but Julia claimed to be in love with Gabriel and to be very happy with him, and it was clear that
she derived a lot of pleasure and no small amount of security from their relationship. however, the
strange account of how they met and then met again, when added to certain facts about Gabriel's
past and his addictive personality, raised all sorts of red flags in Nicole's mind. the fact that Julia
did not recognize these red flags showed more about her own psychological state than she could
reasonably realize.