The traffic light turned green and Julian was lost in his thoughts of yesterday’s events that he didn’t even notice the changing light. A car behind him honked and woke him up out of his daze. He waved and began moving forward.
---

Julian was sitting behind his desk and on an important phone call when Eve opened the door and closed it. Eve smiled briefly. He met eyes with her and turned around in his swivel chair so that he didn’t have to look at her.

“Yes, James, thank you,” Julian said as he ended the call.

He turned around in the chair again, and faced Eve as he hung up the phone.

“Eve,” he said as he raised his brows, “What can I do for you?”

Eve noticed Julian’s change in attitude towards her and didn’t like it. Julian was now acting more professional with her.

“I thought we could talk,” she began walking towards his desk.

“Talk? What about?” he said nonchalantly as he walked passed her towards the table in his office.

“About us, Julian.”

“Us?” he scoffed as his back was towards her, “Dear, there is no us…well, not anymore,” Julian turned to face her, “But I am happy that you’re happy,” it killed him to say those words, because he was not ‘happy’ at all.

“Julian, you have to understand that I did this for my daughters, I…”

“For your daughters? Eve, please, I wasn’t born yesterday,” he walked passed her again.

Julian began fumbling through his desk drawer when he spoke again.

“Eve, when is it that you are going to do what YOU want?! Hmm? You’re going back to Tc for your daughters, but the thing is, Eve…your daughters are grown women. They are not two or three years old…” he looked to the side, “…even though they act as if they are…”

“Mr. Crane, they are waiting for you in the conference room.”

“Yes, thank you, Joyce,” Julian spoke into the speaker phone and hung up, “Well, Eve, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late to a very important meeting. Good day,” he smiled as he left her in his office.

Eve stared at the closed door. She looked down sadly, but when she heard the door open, she looked up happily expecting to see Julian coming back to talk to her. But she was disappointed. It was Julian’s secretary.

“Oh, Dr. Russell, you’re still here,” she smiled, “I was just going to place these folders on Mr. Crane’s desk,” she walked towards the desk, “Can I get you some coffee while you wait for him?” she asked kindly.

“No,” Eve whispered, “I was on my way out,” she said and left the office.
---

Eve was on her way to the hospital, but felt that she couldn’t go in today with the way she was feeling and with all these things on her mind, so she informed them that she would not be coming in.

She decided to just drive when she ended up in Boston. Driving for what seemed to be forever, Eve decided to pull into the parking lot of this one park. As she walked, this lady bumped into her.

“Watch out b*tch!” she screamed to the woman, but the woman just stared back at her, “What, b*tch?! You want some of this?!” Eve glared at her as she looked down on the poor helpless sixty year old lady, “Oh my God,” Eve held a hand up to her mouth when she realized how she had just spoke to this woman, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say those words,” Eve pleaded to the woman, but she just turned and rushed out of there, “Oh God, what came over me,” Eve looked up as she sat down.
---

Julian came back to his office two hours later and walked over to the front of his desk to look through the files that Joyce had left him, when he felt a pair of hands on his eyes. He knew it was Eve…his Eve, so he smiled as he turned around to face her, but what he got was the fright of his life, for it was Liz in front of him, not Eve. Julian shrunk back and knocked over items on his desk, one being the picture frame with his and Eve’s picture. It fell to the floor and the glass shattered. Liz then bent over and picked it up.

“Quite symbolic, wouldn’t you say?” she laughed, “You’re engagement broke up and so did this picture of you and sister dear.”

“What do you want?” he said in a dull voice.

“Want? Why would you think I wanted anything?” she grinned.

“Because that’s how you are…always wanting things you CAN’T have!”

“Well, it seems that I’m not the only person that wants something I can’t have; it seems that you want Eve, but she’s Tc’s again,” Liz laughed, “Ohh poor Julian, Eve just dumped you after all you did for her,” Liz joked as she walked over to the bar and fixed herself a drink.

She poured the whiskey into a glass and then chugged it down.

“Ahhh…SMOOTHE,” she said with a hoarse voice as the whiskey singed her throat.

Julian rolled his eyes.

“Hmm, Julian, you know…” she said as she poured herself another drink.

“Help yourself, why don’t you,” he crossed his arms and stared at her.

“Why thank you,” Liz chuckled, “Don’t mind if I do. As I was saying…you know, maybe if you’d call Eve a ‘wh*re’ or a ‘sl*t’ or maybe a ‘tramp’; maybe she’d come back to you, since she just loves to be called those names. No, no, wait, maybe if you dangled some pills in front of her, maybe that would get her attention,” she fell into a chair and began laughing uncontrollably.

Julian marched up to her and grabbed her by her hair.

“You say another word about Eve and I swear I’ll kill you, right here, right now!” he pulled her hair so that she winced in pain.

“Ow, Julian, alright, alright!” she pulled from him.

“So, why the hell are you here anyways?!”

“Because I have an idea on how we can get Eve away from Tc.”

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Oh come on, Julian! You know as soon as Eve would see us as a couple, she’d rush over to you so fast, it would…”

“Liz, get real! I would never partner up with you in this preposterous conspiracy. You’re a miserable witch, and you’ll always be one. Now if you’ll leave my office…NOW!”

Her mouth dropped as she heard the things Julian told her.

“This isn’t over yet, Julian!” she grabbed her purse and made her way to the door and turned around, “I know you’ll come running to me when you’ve decided to take me up on this offer…”

“When hell freezes over, Liz! OUT!” he pointed towards the door.

She opened the door and then slammed it behind her.

Julian shook his head at the scheme Liz came up with. Joyce knocked on the door and brought him his dry cleaning.

“Thank you, Joyce.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Crane,” she smiled and half-turned, “Oh, did you know that there’s broken glass by your desk, Mr. Crane? I’ll have it cleaned up in no time,” she volunteered.

“No, that’s okay, I’ll do it myself. Thank you.”

“Yes, sir,” she said and left his office.

Julian bent down and tossed the jagged edges in the waste basket and then he sat down and took the picture out of the frame. He took one look at the “happy couple” and then crumpled the picture in his hand and tossed it to the side. Seconds later he fetched the wrinkled photo and un-crumpled it.

“Eve, I hope you’re happy; I mean truly happy, because that’s all I want for you. Even if I can never have you for my wife,” he smiled, “I just want you to be happy, darling…” he said as he traced her face, and then tucked their picture into his pocket.