Jealous in July (Spring River Valley Book 7) by Clarice Wynter

Mitzi would run off to the kitchen to find some. The woman just stared at her blankly. “Mitzi? Are you okay?”
    “I think I’m going to be sick.”
    Oh, please no . “Not on this rug, you’re not.” She grabbed Mitzi’s thin shoulders and spun her toward the bathroom. Together they marched into the pink and gold powder room. Brenda positioned Mitzi near the commode and then did a neat about-face and marched herself back out. “I’ll be right out here. Splash some water on your face and take a few deep—”
    The sound of retching interrupted Brenda’s instructions. Shoulders bowed, she leaned against the cool wall for a second, then raced back to retrieve her phone from the living room. She wanted to call Chase, but she figured even in her desperate state Mitzi might hear her, and she didn’t want to be caught talking about one of the partners. She texted as quickly as her fingers could move. Stuck at Mitzi’s, lots of work. Sorry! Can we talk later?
    As much as she wanted to slip out now, while Mitzi was otherwise occupied, some small part of her couldn’t bring herself to leave the woman in this kind of distress. Hopefully with the wine out of her system, she’d want nothing more than to sleep it off. Brenda kept her fingers crossed and knocked on the bathroom door. “Are you okay?”
    The muffled reply sounded like an affirmative.
    Brenda checked her phone. No response. What if Chase didn’t believe her?
    A second later the bathroom door swung open, and Mitzi appeared. Mascara ran in zigzag lines down her cheeks and lip gloss smeared her chin. Brenda cringed. This was a side of her boss she would have never wanted to see, and she could imagine it was one Mitzi didn’t want anyone to know about either. “Maybe I should go now. You probably need to rest.”
    “Brenda…I’m so sorry about all this.”
    “You don’t have to apologize. I’ve been there. I’ve been dumped. I know it’s awful, but it gets better. You’ll be okay.” She put her arm around Mitzi and walked her back to the living room. The wine stain was probably too far gone for club soda to save the rug now, so she steered the woman away from the mess and sat her on the sofa. “Why don’t you try a little tea, maybe some toast, and then take a nap? You’ll feel a lot better in the morning, I promise you.”
    “I love him. I really love him. It’s not just sex, you know.”
    “I know.” Brenda had no idea, but it sounded good to agree. Glassy-eyed and shivering now, Mitzi curled up on the couch, hugging a pillow. Though she seemed oblivious to Brenda at the moment, she had no doubt Mitzi would notice her absence if she tried to quietly sneak out the door.
    Resigned to her fate, she sat in one of the luxurious chairs. “Do you want to talk about it?”
    “He pursued me, you know. He was so charming. He acted like he wanted to impress me.” A half smile curved Mitzi’s now naked lips. She rubbed at the mascara streaks, and Brenda searched the room frantically for a tissue, but there was nothing close at hand. “You can tell when a guy really cares, when he really wants you. He does certain things. He worries about you. There’s a look in his eyes. Do you know what I mean?” Now Mitzi turned her bleary gaze to Brenda, and something tightened in her stomach. She nodded. She had definitely seen that look…in Chase’s eyes last night.
    He still hadn’t responded to her text.
    “I don’t really know how it happened. I mean…I was doing my best not to let him get to me. I never intended to get involved with a married man, really.”
    Brenda hmm ’d in response. This was more a monologue than a conversation, but she couldn’t zone out. Mitzi needed a sympathetic ear, even if none of this was something an employee should be hearing about two of the firm’s partners.
    “I don’t know…one day, he was there, I was there and everything changed. I wanted him. It was like lightning struck me.”
    “Mmm. I know how that