It’s been six months since I was in the hospital. Some days I love my life, particularly when I’m working well with Cole, when I’m having dinner with Laney and him, when I’m out practicing with my Nikon, when I saw William’s sweaty pink face on a billboard. On other days—when I’m sponging down sticky tables at Katie’s, when I’m lonelier than hell on a Saturday night, when I feel the scary, familiar tug of those summer months—I’m not always so thrilled. I guess this is because my life truly is a combination of what I want and what I have to do. Luckily, the scale weighs a little heavier toward the what-I-want side, and that helps me get up at four-thirty every morning.

In fact, the scales may be tipping even further in my favor, because last week Sam called while I was working at Cole’s. I thought at first that he was calling to ask me out, maybe tell me he was coming to town, and I felt a quickening excitement in my belly. I’d been thinking about Sam a lot, pumping Cole for information about him, getting on the Internet and running Google searches on his name, and debating whether to call him myself. And yet there he was, calling me! But after a few minutes of idle chat he began talking about U Chic, and it seemed clear that this was a business call. Probably another assignment for Cole, I figured, since Cole was getting more work than ever, even from the people in New York who’d been avoiding him for years.

“It’s a small job,” Sam said. “It’s for one of our inserts, and it won’t pay much.”

“Well, let me get Cole,” I said, trying not to sound disappointed. “I’m sure he’ll want to at least consider it.”

“Whoa, Kelly. I thought you understood. I’m calling you.”

“What?”

He chuckled, and I remembered hearing that same quiet laugh in my hotel bed as his warm hand trailed over my shoulder.

“I’m calling to offer you the job.”

I blinked a few times, my mind a whirring fit of starts and stops. I wondered for a moment if it was my AVM, if I should sit down or call Dr. Sinclair, but then it cleared. “Are you kidding?”

“Nope. Have you seen this month’s issue of U Chic?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, we used one of your shots with the models and that group of guys. Everyone over here loved them.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely. So we want you on something else. What do you say? Want to hear about it?”

I nodded, and, as if he could see me, he started making plans.

Now I’m in a hotel room in Manhattan, one paid for by U Chic, and I’ve just put on the silver dress that Laney and I bought during my shopping spree. It slides over my head, the cool lining stroking my skin. I step up to the mirror on the back of the door and smile at my reflection. The dress has been in a garment bag since last October, but it’s lived up to my memories.

Today is my thirty-first birthday, exactly one year after everything started to crumble. When I’d mentioned to Sam that the shoot was scheduled for my birthday, he’d told me we’d celebrate that night, and he’d asked me to bring something extra special to wear. In fact, he’d invited Laney and Cole, too, and they’re in the room next to mine. The thought of Cole in a tuxedo is one I’m having trouble with, but then again, Cole has managed to surprise me many times.

I step into the delicate bone-colored sandals, thinking about my shoot for U Chic, which went amazingly, fantastically well today. It was only a few bottles of suntan lotion, and I’m getting paid next to nothing, but being there in that rented studio—consulting with the art director, taking my Polaroid test shots the way I’d learned from Cole, adjusting the lights, raising the Nikon to my face—made me feel as if I had arrived on some new and wonderful planet, one that had been waiting for me all along.

Whether I will ever make a living at this remains to be seen. Whether I will still be working in a coffee shop when I’m forty is a real possibility. Whether something romantic will happen with Sam and me tonight, whether I’ll be married by the time I’m thirty-five, whether I’ll ever get married and have kids—all these things are complete toss-ups. All I know right now is that my life is a clean slate. And I can’t wait to see what I make of it.