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64 | FRANCESCA PE NN

Chapter 14

Henri
I
am in trouble. Watching Sanya leave without me is the hardest thing I’ve done
recently. The Cassie saga included. Her big, sad eyes look at me one last time

before she starts to blend with the crowd. She looks small and fragile. I force
myself to remain in place. I don’t need to make a scene in the airport. I need to be
with her, but I need my job. I am in a quandary, which is the first clue that I care
about her more than sex and friendship.
I should not be this sad. It is less than twenty-four hours. When had her pain
become mine? I return home with sushi and pull out my laptop. It is time to push
Sanya out of my head and fix the specs. My phone rings before I am successful. I
look at the screen and smile for the first time since I told Sanya she had to leave
without me.

“Hello, Ms. Gail. What can I do for you?”
“My daughter,” she announces without hesitation. She has moxy.
“I wish,” I mutter it out loud before I can remember to whom I am speaking.
I scrub my hand across my face. What am I thinking? I’m not; that is the long and

the short of it.
“I knew it. I knew it!” She celebrates on the other end. “A mother knows these
things.” She sobers for a moment. “Why didn’t you tell her? I gave you the perfect
opening.”
“You put me on the spot, and I don’t think Sanya is ready to hear it. I think it
would have added some awkwardness to our relationship.” What the hell is this?
Truth Night? Shut it, Henri.