They spent the night rediscovering each other, falling asleep with their limbs intertwined. In the morning, Maria had no regrets and was surprised to catch herself picturing something long-term between them. The thought was strangely thrilling. After they spent Saturday together flying kites at the beach, the feeling only continued to grow.
On Saturday night, she had dinner with Jill and Leslie while Colin worked; after his shift ended, they met at his place. Evan and Lily were there, and the four of them talked until past three in the morning. Unable to stay awake a minute longer, Colin and Maria didn’t make love until the following morning.
Though she invited him to brunch, Colin begged off with his apologies, citing a number of upcoming exams he had to study for before working another shift that evening. When she arrived at her parents’ home, she was pleased to learn that Smokey – the name her parents had chosen for the dog – now had his own rhinestone collar, bed, and various toys strewn throughout the living room, but he seemed most content when snuggled against her father. In the kitchen, Carmen couldn’t stop humming. For her part, Serena talked more about Steve than she ever had before. “Okay, maybe it’s getting a little serious,” she admitted, eventually submitting to her mother’s grilling.
At the table, it was Felix’s turn to ask about Steve, and all Maria could do was smile. Between her career, her family, and now Colin, things were on the way up. As they cleared the table, Maria realized again that she was no longer obsessing about the man in the baseball hat, partly because of everything else going on, but also because there’d been no sign of him lately.
She wanted to think he’d given up – that he’d finished rattling her cage. But as much as she’d enjoyed the temporary reprieve, she wasn’t yet ready to believe it was completely over.
Before a rainbow, after all, there’s usually a storm.
The weather was too cool to paddleboard, and since Colin was occupied, Maria spent the rest of the afternoon and evening trying to catch up on office work. With Lynn absent and Barney operating at less than full capacity, the fact that she’d be leaving in three weeks made her feel a bit guilty. Not guilty enough to change her mind, but enough to keep her at the MacBook until her documents became a blur and writing became pointless.
When she awoke the next morning, Maria found herself wondering about the coming week – how much worse the mood at the office was going to be – and whether anyone else had made the decision to leave. Most of the partners were as distracted as Barney and Ken, which meant work was probably backlogged in every department, and making new hires was going to be tough once word of the firm’s troubles leaked out. No doubt it already had.
For now, she resolved to make her own departure as painless for Barney as possible. Hitching her purse over her shoulder, she grabbed her briefcase and headed out the door, her eyes flashing to the doormat.
It took a moment to process what she was seeing before her breath caught in her throat.
A wilted rose, with petals turning black, along with a note.
You will know how it feels.
Almost like she was dreaming, her feet remained rooted to the doorstep, because she knew there would be more. On the railing near the steps was another rotting rose that drooped under the weight of another card. Willing her feet to move forward, she stepped over the flower on her doormat and moved closer to read:
Why did you hate her?
The parking lot outside her door was deserted, the sidewalk empty; no cars she didn’t recognize. Her mouth was dry as she locked the door behind her and lifted the rose from the mat. Grabbing the flower that had been threaded through the railing, she forced herself to walk down the steps, her eyes scanning her car.