“Violet? How are you, really? I know this hasn’t been easy on you. You can talk to me. ”

“Can we do the serious stuff later? After the Darcy presentation is done and I don’t feel like I’m going to hurl?”

“Okay. Sure. How are you feeling about that? Other than barfy?”

“Good, I guess. I mean, I’m as prepared as I’m going to get. Can you open the glove compartment?”

She hits the button and a bag of Swedish Fish falls into her lap.

“Thank God!” I nab the bag and tear it open with my teeth.

“You’re going to eat those now?”

“I need something to calm my stomach.”

“So you’re going with sugar and caffeine?” she asks as I pull into the Starbucks drive-thru.

“And gelatin. Don’t forget the gelatin.” I tip my head back and dump a few fish into my mouth, savoring the artificial fruit flavor. Of course, this is the exact moment the car in front of me moves forward and I’m due at the speaker. “Whaddya want?” I ask through a mouthful of candy.

Charlene orders a latte and some healthy egg-white crap while I chew furiously. I swallow in time to secure my own caffeine fix, adding one of those fudge squares and a cake pop.

“Wow. You’re really aiming for gut rot today,” Charlene says. “We’re going out for lunch, the two of us, and we’re going to talk about how you’re managing. We haven’t had any girl time in almost two weeks.”

“It’s been busy what with Alex being broken.”

Charlene purses her lips, but doesn’t say anything as I stuff another handful of fish into my mouth.

I’m slick about hiding candy from Alex. Otherwise he eats it and feels guilty. The man burns five thousand calories a day, but during the season he has the most boring diet in the world. He’s ultra-healthy. Healthier than Sunny even, and that’s saying something since she doesn’t eat anything animal-related. I’d be so sad if I had to give up cow and pig.

My secondary candy stash is in my “office” in the house. Alex had one of the six bedrooms converted after I moved in. I don’t do much in the way of work in there—until the last week anyway. Before that it was where I keep all the stuff I don’t know what to do with, and my sewing supplies so I can make costumes for Alex’s Super MC.

Once we have our coffees, Charlene’s normal breakfast, and my sugar fest, we get back on the road.

“Other than Jimmy and Dean being pains in the ass, has work been okay?” I ask.

“It’s been the usual.”

“What about Darren? You see much of him?” I feel like such a bad friend, although I think I’ve probably had a solid reason to not be as engaged with the rest of my life recently.

Charlene slips her fingers under the scarf thing she’s taken to wearing and finds the pearls underneath. “We saw each other right before the away games, and I’ll see him tonight. He’s missing Alex. The whole team is.”

“Yeah. It bugs Alex that he can’t be with them.”

The team’s been on the West Coast most of the week. They came back late last night. Alex and Darren text each other and talk on the phone when they can, but they haven’t seen each other since he got out of the hospital since the team has been away.

“Brunch tomorrow should be good for their bromance.”

“Yup. Daisy has the most elaborate menu set up. She’s been to the grocery store every day this week. It’s crazy.”

“I don’t know how she has time with all the hair styling she has to do,” Charlene jokes.

“Seriously. It’s so big. So hard. And not in a well-endowed-dick kind of way. I thought maybe when she and my mom went to the spa she might’ve come back with a new hairstyle, but no such luck.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Yeah. She goes through an insane amount of hairspray. I’ve found three aerosol cans in the garbage. I think either she should buy stock or we should stage an intervention.”

“That’s an awesome idea.”

“Buying hairspray stock?” I scoop up another handful of fish.

“No, the intervention. You should get rid of her hairspray.”

“She’ll go buy more.”

“Not if you do it in the middle of the night. Then you can save the day by offering to style her hair for her.”

I pause with a handful of fish halfway to my mouth. “Oh my God. That’s brilliant. I can’t believe I haven’t thought of it before.”

“You don’t want her to have that hair for your wedding pictures—you know, for whenever you decide to set a date.” Her eyes are wide, like she’s afraid she’s said the wrong thing.

“Yeah. We definitely need to get that helmet under control before then.” I don’t say anything else about weddings and dates. That’s a conversation for later.

But I do know I want to tie the knot this summer. And I also know the longer I wait to say anything, the less chance there is that we’ll be able to secure an excessively large venue.

I pull into the underground lot and park in an empty spot between some expensive sporty car and a Land Rover. Files and coffee in hand, we make our way to the elevator. I’m still nervous. And angsty.

I shut down thoughts of potential wedding plans and stop wondering how Alex is doing so I can focus on what’s important, which is the presentation. Of course, that makes me think about how getting this account could make things really different at work, and I’m already experiencing a lot of change as it is.