“And not in the mood,” I tell her darkly as I plop down in my chair before rolling my mouse across the pad to disengage my screensavers.

Her voice is brisk and efficient when she lays the folders on my desk. “Mr. Townsend would like you to go over these proposals, and your two o’clock meeting got pushed back to three because Mr. Perkins’ flight got delayed out of LaGuardia.”

I reach for the folders and flip through them briefly with a sigh. “Okay, thank you, Linda.”

“Anything else you need from me right now?”

“No, I’m good,” I tell her distractedly as I log on to the system. She turns to leave and then I change my mind. “Wait…I could use some help locating a service that could deliver a Christmas tree to the condo.”

Linda just blinks at me, confusion reigning supreme on her face. “I’m sorry?”

“A tree…you know, something green and Christmasy-smelling that Sela and I can decorate.”

A bright, knowing smile spreads across Linda’s face, making the wrinkles at her eyes and corners of her mouth deepen with romantic appreciation. “Oh, that’s lovely. Of course I can locate something. Would you like something in spruce, or maybe pine? Those smell so good.”

Shaking my head, I give her a quick eye roll and tell her, “I don’t care. Just see if you can get something delivered today. Sela will be there all day.”

Lying in bed moping, I’m sure, but she’ll be there all day.

Linda leaves and closes the door behind her. Rather than jump into work, I turn my chair to look out the windows, contemplating the conundrum that Sela has recently become. While our dinner with her dad and Maria went fantastically Friday night, things started going downhill on Saturday. I don’t think she was mad that I couldn’t pick her up, but she was almost coldly reserved during dinner with JT and Amelia.

And I didn’t get it.

JT was making an honest effort with Sela. From the moment we all sat down at the restaurant, he was charming and tried to engage her. He spoke warmly to her, was interested in her background, and tried to win her over with absolutely no success. I know he may have been laying it on a little thick, but JT was trying. He was happy that I found someone, and he could guess well enough that Sela was in my life to stay and he was honestly trying. He’d shown up at work every day fresh and lucid, rolling up his shirtsleeves and diving back into his business with renewed vigor and passion. We joked around like the old days, and it was even refreshing to see him with Amelia. She’s a sweet girl, a little naïve, but JT doted on her all night. When it became clear that Sela wasn’t going to participate in the conversation with JT, he turned his polite and engaging attention on Amelia, making her preen and swoon under his attention. It was the JT of old…the one who made me excited with the possibilities of a bright future.

It was the JT I recognize on a cellular level.

That night, Sela and I cabbed it home, but she maintained her aloofness with me, claiming she wasn’t feeling well when we climbed into bed. I thought this might be a brush-off, but she had no hesitation in letting me at least pull her into my arms to go to sleep. It was the first night we hadn’t had sex since we’d been together, and I wasn’t put off by that. I was more worried about her cold attitude toward JT, but maybe she just needed more time to warm up to him. I’m sure he could win her over eventually if he kept on this path.

I figured Sunday would dawn bright, and I’d have the old Sela back. I found her up and in the kitchen when I awoke, sipping coffee and surfing the Internet on her laptop she’d bought last week. Winter semester had started, and when I walked in to kiss her on the top of her head, I saw she was reading an article entitled “Psychology of Criminal Behavior.”

“Class you’re taking?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said distractedly, leaning in closer as her eyes raced across the screen.

“Cool,” I said as I moved over to pour myself some coffee. She ignored me, the fingers of one hand idly circling the top of her mug that I know held tea. She religiously had two cups every morning.

“Want to put up the decorations today?” I asked, figuring that would get her attention.

I was surprised when she shook her head, “No. I’ve got a few chapters to read before Tuesday’s classes, so I thought I’d get a head start on that.”

Staring at the back of her head, I tried to figure out what the fuck was going on with her. Just two days ago she was practically jumping with excitement as we drove back to San Francisco, the backseat and trunk of the Audi loaded with boxes of lights, ornaments, a ceramic Christmas village her mom hand-painted, and a collection of what I considered to be hideous nutcracker Santas.

Something was fucking wrong, and I’m not one to beat around the bush. “What’s going on, Sela?”

She kept her back turned to me, face closer to the laptop. “Nothing,” she said in a voice that clearly said she didn’t even take note of the worry in my tone.

I walked up to the table, reached out, and put my hand in front of the screen to break her concentration. She looked up at me with those blue eyes and blinked in surprise.

So I repeated, “What’s wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong,” she said calmly. “I just don’t feel like decorating today.”

“Try again,” I said as I gently closed the laptop and pulled the adjacent chair out. I sat down, took her hands in mine, and squeezed them. “You clearly didn’t enjoy last night. You barely said two words at dinner even though I thought JT did an admirable job trying to include you in the discussion. And now you don’t want to decorate for Christmas when you were about ready to pee your pants just a few days ago over the prospect, so I repeat…what’s wrong?”

I thought the fact I called her out on her behavior at dinner would cause her to turn sheepish and apologetic; maybe get an admission that she’s being a bit unfair to JT, but instead her eyes flashed with both fire and ice at the same time. It was such a powerful array of emotions that I flinched.

Her voice was frigid when she said, “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you last night, but clearly I just didn’t enjoy the company. So fucking sue me.”

Every instinct in my body wanted to rail against her outright refusal to cut JT a break, but I took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. “Sela…he tried last night. Why couldn’t you?”