I made plans for right after work because I was afraid if I actually went home first, I'd chicken out. It's been over two weeks since I had the awkward, scary conversation with Special Agent Williams, and went to Max's house. I haven't seen any of the FBI agents around since then, but if they are keeping me under surveillance as I suspect, I probably wouldn't see them unless they wanted to be seen.

If they really are monitoring my phone calls, they must be disappointed. Max and I have not exchanged so much as a short text.

It's Friday, almost time to leave for the day. Martina comes into my office ostensibly to go over my schedule for next week, but I think she has something else on her mind.

"Ok," I tell her, after she runs out of things to say about next week's calendar. "Spill. I can tell there's something on your mind."

She's sitting in my visitor's chair, stylishly dressed as usual, her make-up perfect. But her eyes look concerned.

"I'm worried about you." She leans back in the chair, crossing her legs. "You look like you aren't sleeping."

"Well, thanks a lot."

"Hadley. Come on, it's not an insult. I'm worried about you," she repeats.

"There's nothing to worry about. I told you, Max and I are over."

"I saw him last weekend," she says, and I'm sure my expression reveals my jolt of interest, before I mask it, making my face show no expression. It's kind of pathetic how hungry I am for news of him.

"I imagine you see him pretty often, since he and Gabe are so tight." I school my voice to be calm, disinterested, like it doesn't matter, but she sees through me.

"Yeah, well he's no fun to be around. Moody, with that angry look on his face. Must be making work hell for Gabe, if he's like that all day."

"Not my problem," I tell her, although secretly I'm a little relieved that I'm not the only one suffering from our decision not to be together. And as much as I know it will be better in the long run to just cut off all contact, I keep kind of hoping there will be some legal issue with Gino that needs my expertise, just so I can torture myself by seeing Max again.

Martina is frowning at me. "And you. All you do is work, and go home and put on your baggy yoga pants and an old t-shirt, and eat takeout in front of the TV with your grandparents, and don't pretend I'm not right."

"So what if I do? It's my life."

"It's your life, so stop wasting it. You and Max have decided you can't be together. That doesn't mean you both have to shut yourselves off from the world. You aren't even taking a break to go out to lunch with me, and in the past two weeks I've tried three times to get you to go out for a drink after work, or do something on the weekend. You always have some excuse, and I'm over it."

I sigh. "I hope you didn't come in here to try and drag me out to some club tonight, because-"

"No, I actually didn't," Martina says, and I'm so surprised I think my mouth is gaping a bit. I was so sure that's what she was up to.

"Gabe and I are dragging Max out with us tonight. Nothing fancy, just some new club that opened recently, and Gabe used the excuse that we need to go check out the competition."

"How nice," I say. "And you wanted to share that with me why?"

"Because you need to stop moping around. I'm not saying go jump in bed with some random guy. I know you're still getting over Max. But you could at least try to do something besides sitting around at home feeling sorry for yourself."

That one rankles, and I stare defiantly back at her.

"As a matter of fact," I tell her, "I have a date tonight."

She practically squeals in delight. "Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Is it that guy from the gym? Brad?"

"Yes, it is."

"Tell me more," she says, her eyes brightening with interest.

"There's nothing to tell, really. Remember on Tuesday when you had that dentist appointment so you didn't go the gym with me? Brad was there and we hung out at the juice bar talking, and he asked me out and I said yes. It's not a big deal," I lie.

"It's a huge deal," Martina says. "Here I thought I needed to be there to push you into making a move with Brad, and all I really had to do was get out of your way."

"Would you stop? I probably won't even go out with him a second time."

Martina gets up from her chair, comes around my desk and actually hugs me.

"I'm so proud of you, Hadley. Do you want me to come over? Help you get ready? We're not going out until late because, you know, club."

I shake my head. "I'm going straight from the office. And don't get so excited. It's just a drink after work."

She nods. "Smart. That way you can't go home and chicken out." She tilts her head quizzically. "Dinner after?"

"An option for dinner," I concede. "I'll see how it goes."

I do a little more work, but I'm not really focused. I'm just killing time until I need to leave to meet Brad. I have such weird feelings about it. Saying yes to a date with Brad makes me feel disloyal to Max, but that's ridiculous. Max and I broke up. Going out with someone else - anyone else - is the first step to moving on with my life.

At 6:00 I pack up my things and head down the hallway. Martina has already left for the day, along with most of the staff and some of the lawyers.

I walk across the empty lobby just as another attorney in the office, CJ Burrows, comes around the corner from the main conference room, carrying a stack of files.

"Have a good evening," I say, and I swear CJ looks directly at me, and then just continues on down the hall without saying a word.

That's just so . . . strange. I'm sure they saw me, unless they were so focused on some legal issue they looked right through me.

CJ joined the firm about a year before I did, and has asked me to go to lunch a few times, but our schedules never meshed. Now I feel guilty for not following up. I've been so preoccupied with my family issues and all the drama with Max, that I haven't really spent as much time as I should forming relationships in the office. But would they really snub me just because I wasn't free for lunch a couple of times? It seems like a huge overreaction.

I consider following them down the hall and making sure there's not some issue, but I waited until the last minute to leave to meet Brad and I really don't want to be late.

I decide I'll just stop by their office next week and make plans to have lunch, and find out what the deal is.

Because the last thing I need, when I'm already dealing with Dylan snooping around my business, is to have more drama in the office.

My phone pings with a text message while I'm on my way to get my car in the parking garage. My first thought is that it's probably Martina with some encouraging words for my date, thinly disguising the fact that she's checking up on me to make sure I'm actually going.

I refuse to acknowledges the little half-second thought that hits me every time my phone pings that maybe it's Max.

It's neither. It's an unknown number.

I open the car door and slide into the seat, then pull up the text message.

It's from the last person I would have guessed would be texting me, and I wonder how she even got my number.

Hi this is Angelica. We met at the art gallery and, you know, at Max's place. So sorry about that. I'm in town for the weekend. Can we have lunch? There's something VERY important I need to talk to you about.

I stare at the phone. Reread the message. I met this woman for all of five minutes at the art opening, then humiliated myself in front of her at Max's apartment.

What in the world would Gino's niece need to talk to me about that's VERY, in all caps, important?

My first impulse is to text Max and ask him if he knows what's going on. Then I reconsider. I'm not going to use this as an excuse to text Max. And who knows - maybe Angelica wants my opinion on something she wouldn't want Max to know about.

I text her back. Hi Angelica - I'm surprised to hear from you, but sure. I'm free tomorrow. Just text me where and when.

When there's no response after about 30 seconds, I put my phone away. I'm sure she'll text back later. Maybe she got interrupted.

Then I try to put it all out of my mind - CJ's strange snub in the lobby, and the even more unexpected text from Angelica - and just focus on getting through this date tonight that I'm already having second thoughts about.