1.
Julia Steed shook her head and wondered how her life had turned into this. She and her husband had started with just love and passion, wanting to conquer goals and build a life. Now, at forty, they had conquered goals and built a beautiful outer life, but there was no passion at all between them.
Why? Why?
She pushed her seven-series BMW harder through traffic, worried she was running late to meet her protege for lunch. For a second, she thought about running this by him, but that thought quickly passed. How would Trevor ever understand? Everyone thought she had things just as she wanted. After all, she had worked so hard.
The daily working-out and eating right served her well. The hours of diligence she gave to her interior design business had paid off. Her charity work with the City Women's League gave her satisfaction and got her outside herself. Why then couldn't she just accept things as they were?
She checked her lightly touched make-up in the rear view mirror, and she liked how her blonde hair gathered up neatly as she had hoped. She didn't really worry about forty. The hint of lines showed beside her eyes, but her feminine appearance remained distinct.
But she did worry about the fact she had to please her own ever increasing needs, when her husband couldn't be bothered to even touch her. Focusing on her clear blue eyes one more time, she asked herself what more she could do about this on her own.
The gentle questions put to her Bill hadn't worked. Suggestions about couples counseling were rebuffed. She had even brought up exotic vacations they could take. Nothing registered.
She was glad she was having lunch with Trevor after all. He’d had to back up their time, so instead of coffee, it became lunch. That was fine. Whatever.
In a way, Trevor was like a younger, more aggressive version of Bill, and it would be a nice break for her. Originally, one of the young guys in their subdivision who they knew in passing, over time, Trevor had turned to her for business coaching.
Wasn't sure why, but getting together with him always seemed to lift her spirits. She could at least divert herself onto his work and how she was helping him develop his business She admired him, and they were close. She seemed to be helping him get more clients.
At least she had that.
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