How am I gonna get through

 It felt so final, even if it was supposed to be a new chapter. Only, it would take a lot of thinking and doing before it could start. Macy had to admit she hated being alone. Oh, she knew Jake promised he would be back, but there were so many what-ifs.

"Don't do this to yourself," L said the day after Jake left at the airport to fly back to Denver to get his life in order. L made sure Macy knew where she was going. "Focus, you need this job."

This meant being present. This meant not being discouraged about not hearing from Jake every hour. He had a life, too.  But it was so overwhelming. Still, it helped to have friends. Even Winnie was on her side, and that helped.

"Look, it's so repetitive, you'll get this job down," Winnie looked at her wide-eyed. "I need you. I need you to be here, not in another world." It was as if Winnie knew everything about her, even if Macy didn't think that was possible. 

Of course, Winnie would go on a tangent about all the things she hated about Wade.

"Are you sure you want to marry him?" Macy wanted to let her know she had been listening. She wasn't being that selfish about Jake.

Winnie sighed back with a smile. "I know he's hard to like. He's a dufus when it comes to romance. Still, I have  my ways with him." The way she sounded, it wasn't romance; it was building a relationship that would last a lifetime.

Macy wasn't sure she understood her co-worker. Maybe she wasn't supposed to. It made her want to learn the ropes more. Still, it was hit-or-miss with the phones. It was so hard not to have a potty mouth. It felt as if she was back to tending to preschoolers. Of course, the ones on the phone always wanted to hurt her feelings as if she were the one who caused the problem. After a while, she understood she was only a receptionist, and she would be verbally abused. And no one really wanted to hear about her day, but Jake, who was doing his best to get back to Chicago.