The past few weeks she could not notice the shift of her brother's attitude towards the the path she envisioned for him. She felt bad, knowing that she guilt-tripped him into doing the right thing when she dumped the whole breakup of hers on her brother. His recent effort to be a brother she hoped him to become, was progressing better than envisioned, was the first reason why she, after initial hesitation, greenlighted his pleas for being her +1 on the conference presentation. The second was her guilt for blaming him, trying to make up for it in some way, and lastly, naturally, to make sure he won't deviate from the goal of curbing his drinking habit. And so- now here she is- at the gate for her flight to Seattle, with her brother, sitting on two carry-on bags, grinning from ear-to ear. Randy, in fact, insisted on paying his share of travel expenses, including the Airfare.. Although she got assigned to seat next to the window, she gladly switched the seats with him, knowing well he never had a chance to take a plane trip before, and seeing his genuine excitement staring out of the window, as the plane taxied for the takeoff Runway, reminded her of the happy moments of their shared childhood, seeing her brother in the same boy form, as he was many years ago, untroubled, and, for the moment, with no temptations.

The three-plus hour flight also offered still depressed southern squirrel gal, perfect opportunity to do the full disclosure of the symptoms accompanying the decay of her recent relationship, and give that episode of her private life, a proper burial, so to say. She spent good set of evenings locked in her room, crying, unable to get past her break-up. She developed a fair share of affection for Taylor, a Prairie squirrel with somewhat nerdy looks, merely an inch shorter than her. He was an established postgraduate professor at the UNM, who was, at technically, her HR liaison for her department. He came from the family of upper-middle class, and as a sole child, he never had to struggle with the pettiness of financial burden. He felt attracted to her from the start, due to Sandy's natural smarts in branches of more than one scientific fields (which was quite uncommon for fresh graduates) , and notably, her good young looks combined with friendly, chirpy character. She fell for his charm and Few dinners later, their mutual ties grew deeper with each passing day in each work environment run-ins and regular briefings, and it wasn't long before they found themselves in an intimate arrangement, as well. However, despite good amount of his redeemable quantities, he was plagued with few issues, which were hard to overlooked. One, in particular, stood over others. It was his authoritative attitude- things had to happen his way, and he wasn't keen on concealing his disappointment, when he got turned down, for whatever reasons.

The arrangement of their relationship could be summarized as rather straightforward- A phone call, evening meet at his place, 2-3 times a week, dining together on organic meals, while overlooking the Albuquerque through massive wall window of his roomy condo on 15th floor of modern highrise, mixed with recap of their daily chores and events. After than on the schedule was putting away very little dishes they used, brushing their teeth together, little foreplay, followed by regular coitus, both nude, usually on the bed or fluffy floor cover next to it, where he routinely mounted her missionary, and fair amount of thrusts to make them both fall asleep shortafter. They enjoyed this intimacy enough to look forward for their next "meet" with their individual "alone time" in between. As she looked at that life in retrospect, such arrangement was probably the main "fault line" in the process of their falling-out. When the periodicity of these meets became less frequent due to Sandy's decision to stay with he brother, led to build-up frustration on Taylor's account. He wasn't shy to put a blame on her decisions, and made the mutual dinner atmosphere tense, with their story-telling shorter and more silence. On the inimate level, he became more unpredictable. Either he was caught in violent thrust-making and pursuing his vices, or , alternatively , making barely enough effort to make him finish and pull out. In both instances the affection for her was lacking, to say at least. Week before the break-up he started dodging her calls, using excuses on extended office stays, filing deadlines and funding committee meets intermittently. One day the truth resurfaced when she decided to see him in his office, but got turned down by the front desk of his premature leave from work. As she was walking outside campus to get the quick lunch from nearby food truck, she glanced over what seemed to be his Audi car, parked further down the road. She could not make out the license plate as the car was parked behind larger utility truck. Sandy had that gnawing feeling of going back to her building, however part of her inquisitive rationale made her inspect the vehicle from up close. The doubts materialized the moment she could see Taylor, and one of Foreign exchange college student, she never bothered to find the female Albino squirrel's name, nor where she came from. He was preoccupied with brushing his hand across her blonde hair, occasionally kissing her lips. She wanted to throw up at first, but after the minute, she got her composure together to approach his car, tap his front window to get his attention and nodding, while giving him thumbs-up. His initial facial expression of utter shock changed few seconds later into the arrogant, confident demeanor.

Whatever composure Sandy could sum-up was barely enough, to turn around and walk towards the campus. She wanted to run, screm, cry and, throw the scene of her life, however she hoped things could be explained in some rational way. She barely made it to the building where her lab was situated, when her phone rang. She picked it up, with her boyfriend on the other end, hoping to hear any reason not to hate him with every fibre of her body. However , she could not be further from the harsh reality. Taylor's voice was cold, he cut straight to the chase, without any embellishments. He told her it's in their best interest not to make any scenes, and it was an inevitable outcome of her negligence for their relationship. He dumped her, pinning the blame squarely on her shoulders, and merely stating that further continuation of their meetings would not bring anything good. He wished nothing but the best in her future life, and the hope for keeping things between them on strictly professional level. She did not bother to dignify answering more than OK on her end, hanging-up promptly. For the rest of that day, she could not find enough composure to get anything done, staring through the window into nothingness, and leaving her office 2 hours later than usual, felt like pushing her car all the way up the Sandia Hill.