‘What is the subject of your next month’s article?’ asked Florina. Patrick scratched his head for a little while but couldn’t think of a coherent answer. As he began to mumble something, Florina cut him short and asked him to get his thoughts in a piece of paper by the end of the week.

Florina, the chief editor of the Conde Nast Traveler magazine, was having a challenging week. Bad weather across the Alps had delayed the review of some of the key articles that were slated for the next edition. Several of her team members were stuck at airports waiting for their flights to take off and that only made matters worse. But juggling such priorities was not as difficult for Florina but for the personal crisis that she was up against. Her mind was not on the magazine and it showed. Normally, warm and affectionate to her colleagues and subordinates, patience was at its low ebb ever since rumors had it that her husband was having an affair. Though Florina did not believe in the rumor, what made matters difficult was that her husband didn’t deny the rumors. He was silent through it all and Florina did not know how to read her husband’s silence.

Florina and Andrew met when they were colleagues at the San Francisco chronicle. She was a journalist, a fearless one at that and Andrew oversaw the publishing business of the new and upcoming writers. Their paths intersected one day when Florina was covering an article published by a writer whose book Andrew was publishing. They matched like fire and ice. Though Florina was much younger to Andrew, there was something unique about them; the way they talked, the way they walked and the way they smiled at each other made for a compelling love story. Andrew’s proposal to Florina was very simple. Even before going out on a date, he told her she had a choice. They could either go out on exquisite dates before deciding to marry or they could just marry and turn their life into a series of exquisite dates. Florina laughed out aloud upon hearing Andrew’s proposal but nevertheless acceded to both. Her argument was that she didn’t want to miss out on the exquisite dates before marriage. They complimented and completed each other in every little way. Florina wanted a big wedding and Andrew wanted a small one, so they had both. Nestled in each other’s arms, their life took on several colors and they painted themselves into each one, experiencing the crests and troughs with an effervescent smile. The birth of their two children, Rose and Augustine, completed their family in ways every mother and father would have wished for. Making time for them and watching them grow through their lives made Florina and Andrew deliriously happy. Right from the time the children reached the age of adolescence, Florina and Andrew allowed the children to take small decisions on their own and more importantly stand by the consequences of those decisions. So, when the teenagers turned adults, the family had two new voices whose opinions were as valued as those of the older two. In between running a family and managing careers, Florina and Andrew always found time for themselves, just for themselves where they could continue to grow in each other presence. Andrew had this one minute rule he always teased Florina about. The rule was if Andrew’s eyes did not light up within a minute upon meeting Florina’s eyes, they were going wrong somewhere. Fortunately, Andrew always beat the clock by a fairly large margin.

‘Hey Florina,  are you listening to what I’m saying’, Patrick asked.

Florina,  brought back to the present and wiping away a few tears, turned to face Patrick and asked him to come back later. She realized that she would have to face the rumor directly. She called her personal assistant and cleared her calendar for the rest of the day.

As she sat in her car, she smiled to herself. She called Andrew and asked if he could come home early. Andrew acknowledged her need to see him and told her he would reach home before she would.  A myriad of thoughts floated in Florina’s mind as she grasped at the gravity of the test she was going to put Andrew through. When the car approached the drive way, she saw Andrew waiting at the door. As she stepped out of the car, he went towards her, held her in her arms and looked into her eyes. There was nothing else to say.