My office had been like a revolving door all morning. One person after another wanted or needed to speak to me about one thing or another. Some things were important and made me happy, like my boss telling me it pleased him that Peter's numbers were better, but others weren't.

I didn't much care about the company baseball tryouts, or the tricky tray for the local cub scouts the following Friday. Maybe that made me a bad person, but then again, I'd probably break and make a donation.

Our admin, Susie -who was a bit too chatty even for me, finally left my office right before lunch after telling me all, and I mean ALL, about her weekend plans. Way more information than anyone needed to know about what her fiancé was into.

I shivered when I eventually made it to the bathroom. The biological need finally forced visions of Susie in pink handcuffs out of my mind. It wasn't easy to go through an entire morning after two large cups of tea. I almost heard my bladder thank me as I washed up.

I spent the afternoon with my door closed, pretending I was Sherlock, and searched the internet every which way possible for a William Rodger in the Boston area. There had been a few possibilities, but nothing I didn't already know.

When I got home, I used my own laptop for further searches. I went through half a box of cookies and another couple of cups of tea, but in the end, nothing panned out. I was left with a few pieces of paper full of useless scribbles and a couple of hours of sleep. Neither helped my mood.

But in the morning I was back at it. Naturally, I found nothing, and there hadn't been a response to my email either. I wasn't even sure if I'd expected one. No, scratch that. I was. I had.

How freaking hard was it for this William person to just say, "sorry, I don't know what you're talking about?" Or if it actually was Austin, couldn't he just acknowledge me?

Before I had time to change my mind, I forwarded the email from the night before asking him to please respond.

An hour before lunch, there was still no response, and I'd worked myself up to a furious level. When my phone rang, my heart jumped inside my chest and I snatched the phone up like it was the most important thing I did all day, only to find out that it was just my sister.

"Oh," I sighed in disappointment.

"Wow, that's some hello. What did I do to you?" she asked in an amused tone.

I groaned and rubbed my hand over my temple in an attempt to dull the oncoming headache. "Nothing," I answered.

"Does your lovely mood mean that Austin never responded?" my sister asked sarcastically.

"William didn't respond," I corrected. "I'm not even sure he is Austin anymore."

"Oh, Ellie." She exhaled heavily. "Don't doubt yourself already. Did you call him?"

I walked over to the window and opened the blind fully, so I had a view of the small green space outside, next to the parking lot. Normally I enjoyed the view, but now it just felt like it was mocking me.

"No," I admitted. "I sent him two emails."

"Why don't you try to call him?" she asked in a way that made all the sense in the world, which simultaneously pissed me off.

"I doubt he'll answer."

"Okay, snappy," Aubrey said. "First of all, you won't know unless you try. And second, he might have recorded a voice mail. Did you think about that? You should be able to tell from his voice if it's him, no?"

Yeah... why the hell didn't I think of that?

Probably because I was too worried about actually having to talk to him. About the potential of rejection all over again. It would be so much worse to hear it than to read it.

But it would be the only way to know for sure if he continued to remain radio silent on email.

"You're right. I would know."

"Okay, good, do that," she said in the bossy mommy tone she uses for Brielle. "And since you made cupcakes last night, why don't you come over for dinner tonight? We can even go out for a drink if you want and you can stay over. Brian will be home with Brielle."

That sounded nice, like she was being a very supportive big sister, but I knew it better. It would also be an attempt at an interrogation. I responded with a "Maybe."

"Brielle would like to see her favorite aunt."

I snorted. "I'm her only aunt."

"Still her favorite."

That made me chuckle, and I promised I'd come for dinner, but I probably wouldn't stay over. I enjoyed sleeping in my own bed.

After wearing down the carpet in my office yet again from nervously pacing back and forth, I picked up the phone and dialed the number I had found for William Rodger in Boston. It was with a thundering heart that I listened to tone after tone as it rang, and when it finally picked up, I sucked in a deep breath, just to be let down by the automated voice mail.

I stumbled through a vague message which ended with me asking for a callback. But at the end of the day, there hadn't been a return call.

The disappointment flooded me all over again.

I called my sister on the way to the parking lot and did something I'd never done before. I canceled.

"Ellie," she sighed, but instead of reprimanding me like I'd expected because Brielle would be upset she just asked, "no luck with Austin?"

"No. Just a generic voicemail."

"Hm. That sucks."

"Yeah. It does."

I unlocked the car and shoved my bag inside.

"So now what?" she asked.

I huffed out an annoyed groan. "I don't know. Maybe this is the universe's way of telling me to let it go?"

"No," she responded immediately. "You promised yourself you weren't giving up this time. Don't talk like that just because it's getting hard."

I snorted sarcastically. "I don't know what else I can do unless I go up there."

"So go," she said, like it was the most logical response out there.

"Yeah, ok."

"I'm serious, Ellie. What do you have to lose?"

My sanity maybe. Or my heart.

"I can't just fly up to Boston on a hunch."

"You could, but you probably won't. Not without knowing for sure that he's there."

Damn, she could see right through me.

"Oh, oh, oh," she shouted a few seconds later. "Does he have a secretary?"

"What? I don't know, and what does that...ohhh." My eyes widened as I realized where she was going with that.

Aubrey laughed. "Call her directly and ask to be transferred over to him."

"That way, he won't know it's me."

"Exactly."

And just like that, I felt a bit better about things. William's secretary was about to become my best friend.