As Oliver walked down the hallway from Tammy’s office to his own, his hands pulled on his belt. He had tightened it by one notch already, but it was time for two. As he opened his closet to get a good look at himself in the hanging mirror, he surveyed the heap of worn-out knee sleeves, Nike shorts, and Dr Scholl’s support pads and swelled up with a sense of pride, and then – panic. Tammy’s voice rang in his head: You’re almost rid of me.
Three more weeks. That was all that was left before the daily structure she’d grafted onto his world would disappear. The structure that had pulled them closer together, that had turned her into his partner, his confidante – his best friend. It also hadn’t escaped his notice that, in the last four months, he had landed three more clients, smoothly juggled
