"A few months." Nicole realized she'd breathed easier only after having done so. But why? It made no difference to her if Jane had been back a month or a year, a week or a decade. To each their own. They were strangers tenuously bound by an experience no one remotely sane could wish to relive. They had nothing to reminisce about.
They were strangers. And yet Nicole couldn't bring herself to get up from the bench and go back to work any more than she'd been able to kick Naomi out when she'd dropped in that night out of the blue. Pretending not to know these women would've been safer, but it didn't feel right.
"Are you just visiting, then, or... Is this where you live now? I mean, I can see the appeal," Nicole added wryly, shooting a long look at the near-empty parking lot. "It's definitely bustling."