Page 33 of Hitched to my Boss

She stops but doesn't turn around.

"What if you leave then remember that you were happier here? That we were building something worth keeping?"

"Then I'll deal with that when it happens. But right now, I need to prioritize saving my career over saving a marriage that might have been a mistake from the start."

She disappears upstairs, leaving me alone in the cabin that suddenly feels as empty as it did before she arrived. But worse, because now I know what it feels like to have someone's presence fill the spaces I didn't even know were hollow.

I sink into the chair she'd vacated, staring at the flight information she'd left on the table. Atlanta. Tomorrow morning. Back to the life that makes sense, the career that defines her, the identity she had before Jason Wallace complicated everything.

I want to follow her upstairs, to argue and fight and convince her that what we have is worth more than any career. But I can hear her moving around in our bedroom, the sound of drawers opening and closing, the quiet efficiency of someone who's made a decision and is determined to stick with it.

And maybe she's right. Maybe I am asking too much, expecting her to reshape her entire life around mine while I continue exactly as I was before. Maybe the smart thing is to let her go, to chalk this up to a Vegas mistake that we tried to make work but couldn't.

But as I sit in the cabin that she's turned into a home, surrounded by the small touches that made it feel like our space instead of just mine, I know I'm not ready to give up on what we built together.

The question is whether I'm brave enough to fight for it, or whether I'll do what I've always done when things getcomplicated and retreat behind walls until the problem goes away.

10

NATALIA

The Atlanta skyline should feel like coming home.

I stand in my downtown apartment, staring out at the city lights that once represented everything I'd worked for. The view from my floor-to-ceiling windows showcases the financial district, the gleaming towers that house the kinds of clients I'd built my career serving. This apartment, this view, this life, it's everything I thought I wanted when I was starting out.

So why does it feel like wearing clothes that no longer fit?

"You look terrible," Maya observes from my kitchen, where she's making coffee in the machine I'd forgotten I owned. "When's the last time you slept?"

"I slept on the plane." I settle into my desk chair, opening my laptop to the stack of emails that have accumulated during my week-long absence. "How are my plant babies?"

"Alive, but judging you for abandoning them." Maya brings me a mug, studying my face with the scrutiny of someone who's known me for eight years. "Nat, what happened up there? You look like someone died."

"Nothing died. I just came to my senses."

"Your senses tell you to leave your husband after a month of marriage?"

"My senses told me to remember who I was before I got swept up in playing house with a mountain man." I take a sip of coffee, noting how it tastes different than Jason's. Weaker. Less substantial. "Maya, I lost a major client because I was too distracted to do my job properly. David Chen dismissed me as a serious professional because I'm 'dealing with personal complications.' I was disappearing into a relationship, and that's not who I am."

"Okay, but you're also miserable."

"I'm readjusting. It's been three days."

"You've checked your phone forty-seven times since you got here. And don't think I didn't notice you wearing his flannel shirt under your blazer."

I look down, realizing she's right. The soft flannel that still smells faintly like Jason is underneath my professional armor, a comfort I hadn't even consciously chosen.

"It was clean," I lie.

"Uh-huh." Maya sits across from me, her expression serious. "Nat, I love you, but you're being an idiot."

"Excuse me?"

"You found something real. Something that made you happier than I've ever seen you. And you threw it away because it didn't fit into your five-year plan."

"I threw it away because it was destroying my professional reputation."

"Your professional reputation will recover. You're brilliant at what you do, and one missed client doesn't erase ten years of success." Maya leans forward. "But when are you going to find another man who looks at you the way Jason looked at you in those Vegas photos? When are you going to find someone else who makes you light up from the inside?"

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