hear herself say it. Yet, it made sense. It made perfect sense.

“No wonder you’re struggling as a Love Doctor.” Patrick put on a weird voice when he said Love Doctor. “As a relationship specialist. You don’t believe in love. I don’t blame you though, Vicky.”

"No, I guess I don't believe in love anymore. Jeff ruined that for me, big time. It's all just a farce. You're right, I need to shut this whole thing down. File for bankruptcy and …" she shrugged, "I'm not sure what my next step will be. Couples counseling though …" She shook her head. "I hated that type of counseling right off the bat. I preferred bringing people together rather than trying to keep them together."

“Why did you choose this line of work in the first place?”

“To make money. Charge by the hour and all that. I liked the idea of becoming a doctor, but blood makes me queasy. I guess,” she pulled in a deep breath, trying to get her emotions under control, “I love the whole falling in love thing and I like bringing people together. At least, I used to enjoy it very much. Now I’m just jaded and cynical. I hate that.” She said the last more to herself.

“It’s normal to have those types of feelings. My point is that you used reason and logic to choose a career, well, mostly. That’s what I’ve always admired about you. It’s only been a year since … well … since the rug was pulled out from under you.”

“If by having the rug being pulled out from under me, you mean catching my husband bonking a much younger woman, then yeah, you would be right.”

Jeff, her high school sweetheart. Her first love. First everything. What stung the most was that they had just started trying for a family. Thankfully she’d found out about his lying, cheating ways before it was too late to run the hell away.

“It’s only been a year. Your wounds are still fresh. It’s logical that you would still be so emotional about all of this. I’m urging you to try to be rational though. To take emotion out of business decisions. What you’re doing right now isn’t working. You need to change tactics.”

What she needed was a fresh start. Only problem was that fresh starts cost money. “You’re probably right.” She blew a breath out through her nose. “I wish that billboard had worked.”

“Forget the damned billboard.” Patrick sounded annoyed.

“Fine,” she all but whispered. “I’ll figure something out.”