Chapter 23: The Company Dinner

I waited five days, and Marlee didn't even acknowledge me. I messaged her; no response. I called, and she just let it ring. My emotions seesawed between hope and dread. Women were impossible to read, their thoughts slipping right through your fingers, no matter how hard you tried to hold on. Almost every day, I checked Marlee's phone and laptop. The diary on her computer hadn't been updated. Late at night, when everything was quiet, she'd read a couple of chapters of a novel. On her phone,...