He swallowed down the will to suppress this conversation and asked what he wasn’t sure he was prepared to have answered. “What’s involved in the check-up?”

“Let’s just say the abuse didn’t end with my uncle’s death.” She got up, book and box in hand, and took the path toward the street.

“Be honest with me. Is that the reason you don’t want to go to my apartment? You don’t want to be intimate with me?”

“I don’t go to your apartment because if I don’t return home, I go to Bleekman’s.”

He sat there, feeling like he’d been punched in the gut. Today’s information hit him hard. This girl he was falling in love with was wearing a ring he’d just given her and yet, he wasn’t protecting her like he should. How did he not know any of this before now? He tried to control his anger, but that wasn’t going to happen. “You’re not going back to Bleekman’s,” he shouted.

He followed her. She turned around when he got close, and said, “Don’t you see how much I love you, Hazel?”

Love was in the air, in her heart, and filled his, but her forthright declaration surprised him.

Through the cleansing of the darkness, she was looking at him bathed in light. The spark returned to her eyes when he neared and his hands went around her waist. He lifted her up, eye level with him, and kissed her. When he set her down, he said, “I love you more.”

With a teasing smile, she said, “You said your gifts didn’t cost much.”

“It’s only money, Jude. Money doesn’t matter. Love does.”

Jude started opening up after that. The stories were hard to hear, but he would listen, would ask questions, and would comfort her the best he could. He just wished he could open up as easily. Telling her about his illness seemed like a daunting burden he didn’t want to place on her. She had enough to deal with.

In late February, they were waiting in line, a coffee for him and hot chocolate for her, outside his work on his lunch hour, when she said, “You would have liked my brother Ryan.”

He tried not to make a big deal when she offered these insights into her life up, but it was hard to just wait to see what she would say. “Was he like you?”

“No. He was strong.”

“I think you’re strong.”

“You say that because you don’t see me but for a few hours each day.”

“I say that because you’ve survived and still have the ability to make others smile.” He smiles and points at it.

That made her laugh. He loved hearing her laugh. She laughed quite often with him and it made him wonder if she laughed when they were apart. “Tell me more about Ryan.”

“Ryan was a lot like you—handsome and smart.” She rolled her eyes. “Girls were all over him all the time. It was quite annoying actually. He was two years older than me and would have done great things in life, if given the chance.”

Sensitive to the subject, he whispered, “How did he die?”

“He didn’t have a fitting death for the life he led.” They moved up in line. “He was hit crossing the street here in the city. Two cars racing. In Manhattan. It would have never ended well. Someone was destined to die. I just wish it wouldn’t have been my brother.”

“Me too.” Taylor put his arm around her shoulders and they ordered their drinks. When they walked away, the moment had passed, and Jude was onto another topic. Each time she shared a little more of herself, of the life she hid from him, he started to feel he understood why she kept them hidden.

Mid-March. On a Saturday that couldn’t decide if it was winter or spring, Jude felt very much that she and Hazel were star-crossed lovers. One day felt like perfection, the next complications from their secret affair overshadowed their day. Despite the mixture of emotions, she stopped when she found they were walking by The Plaza Hotel. People were coming and going, rushing past them as she stood there, looking up into hazel eyes that adored her. “We should go in.”

It wasn’t a suggestion and he took full advantage of the offer. “How much longer do we have?”

“Two hours left.”

He didn’t run, but he might have rushed the doors and up to the registration desk. “One room please.”

The woman behind the counter glanced to Jude and then to Taylor, for whom she smiled. “Certainly. One room for the night. Check-out is eleven in the morning.”

The plastic of his credit card slapped against the counter, and he replied, “That will work.”

Taking the card in hand, she looked at the name and up to him. “Very well, Mr. Barrett. No luggage?”

“Nope. Spur-of-the-moment trip,” he said, smiling.

Jude lifted up on her toes and whispered, “Are you sure?”

“Never more so.”

Looking around the lobby, she knew it was time, so with her back to the desk, she said, “I want to have you over for dinner with my family.”

“Really?” he asked, shocked.

“I’ll tell my parents about us tonight.”

“Do you want me there?”

“No,” she replied, coyly. “I should break it to them first. I’ll have to explain when I’ve been seeing you. I haven’t been telling them the full truth. I tell them where I go, but I don’t tell them who I’m with, so I don’t know how they’ll react.”

He took her hand and kissed it. “That’s why you take the brochures?”

“That’s why.”

Jude spoke to the front desk attendant, “Can we have champagne sent up to the room. We’re celebrating.”

Peeking up at Taylor, he had one eyebrow raised, then said to Jude, “Yes, we are. Several times over if we have it my way.”

“Have I ever told you how much I like your way? Especially when you have your way and move your tongu—”

“Sir!” the woman said, interrupting. “Your card. Please sign here and here is your room key.”

Taylor signed for the room and took the key. After listening to brief directions, the two walked together toward the elevators, a shared secret on their lips.

THE FUNNY THING about fate is one can’t outrun it. No matter how much they try, setting their sights on a different outcome, they will always end up exactly where they were meant to be.

Rufus Stevens had just left a hotel room at The Plaza after giving his regular Saturday rendezvous a diamond bracelet to keep her coming back, and more importantly, to keep her mouth shut. For, Mr. Rufus Stevens had a sexually experimental side that wouldn’t go over well with the blue-blooded debutantes he preferred to date, or rather, to be seen with in public. So he took his sexual transgressions out on highly paid call girls instead.

More recently, the Stevens family, namely his parents, had started to put pressure on him to settle down. They’d even offered a high-paying position at the family-run business and free access to the estate in the Hamptons as a wedding gift. Even after getting off, he felt like a dead man walking just from the thought.

That was until he saw a certain old chum of his across the lobby heading to the elevators with one sexy piece of ass under his arm. Taylor Barrett had been a thorn in his side since Rufus faced a rape accusation back in high school. Taylor Barrett had backed the girl instead of his friend. Daddy Stevens paid the family to shut it down, but it took nine years to get the satisfaction Rufus wanted. When Rufus nailed Taylor’s soon-to-be fiancée in a supply closet of the hospital where Taylor was recovering, he had finally gotten his sweet revenge.

“Taylor Barrett?” he called, stopping and making a scene. “Hey, is that you?”

Jude and Taylor took a step away from each other on instinct, their bodies disengaging. Taylor looked back, but he knew the voice before seeing the face attached. As they turned around, they both held their breath unintentionally. Taylor put on a smile and waved. “Hey, what a coincidence running into you here.” Not at all.