“Good. I’m glad. Give Cara a hug for me when she gets home. I’ll try to call later.”

“I will and if you don’t call us, we’ll call you. She wanted to talk to you this morning, so I promised we’d talk to you tonight.” Julia continued, “So, what happened with Matt? What do you mean not exactly? You’re not going to take time in California?” She asked trying not to sound too disappointed.

“No, I am coming out there. It feels good to be back actually. Matt had an interesting idea for me. He was scared that I’d take a leave and not come back, so he wanted to find a way to keep me engaged. He offered to let me work from the LA office for a month and then we can discuss which coast I want to settle on.”

“That’s great Chris! That’ll be perfect. Matt must be happy, he wanted you in the LA office for a while.” Julia’s mind started turning at the prospect of Chris actually settling in LA. She left New York because she needed to distance herself from Chris if she was ever to move past her feelings, but she couldn’t escape the fact that she was thrilled at the idea of Chris being in close proximity.

“Yes, but you know why I couldn’t take the offer.” Tina stated.

“I know, Chris. I’m just glad you can try it now.”

“We’ll see how it goes. For so long I was too scared to come back to LA. I couldn’t face Bette. Now, we’ve finally work through what we needed and got closure but…but maybe I let too much time go by.” Tina paused to gather her thoughts, “It was so much and I put so much effort into staying away from that life, I don’t know if I can just walk back into it.”

“Yeah, I understand that Chris, but you have the chance to do it differently now. You get to see your friends and be a part of their lives and have them as a part of your life and Cara’s.” Julia stopped to decide how far to push the conversation, “I’ll be honest Chris. I don’t know how much I trust Bette to be a part of your life or Cara’s for that matter. I’m the first to admit that my judgment is skewed. I only know what leaving her and your life together behind did to you, so it will take some time for her to redeem herself in my eyes, if at all. But in all reality, my opinion really doesn’t matter, it’s yours.”