Carter had to admit that he needed to take the weekend to think about things.

When Leticia had been so supportive about Olivia, he’d been elated. All right, so maybe elated wasn’t the right word to use. But it had been easier than he’d expected to talk to Leticia about it. She’d listened, really listened, and she hadn’t said all those trite things that other people had said like, “You poor man,” or “Well, I’m sure she’s in a better place.”

She’d admitted that she hadn’t ever experienced anything like that but had told him she was sorry it had happened. There, nice and simple. He had never understood why people felt the need to say more. It was like most people were uncomfortable with grief, so they talked too much in order to try and fight their way through the discomfort.

And thank God she hadn’t said anything like, “But you hide it so well! I had no idea! That’s so brave of you.”

Various people had told him that over the years. It had always pissed him off. How was he supposed to look? Was he supposed to be wearing black and weeping all the time? It was like people thought that if a tragedy struck you, you were going to wear it on your sleeve. That somehow everyone around you would be able to tell, like you had a black eye or something.

But Leticia had been great. She’d been quietly supportive and listened to him as he talked about it. She hadn’t pried for more information, either, which was really nice. Some people thought that him telling them about Olivia meant he was inviting them to ask all about her, when that wasn’t it at all. He just wanted them to know that it was a thing, like the fact that he worked in a museum. It and she were a part of him.

It was all going swimmingly and he was genuinely excited. Leticia had taken the news about Olivia well. That meant, for one thing, that he could mention her now, bring her up in casual conversation.

It would be nice, he had thought. Leticia hadn’t known Olivia when she was alive and so he could freely share memories of her without Leticia jumping in or saying, “I know” or anything like that. He could share the memory just as it was.

Then the subject of kids had come up.

He hadn’t even meant for the conversation to swing that way. While Leticia’s acceptance of Olivia meant that he was hopeful she was going to be accepting of Molly, a dead wife did not equal a very alive and demanding child. Not that Molly was demanding but—all children demanded a lot of time and attention, just by nature of being children.

With Olivia out of the way, he’d figured that he’d bring Molly up sometime in the next couple of weeks. He’d get Leticia used to the idea of Olivia having been in his life, of having her mentioned. Then he’d feel out how Leticia was with kids.

Then he’d made that throwaway comment about his mom and it had all gone to hell.

Okay, so maybe ‘hell’ was a bit of an exaggeration. But it hadn’t gone the way he had wanted it to, not at all. It was like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water in his face.

Leticia didn’t like kids. She didn’t want kids. She didn’t get along well with kids—or rather, she didn’t know how to handle them. It wasn’t outright telling him that she hated kids, so that was a silver lining. But how could he possibly be in a relationship with someone who wouldn’t accept Molly?

Not that he was sure that Leticia wouldn’t accept Molly. Most people he’d met who weren’t all that into kids generally struggled with babies and toddlers. Perhaps it was the same way with Leticia? Maybe an older child like Molly, especially one as mature as Molly was, would be something Leticia would be more willing to accept.

He wasn’t sure, though, and that was the problem. Could he continue this relationship based on a ‘maybe’?

It had taken him all weekend to think about it. Molly could tell that he was preoccupied and so she mostly left him alone. She did her homework and did her drawing, but she didn’t pester him to play chess with her or anything. Carter appreciated it. He just sat with a book idly in his lap, reading the same page ten times until he gave up and just watched Molly as she drew or ran around the backyard playing pirate.

By the time Monday arrived, he had a plan. He would introduce Leticia to Molly that afternoon. Not literally, of course. Not in person. He’d just tell her about Molly while they were at lunch. That would get it all out in the open. He’d tell Leticia that she could have a few days to think about it, but he’d like her to meet Molly on Friday, when they had their usual date night. It wouldn’t even be a date, he would just arrange for Molly to stop by the museum close to closing and Leticia could meet Molly in her capacity as Daddy’s boss. Then, if they hit it off, he and Leticia could keep dating and he’d slowly introduce her and Molly to one another.

If she and Molly didn’t hit it off, well, at least he’d have his answer right away. And if Leticia backed off immediately when he brought it up at lunch, he’d have his answer then as well.

And he would let her go, even if the idea of breaking things off with her pained him more than he wanted to really admit to himself.

When he arrived at the coffee shop, however, Leticia wasn’t there.

“Hey, Hal,” he said, entering the shop. Hal looked up from where she was cleaning the espresso machine. “Any sign of Leticia?”

“No, she hasn’t been by.” Hal furrowed her brow questioningly. “She usually meets you, so I figured she’d be here with you. She hasn’t texted you or anything?”

He double-checked his phone, just in case. “Nope.”

“Maybe she’s running late.”

“Maybe.”

Hal shrugged and went back to doing her job. Carter waited. And waited. And waited.

Eventually he had to resign himself to the fact that for whatever reason, Leticia wasn’t coming this morning. Maybe she was running late enough that she couldn’t stop by before she had to be at the museum? She’d never been late before but he knew Leticia wasn’t a morning person. There was bound to be a morning where she couldn’t drag herself out of bed until the last minute.

When he reached the museum, he found that Leticia was already there. He tried not to think anything of it—until he saw that in her hand was a to-go coffee cup. From another coffee shop.

It was a chain coffee shop too, which didn’t make sense, because they’d had a passionate discussion at lunch where Leticia had declared herself a snob and said she never went to chain coffee shops and stayed loyal to the local, individually-owned places.

Things got more concerning when he walked up to her. He put a smile on, ready to pull her in and kiss her hello. He knew that he had to make up for Friday night. He’d been shaken and he’d sort of pulled back into himself—and he’d said no to sex for the first time. She had to be wondering what was going on and he’d need to reassure her.

But when he reached out to wrap an arm around her waist and pull her into him, Leticia took a step back. She gave him a huge smile, though, which confused him. “Morning!” She said brightly. “I put some paperwork on your desk, I was hoping that you could give it a double-check for me? I’m going to be in meetings for most of the day, so don’t worry if you don’t see me much, just shoot me an email if you have any questions. You know what else to do.”

“Uh…” Carter wasn’t sure what to do with this new Leticia. There wasn’t a single hint of flirtation or innuendo or intimacy about her. That was completely unlike the Leticia he knew.

Actually, it was a little like the way Leticia had been the very first day, when they’d each been startled by the fact that they’d accidentally slept with their new coworker. But this was—this was odd.

“Okay,” he said, for a lack of anything better to say. “I’ll get on that. Thanks.”

“Thanks!” Leticia said before turning smartly on her heel to walk off down the hallway.

So, maybe she was having an off day or something? Carter hadn’t known how to approach the subject, so he had just let it slide. He’d kind of bailed on her on Friday, so he figured she deserved a weird day, too.

He tried not to take it personally when she told him that she had a lunch meeting and couldn’t join him at their usual Thai place.

That had been Monday. Tuesday, she wasn’t in front of the coffee shop again.

“She hasn’t been by?” He asked Hal.

Hal shook her head. The girl looked a little concerned, actually. Carter remembered that Leticia had actually been frequenting this coffee shop far longer than he had. In fact, he’d started coming to this coffee shop because of Leticia.

“Has she ever not come by before?” He asked.

Hal thought for a moment. “Very, very rarely,” she said. “But those would usually be days when she didn’t have work for some reason. Otherwise, she’s always here. And two days in a row? Nah. She’ll even stop by on public holidays because, even if the museum’s closed, she’s still working on something in the office.”

Carter nodded. “Thanks, Hal.”

Hal nodded, still looking a bit worried.

When he went to the museum, Leticia was there, a generic chain brand coffee in hand. She was already in her office this time, going over something on her computer.

“Oh, good, you’re here,” she said cheerfully. When he started to get close to the desk she just thrust a file into his hand. “If you could take care of this for me, I’d really appreciate it. I have a lunch meeting today but, otherwise, I’m pretty free. So if you need anything, just let me know.”

“What if I’d like a meeting?” Carter asked, infusing his voice with innuendo. “Say, in my office? In an hour?”

Leticia just blinked at him. “Is there something about the latest exhibit I need to know about? Did the artist change where he wanted to put the centerpiece?”

Carter felt wrong footed. “Um—no, I meant…” He stopped. He wasn’t sure how to say I meant we should have sex in my office without it sounding incredibly crass. “Never mind.”

“Okay.” Leticia smiled at him, but it was a lighthearted, professional smile. It was nothing like the way she’d been smiling at him before.

Then she went right back to her work, as if he wasn’t even there.

The rest of the week had gone the same way. Leticia treated him with friendliness, but she kept a distinct distance between the two of them. She somehow managed to have a lunch meeting every day. She was never there for her coffee.

That last part pissed him off a bit, actually. Poor Hal was worried.

“Is something wrong?” She asked on the third morning. “Is she sick? Does she seem unwell? Is her family okay?”

Carter had been forced to tell her that no, nothing seemed to be wrong with Leticia, she just wasn’t getting her coffee from their coffee place anymore.

“You did something, didn’t you?” Hal asked—rather accusingly, Carter thought. “What the hell did you do, Carter? She’s my favorite customer. Tell her you won’t come back and I’ll take her. She should claim me in the divorce.”

Carter didn’t even know how to begin to respond to that sentence and, frankly, he didn’t want to. He just left Hal to her mutterings.

Whenever he tried to talk to her about it, Leticia brushed him off.

“Do you have a second?” Carter asked on Wednesday.

“What’s it about?” Leticia replied.

“It’s about…” He gestured between the two of them.

Leticia looked uncomprehending. “Unless it’s about the art, I really have to make a phone call, so can it wait?”

“Sure.”

He’d tried later in the afternoon on the same day. “Why aren’t you having lunch with me anymore?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I just realized that it saved me time if I had meetings during lunch. Saved me having to take time out of the rest of my workday to deal with those divas and bores, you know?”

Then again, on Thursday: “I think that we need to talk.” Delivered in his most serious voice possible, of course.

“I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to run and check on the installation. Oh, and could you be a pal and look at this one contract for me? I think the guy’s asking for too much but I’d like a second opinion before I unleash the dragon on him. Thanks!”

Finally, Carter had to resign himself to the fact that whatever it was, Leticia just didn’t want to talk to him about it.

Why had she suddenly stopped treating him like they were a couple? Could it have been his mention of Olivia? She’d seemed perfectly okay with it at the time. Had something about it scared her off and she’d just done a good job of hiding it?

He’d thought that they were embarking on something serious. They spent two thirds of their time together, after all, getting coffee before work and then work itself and lunch during work and then dinner at least three times a week, including official dates on Fridays. Carter supposed that he’d been the only one thinking of it that way, if Leticia could turn on a dime like this.

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder what had made her behave like this. It had to have been something that he said or did that Friday, but what?

And why was it upsetting him so much?