Chapter 37

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Wills wasn’t sick for long. With the help of the Tylenol and plenty of fluids, his temperature was back to normal in a couple of days, and after it had been normal for twenty-four hours, he went back to work and I went back to preparing clients’ income tax returns.

In more ways than one, things were back to normal.

Valentine’s Day was coming up. I wanted to give my lover something special, something that he could wear always, have with him always.

The sales associate at Mount Olympus, the exclusive jewelers a few doors down from Beau Brummel’s, had taken out a velvet tray containing twenty-four karat gold chains, and I studied the different types of links. I had selected a gold Virgo charm surrounded by jade—Wills’s birthstone—and it was being engraved while I chose the chain it would hang from. In the case beside the chains were wedding bands, and after a wistful glance at them, I turned my attention back to the chains.