Julie was tired, but there was a trembling energy deep inside her, and it only got stronger as she sat next to Eric on the sofa, as their eyes kept meeting every time something funny or exciting happened on the TV. She kept trying to talk herself into thinking about him in a purely professional way, but her attempts at mental control just weren’t working anymore. He was more to her than work. She might have to outwardly pretend that wasn’t true, but there was no sense in lying to herself. She wanted to be close to him. Closer all the time. When the third episode ended, she got up to go to the bathroom and pour herself a glass of wine from the bottle they’d opened at dinner. “Do you want any?” she asked Eric. “Sure.” There were just barely two glasses left in the bottle. Not enough for Eric to drink himself into a stupor. Since they’d left Baltimore, he hadn’t seemed tempted to do so again, but she wanted to be sure she wasn’t making it easy for him. When she sat down again, she ended up a little closer to Eric than she’d been before.
