This was absolutely, positively, without a doubt, the last game. The phone rang and she reached for the receiver, hitching up her pajama sleeve so she wouldn’t knock over her glass of Diet Coke. “Hello?” “Cassy, I need your help. You have to come to Seattle right away.” Only Scott, her best friend since childhood, would begin a conversation without the usual greetings and courtesies. “What’s wrong, Scott? I’m pretty busy.” She moved the ten of diamonds on top of the jack. “I’ve got work piled up all around me.” It was true. File folders containing her clients’ income taxes were lined up on her desktop. Frankly, the work was so boring that her only relief was a ten-minute break every two hours to play solitaire. What was she doing with her life, anyway? She’d had dreams and ambitions once upon a time. Where had they gone? The only good thing about being self-employed and working from home was that no one but Rupert, her black goldfish, knew how much time she spent playing the game.
