Tell Me Something (The "Something" Series Book 1) by Aubrey Bondurant

school, but the medical debt was high, and there were a lot of things to take care of. I wasn’t focused.”
    “They didn’t have medical or life insurance?”
    “My father did, and still there were sizable medical bills. It’s astounding how much cancer costs even with insurance. Selling the house helped, and although I didn’t have a lot of insight into the finances at that point, my father’s law partner told me that my mom was debt-free. But with my father’s death and my mom not yet being sixty-five years old and qualifying for Medicare, she had no insurance. I had to sell their cars and my mom sold a lot of her jewelry. So no law school fund. I chose to save up some money first rather than going into student loan debt. I took the experience I had working for my father during the summers—filing, preparing documents, and helping schedule—put it on a resume, and got the job with Warren in LA.”
    “Tell me about the breakdown.”
    Wincing, I hoped I had changed the subject successfully. “It’s not something that is easy for me to talk about. Tell me something personal that no one else knows about you, and I will.”
    Exhaling, he massaged my shoulders gently. “I had a vasectomy towards the end of my marriage.”
    I hadn’t figured on him sharing something so deeply private. “Why?” I had to ask when he didn’t elaborate.
    “Aside from the obvious reason that I don’t want to have children?”
    “I guess I was thinking something convinced you to make that decision when you did.”
    He paused before changing the subject. “Were you hospitalized and treated?”
    I realized we were trading vulnerabilities and took a deep breath. “Yes, briefly on the hospitalization, and I was on antidepressants until I moved to LA.” My voice was small and I wished I could erase that part of my life.
    “Did you try to harm yourself?” His voice was quiet and nonjudgmental but I still felt deeply exposed.
    “No, but I stopped taking care of myself. I couldn’t get out of bed. I couldn’t talk to anyone. I didn’t shower. I just cried and wanted to bury myself in bed and give up. Not the same as cutting my wrists, but not exactly healthy, either.” I could feel his hands rubbing my arms, warming me up from the chill.
    “What prompted the vasectomy?”
    “My ex got pregnant. It wasn’t mine.”
    Letting out a breath, I took his hand, bringing it to my lips. I gave it a kiss and then turned towards him. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.
    “Who found you, got you help?”
    I sighed, hating the embarrassment of having needed help. “My father’s partner and best friend, Charlie Hastings.” I hoped not to have to elaborate, but he wasn’t having it.
    “What happened?”
    “He and his wife, Beth, had been checking up on me and I hadn’t returned his calls. He found me crumpled on the bathroom floor dehydrated and out of it. He called an ambulance and they-uh put me in a place for a few weeks. He even paid for everything and then moved me down to LA. I owe him a great deal, and yet he refuses to see it that way.” I got up and paced as if trying to mentally shrug off the memory. “The thing is that I’m not that girl anymore. She wasn’t strong enough to pull it together and so talking about her and what happened isn’t easy.”
    “That was just a few months ago, Haylee. I think you should cut yourself some slack.”
    With a smile, I took a seat again, feeling more myself by the minute. “I’m not going back there, Josh. I don’t need the meds, and I don’t need the counseling. It was just a reaction to a tough situation. I’m stronger now and realize only I can change my fate and the way I choose to look at life. I may not believe that life is a big happy ending, but being depressed is a choice and I’m choosing not to be.”
    “Haylee, depression is not something you can just flick on or off like a switch. I think it’s commendable that you have adopted a can-do attitude,