I watched you two this morning on WakeUp Miami and he sure seemed nice to you. It looked like he was taking care of you.“

Lucy blinked hard at her own reflection, then looked at Veronica. “What in the world are you talking about?”

“I said…” Veronica rubbed her lips together and popped the lipstick tube back in her bag. “It was obvious he really cares for you. Just the way he looked at you when you talked. The way he smiled at you. It was real sweet. Gentle. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he had the hots for you, but I know you’ve been going out with that other trainer babe.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Veronica!” Lucy scooped up the empty hanger and her workout clothes from the floor and shoved them in her gym bag.

“Hey, you asked and I answered. You’re my boss. I don’t lie to you. That’s what I saw.”

Lucy stood a moment at the restroom door and tried to remember if she’d seen any of what Veronica described. Maybe. But then, Theo was usually sweet. Always gentle. Like a friend would be.

The dangerously high lust level she’d felt in his kiss must have been a figment of her imagination, a result of her naivete.

“Thank you, Veronica. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“No problem. So what did Theo do? Why are you so pissed at him?”

She held the door open for her assistant. “Nothing. It’s all in my head.”

Lucy made her way down the still-quiet halls of Sherrod amp; Thorns. She liked getting in at eight because that left her an hour of peace before everyone else showed up and the fax machine started going crazy and the phones rang incessantly and Stephan popped his head in to make as many pointless suggestions and godawful strange comments as one man could produce in a day’s work.

She parted company with Veronica and rounded the corner past Stephan’s office, which used to be Sarah’s. Lucy remembered interviewing with Sarah, how much she loved the older woman’s sense of humor and her worldliness. How they’d hit it off immediately. With her gone, the one hundred thousand couldn’t come soon enough.

“I said I’ll make it work, so enough with the bullshit threats about the IRS or anything else. You got it?”

Lucy stopped dead as she heard Stephan slam down his phone and scream, “Nasty old unscrupulous fuck!” The words echoed through the quiet hallway.

She took a steadying breath and opted to walk by his door casually, greeting Stephan with a smile and a wave. He saw her, and his face fell. He ran after her.

“Lucy. Hold up.”

She turned in time to see him adjusting the collar of his dress shirt, looking for all the world like he was nearly stroking out from stress, and they hadn’t even opened for business yet.

“Everything OK, Stephan?”

“Sure. Sure. Great.” He put his hand at the small of Lucy’s back and directed her toward her office. She absolutely hated him touching her like that. “How’s the Eddie Award entry coming? And what the hell’s wrong with your skirt?”

Lucy sighed. She threw her gym bag behind he desk and motioned for Stephan to have a seat. “My skirt is too big and I’m done with the Eddie entry. It’s an incomplete mess. I’m embarrassed to put my name on it. But it’s done. Veronica’s making a copy.”

“I’m sure it’s fine.”

“It’s seven pages and fourteen graphic attachments of bullshit and you know it.”

Stephan didn’t blink. “I think it’s important for the agency’s visibility that we at least try this year.”

“I disagree. The Palm Club campaign would be perfect for next year’s entry, but not now. But I did it, just as you asked. Anything else?”

Stephan shuffled his feet on the carpet and looked around restlessly. His eyes landed on hers and he grinned. “Tough break on the weight gain this month.”

Lucy would have to call the look on her boss’s face outright glee. “I lost three pounds, Stephan. That’s not a gain.”

“Well, Lucy, it hardly matters. What matters is the fact that at this rate it doesn’t look like you’re going to make it, and I won’t lie to you-I’m quite concerned.”

Lucy sat back in her chair and crossed her legs. She’d just started doing that again, and it made her feel a little smug that she could once again get her thighs to lie on top of each other like a normal person. “Is this your way of empowering me?”

Stephan snickered and steepled his fingers in front of his face. “You’re plenty empowered. I don’t want to put additional pressure on you, but it’s clear I need to remind you that the firm’s reputation is in your hands.”

“I see.”

“You and the pretty-boy trainer can be as bubbly as fuck on TV, but if you don’t keep dropping the pounds we’re going to start dropping clients. If you don’t keep losing weight, you could ruin us. You and everyone else around here could be out of a job.”

Once again, Lucy couldn’t quite figure out the man who was supposed to be the captain of this business enterprise. She wondered if maybe Sarah’s death had sent him over the edge.

“Did you see the show this morning, Stephan? Did you see the woman who wanted to know when our Web site would be up?”

“The poster was quite a classy touch.” He shook his head.

“I think she’s hit on something. I think Theo and I should have our own site-not just the progress reports on the Palm Club site. We can have chat rooms and online support groups for those trying to get fit. We can link to the Palm Club, of course, and have guest trainers do weekly question-and-answer columns. I can make a blog of my daily workouts and food journal. What do you think?”

Stephan’s eyes had glazed over and he appeared ready to fall forward onto Lucy’s desk.

“Stephan? Hello?”

“I’ll think about it.” He pushed himself up into a stand, still not making eye contact with Lucy. “Don’t do anything until I’ve had a chance to mull it over.”

“Mull what over?” Lucy stood up to study her boss. There was something more funky than usual about Stephan this morning. Was he not getting enough sleep at night? Had the man started using drugs? What was that ugly phone conversation about? “I think this is a no-brainer. We could generate so much excitement-”

Stephan simply turned and left without comment, like a ghost, or a man who’d just realized he’d stepped into the wrong room and was lost.

Men. Lucy didn’t think she’d ever understand them.

Her phone rang. She picked it up and heard the unmistakable sound of Mary Fran in tears.

“My God! Frannie, what’s wrong? Is it the kids?”

“No. No. They’re fine.” More sobs.

Lucy figured she might as well give in to, the fact that today was going to be a doozy. Before most people could get their butts settled in their desk chairs, she had been publicly weighed and measured only to disappointment thousands; had learned without a doubt that Theo thought of her only as a friend; was dressed like a bag lady; had engaged in a nonsensical conversation with her borderline-insane boss; and had just been informed that her big sister was running away from home and moving in with her.

“You’re what?”

“I’ll be there tonight.”

“Fran, you can’t. What about the kids?”

“I told Keith I was leaving him and he’d have full responsibility for the children for as long as I decided to stay gone. We’ll see how long he survives.”

“Are you serious?”

“Well, no. Maybe I just need a wild girls’ weekend.”

“But Frannie-”

“Don’t try to stop me.”

“But-”

“I have to go. One of the twins just puked. My flight gets in at Miami International at ten.”

Lucy pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it. Mary Fran had hung up.