For three weeks, Julian and I did better than I'd expected.
We made plans. We kept them. We talked about work, family, and the difficult things that had once been easier to turn into an argument. We went to dinner with Tess again. I went to Julian's apartment and left before I felt trapped. He came to mine and didn't ask when I planned to move closer to the hotel.
It wasn't perfect. It was ordinary enough to scare me.
Then the opening schedule changed.
The owners wanted to move the first guest date forward by two weeks. Lila called me into the site office and told me the corridor fixtures were delayed. The electrician could install temporary lights, but the committee would expect me to oversee the change at no additional cost.
"I can do it," I said. "But I need the contract to cover t
