“Oh, honey.” Ellie jumped out of her chair and pulled Olivia into a hug. “Do you not want to talk about it? Is that why you didn’t tell me before? I’m sorry for quizzing you—I was mostly just joking until you said you went to the gym in the morning. Then I knew something was up. But if you want to just keep your head down and get work done today, I understand; I’ve been there.”

Olivia shook her head. Now that she’d said part of it, she had to get it all out.

“It all started because of that community center event I went to with him on Friday night. Thanks for your text about that; I’m glad I looked good in the pictures, at least.” She took the tissue Ellie handed her, and then let the whole story spill out. “I never thought this could work between us—I guess I was right.”

She took a deep breath.

“But worst of all, I let it affect our firm. I’m so sorry about that. All of those news stories brought our firm up, too; I hate that all of these people know things about me I never wanted them to know, and I’ve probably destroyed my career because of a man, but I’ll never forgive myself if I’ve destroyed yours, too. I was so afraid our firm would fail because I didn’t work hard enough or people didn’t have enough faith in us, but I never thought it might happen because I got myself in an ill-advised relationship.”

Ellie dropped the tissue box back on the desk.

“Olivia. What in God’s name are you talking about? If anything happens and our firm doesn’t survive, we’ll manage. I’ll get another job, and so will you. We are both fantastic lawyers, with successful careers, and one stint at a law firm that didn’t make it won’t do a damn thing to either of us. Neither, by the way, will a few news stories about you getting arrested over twenty years ago—do you know how many lawyers we both know who have multiple DUIs and are still partners at law firms? But none of this is an issue, because our law firm is not going to fail! And it’s certainly not going to fail because of anything that happened in your relationship!”

Olivia looked down at her lap so she wouldn’t have to meet Ellie’s eyes.

“Okay, but what if it does? I will have let you down, and myself down.”

Ellie banged her fist on the desk, and Olivia looked up in surprise.

“Pardon my language, but that’s bullshit. You haven’t let anyone down. You’ve worked your ass off for us. As a matter of fact, you’re the one who decided to take the Clementine case when I know we both wanted to tell those jerks we didn’t need their business. And we didn’t! We have plenty of work! Our firm is doing great! We’ve already surpassed some of our end-of-the-year goals, and it’s only August.”

Olivia wiped her eyes again.

“I know. But— ”

Ellie shook her head.

“No buts! Our business is thriving, but even if it wasn’t, the most important thing is us. Our firm is not the important thing here, our firm is not a person. You and I are what matter. Olivia and Ellie are more important than Monroe and Spencer any day. Never forget that, okay?”

Olivia closed her eyes for a second, and took a deep breath.

“You’re right. I did forget that, for a . . . while. I’m just not used to prioritizing Olivia over Olivia’s work product.”

Ellie pulled her out of the chair and into another hug.

“I know. But you’ve got to do it. Because I want to be working with you for a long damn time, and that’s not going to happen if you turn your own damn self into a robot.”

Olivia held on tight to her friend.

“I’ll try,” she said in a small voice. “Ellie, I love him so much.”

Ellie squeezed her hard.

“I know you do. Damn that man.” She pulled back and dabbed at Olivia’s face with one tissue, and her own with another.

Olivia took the tissue from her.

“I’m sorry about all of the crying.”

She hadn’t cried at work—at least where anyone could see her—since her third year as an associate, when a terrible partner had yelled at her. Other terrible partners had yelled at her after that, of course, but she’d never let them see her cry again.

“Like I say to Sophia, it’s okay to feel your feelings,” Ellie said.

Olivia made herself laugh.

“I felt enough feelings this weekend to do me for the rest of the year, thanks. Actually, no, for the rest of the decade. I’d like to stop feeling any feelings for a while.”

Ellie gave her one more hug.

“Oh, honey. I’ve been there.” She stood up. “Now, this is what I’m going to do—I’m going to go to that bakery on the corner and get two of the most delicious-looking pastries they have, and make you choose which one you want, even though I know you’re going to hem and haw and in the end I’m going to cut them in half so we can each have both. And I’m going to get you another coffee, because I bet that one sitting in front of you is cold by now. And then I’m going to book us a spa day this Saturday, and neither work nor my husband nor my child will keep us away from it. And then I’m going to check on you every few hours and see if you need me until you yell at me and tell me to stop. Does that sound good?”

Ellie opened Olivia’s door and disappeared without waiting for an answer. Olivia hoped Ellie didn’t come back with the pastries in one of those bakery boxes like all of those cakes had come in.