Page 205 of The Right Sign

“This project.”

His words trigger something in me. Maybe it’s my situation with Yaya. Maybe it’s my own turmoil projecting on him.

But I snap.

“You can’t have two. You have to choose one.”

He considers it. “Then I choose the project.”

“Why?” I ask, horrified.

“Because medicine will always be there, but this project won’t.”

My vision turns red. “The medicine shouldn’t be the only one fighting. It’s doing everything it can.Everything. You have to be in it too, dammit!”

Face totally void of expression, Cullen stares at me. “Why are you yelling?”

Yeah, whyamI yelling? “Because this is important.”

He blinks slowly. “I don’t think we know each other that well for you to be upset.”

Dammit, he’s right.

And annoying.

“Most people wouldn’t point that out,” I say in a more normal tone.

He bobs his head as if he can’t refute that statement.

The nurse returns and I back away, watching numbly as she scolds Cullen who, from her words, is ‘the worst patient ever’ and proceeds to return his oxygen mask where it belongs. She then shoos us away, claiming her patient needs rest.

I leave Cullen with his laptop because I get the feeling that wrenching the device away from him would be akin to cutting off a limb.

Given my outburst earlier, I’m clearly in no state to work, so I head straight to my meeting point with Yaya. I’m a little over an hour early.

“Are you just going to wait here?” Mosely asks as the vehicle idles.

I sigh heavily. “I need to think.”

He climbs out of the car and returns with a bagel and a coffee. “You should eat something.”

His phone rings.

“It’s the PR team,” Mosely tells me after a one-sided ‘yeah, uh-huh’ conversation. He slants the phone a worried look then gives me one that’s twice as concerned. It’s like he can’t decide between saving the company or saving me.

I make the decision for him. “Do what we discussed last night. You can bring me up to speed later.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

Having a breakup conversation with the woman I love? “I’m going to be fine.”

Translation: I’m going to be a mess and I don’t want witnesses.

He nods and starts to open his door.

“Mosely.”

He stops.

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