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cola and an open box.
    “Donuts, Melanie?”
    Melanie grabbed one and waved it at Jessica. “Don’t judge me.”
    “Judge you?” She walked toward the box and grabbed one of the chocolate glazed donuts. “I want to join you.”
    Melanie laughed and set the donut on the table, then continued painting the stripes on her nails. Jessica took a bite of her donut and enjoyed the rich burst of chocolate flavor. Then she hummed along to the song, something about not being broken, just bent, and learning to love again. It spoke to her current situation perfectly.
    “That’s some manicure you’ve got going there,” Jessica said as Melanie added a startling yellow stripe to her nails.
    Melanie grinned. “It’s not finished yet.” Then she picked up a bottle of black polish and rolled it between her hands. Melanie had once told her that shaking a polish could introduce bubbles, so it was better to roll it like that. “Now I’m going to put a black crackle on top. I think it’ll look quite dramatic.” She nodded toward the bottles. “Grab some polish and do yours, too.”
    “Nope.” Jessica settled back, donut in hand. “I’m just going to relax.”
    Melanie had applied the black polish to four nails so far and faint cracks were already appearing on some of them.
    “So, Melanie, what happened this morning? Why did Dane fire you?”
    Melanie inspected the hand she’d just finished and then started on the other one.
    “I mean, I know he has no grounds on which to fire you,” Jessica continued, “so we must be able to fight it.”
    Melanie frowned and for the first time, Jessica wondered if she was wrong. Had Melanie done something? Everyone made mistakes sometimes, but Jessica couldn’t possibly figure out what Melanie could have done to deserve firing.
    “I don’t want to fight it.”
    “I know it would be awkward coming back to work for Dane,” Jessica said, “but Ranier Industries is a big company. I’m sure they could find something else for you so you wouldn’t have to work for him directly.”
    Melanie sighed and put a last swipe of polish on her nails, then put the cap back on the polish bottle.
    “Dane already suggested that. I said no.”
    “What? I don’t understand.”
    Melanie settled back on the couch. “This morning, I went into Dane’s office to quit.”
    “Why did you want to quit?” As soon as she’d asked the question, Jessica wished she could take it back. It had to be because of the relationship between Rafe and Jessica.
    Melanie frowned. “You know I don’t begrudge you the fact that you and Rafe fell in love, but…”—she glanced down at her hands—“it’s hard to watch. I’m happy for you and all, and when you get married, I still want to be your friend, but…” She gazed Jessica’s way again. “I guess I always held hope that Rafe would eventually notice me and that we could somehow get past the whole boss-secretary thing and … I don’t know … maybe my dream would come true. But I know now that it will never happen, and I don’t want to hang around and watch that dream being torn away from me.”
    Jessica placed her hand over her heart. “I’m so sorry, Melanie. I knew—”
    “ Please don’t be.” Melanie smiled. “I didn’t say it was logical, and I don’t blame you for any of this. In fact, I didn’t even realize I was harboring such insane feelings, but when I saw that you had won Rafe’s heart and I didn’t stand a chance, I realized I’d been letting that subconscious hope stop me from moving on with my life.”
    “How did that all translate to Dane firing you?”
    “It turns out he already knew I had feelings for Rafe. Did you tell him?”
    “No, I would never do that.”
    Melanie nodded. “Anyway, we both knew that no matter what I told Rafe about why I was leaving, he’d do everything he could to talk me into staying. He’d probably better any offer I might have received elsewhere and I’d find myself in an awkward position.