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dule the treatment until t

said it gently, which

woman continued talking about payment arrangements, authorization, and what could be done before the next appoin

down at the

,64

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stand,"

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isn't the sam

a pause on

it is

e fall onto the cafeteria table, where a paper cup of coffee had gone cold

in a suit was talking about the stock market while a woman wiped down tables near the windows. Maya wa

tice, but her brain had bee

dry, the turkey tasted like it had been sitting under plastic all morning

and Maya already

Please don't ma

message then opene

7.

he locked the screen before she

ts she could take before her body gave out. How much freelance work she could finish

to tempt her. Her mother hadn't noticed the watch was missing yet, which was probably the only r

ay

look

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ck immediately. "What ar

ted co

coffee u

body rinsed a spoon in hot wa

erself, M

d. "I was beginning to won

re around the thi

gretted the joke before the wor

an arm around her mother. "C

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nk y

ow what

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a keeping her arm around her mother's wais

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t keep do

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ached R

of the bed while May

r watched

s your

eve down over her b

old

ened. "The one you

worth so

sn't an

ed the

le Maya sat beside he

t it for

kno

last thing h

red at t

watch had stayed. She remembered the afternoon he gave it to her, the cheap blue box, the ridiculous s

and eighty dollars because it

ther one some

ched for

giving up everythi

eezed he

e my m

mean you hav

it d

oked back, and neither of th

somebody offers you a

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y what

s some

the window. She st

om

promis

se you

uestions before yo

ound like somebody's about to knoc

face wen

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u look at m

did

u d

ed away. "

cond, but the nurse came in bef

ks, you ne

h no

a s

me back

ould go

me back

ay

eard

. "You alway

to kiss he

ways

re her mother

er than before. Maya made it halfway t

wn nu

ned the

NEED TO TALK A

opped

message

OUT HER C

ed back a

ed: Who

me less than

who can

tared

message

ecide how badly y

ad it

rd message

ar the offer, there

hovered ove

e café, even the $47.18 in her account. She could only hea

toward Roo

e only question s

t o

ame almost

rs. And it comes w