pretending.
Done holding everything together so everyone else could act like it stayed together on its own.
She hung up.
I finished my sandwich.
Drank my water.
Went back to work.
It was the calmest lunch I had experienced in eight years.
That week, I finally did something I should have done long before.
I met with my financial adviser, Patricia.
For three years, she had warned me that family obligations were consuming my retirement.
She never pressured me.
She simply showed me the numbers every quarter.
This time, I
