Chapter 44 - Everybody Knows #4
"I hate that it exists."
"Different problem."
"Exactly."
I stood.
Then stopped.
Adrian was already coming toward me.
Again.
I looked at Maya.
She looked at me.
Neither of us said anything.
Adrian reached my desk.
His eyes went to my monitor.
Then to me.
"Done?"
I frowned.
"How do you know?"
"You've been working on it for three hours."
"Have you been monitoring me?"
"No."
"You know exactly how long I've been working on it."
"I can see your desk from my office."
"That sounds like monitoring with architecture."
His mouth moved.
"Show me."
I opened the file.
Adrian came around beside me.
Maya stayed exactly where she was.
Of course she did.
I put the two versions side by side.
"Original."
I clicked.
"Alternate."
Adrian leaned closer.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
I watched his face.
Not because I cared what he thought.
Because I needed to know whether I was about to be right.
He pointed at the alternate.
"Open that."
I did.
"Zoom out."
I did.
He studied it.
Then-
"The approach is better."
"No."
"It is."
"No."
"The sight line opens earlier."
"At the expense of the courtyard reveal."
"Not as much as you said it would."
"That doesn't make it better."
"It makes my point valid."
"Your point was always valid. It was just unnecessary."
He looked at me.
I realized what I'd said.
His eyebrow lifted.
"Your point was always valid?"
"Don't."
"Interesting."
"Don't."
"You spent half the morning telling me I was wrong."
"I said your idea was unnecessary."
"You said I had functioning spatial awareness only debatably."
"That remains true."
Maya laughed.
Adrian ignored her.
He looked back at the screen.
"The canopy works."
"I know."
He looked at me again.
I frowned.
"What?"
"You know?"
"I have eyes."
"So you like it."
"No."
"You just said it works."
"Things can work and still annoy me."
"Apparently."
I pointed at the original.
"This is still better."
Adrian looked between them.
"For the courtyard, yes."
I stopped.
"For the courtyard?"
"The original controls the reveal better."
I stared at him.
That was-
Exactly what I'd been saying.
"But," he continued, "the alternate has the stronger arrival."
Of course there was a but.
"So?"
"So we have two viable options."
"We had one viable option this morning and several additional hours of free time."
"You were at work."
"My time still has emotional value."
"I'll make a note."
"You should."
He straightened.
"Send me both."
I looked up at him.
"That's it?"
"What else do you want?"
"An apology."
"No."
"For wasting three hours of my life."
"You produced a viable design."
"Against my will."
"You'll recover."
"Maybe."
His mouth moved.
Barely.
I turned back to my monitor.
"I'll send them."
"Good."
He started to walk away.
Then stopped.
Turned back.
"Angelica."
"What?"
"The alternate is good."
I stared at him.
That shouldn't have mattered.
It did.
"Obviously."
His mouth moved again.
Then he walked away.
I watched him go for approximately two seconds too long.
When I turned back around, Maya was looking at me.
"No."
"I didn't say anything."
"Don't."
She raised both hands.
I sent Adrian the files.
At five-fifteen, the office started thinning out.
Nicole left first.
Daniel followed a few minutes later.
Ben stopped beside my desk on his way out.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
He looked toward Adrian's office.
Then at me.
I narrowed my eyes.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Go home."
He smiled.
"Already going."
He left.
Maya started packing her things.
Ethan appeared beside my desk again.
"You survived."
"Barely."
"Did you make the second entrance?"
"No."
He looked at my screen.
Then at me.
"Liar."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Of course."
He leaned against the desk.
"You still owe me lunch."
"I ate lunch with you."
"You spent half of it interrogating everyone about their faces."
"Because everyone was making faces."
I laughed.
Behind him, Adrian's office door opened.
Ethan glanced back.
Then looked at me.
And smiled.
Not teasing.
Not quite.
Just-
knowing.
I narrowed my eyes.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Oh, fuck all of you."
He laughed.
"See you tomorrow, Angel."
"Bye."
He walked away.
Maya picked up her bag.
"You leaving?"
"In a minute."
She looked toward Adrian's office.
Then back at me.
"Of course."
I pointed at the elevator.
"Go."
She laughed and left.
A few minutes later, I shut down my computer.
I slid my phone into my bag and looked around.
The office was almost empty.
Emma was still there.
She was packing her things at her desk.
I stood and pushed my chair in.
Then I heard footsteps.
Adrian.
He crossed the office toward me.
Again.
By this point, apparently my desk had become his second office.
He stopped beside me, the familiar scent of cedar reaching me.
"Ready?"
"Yeah."
That was it.
No explanation.
No discussion about whether we were leaving together.
Apparently we were.
I picked up my bag.
And when I turned, I saw Emma.
She had stopped packing.
Her hand was still resting on her bag.
She was looking at us.
First at Adrian.
Then at me.
And after everything she'd seen today, there was no confusion in her face this time.
Just thought.
A lot of it.
Adrian had barely managed to sustain a conversation with her all morning unless she kept it going herself.
But he'd spent the entire day crossing the office to my desk without needing a reason.
Argued with me for half the morning.
Caught me secretly doing the work I'd sworn I wouldn't do.
Told me I didn't hate him with the confidence of a man correcting a fact.
And now, at the end of the day, he'd come looking for me.
To leave together.
Emma looked at Adrian again.
Then back at me.
I suddenly wondered what this looked like from where she was standing.
"Angelica."
I turned.
Adrian was waiting.
"Coming."
I walked toward him.
As we passed Emma's desk, I looked at her.
"Bye, Emma."
She looked up.
"Bye."
Then her eyes moved to Adrian.
"Goodnight, Adrian."
"Goodnight."
We kept walking.
I glanced back once.
Emma was still watching us.
And this time, I couldn't pretend I didn't recognize what was in her face.
She was hurt.
She tried to hide it almost immediately, looking down as she zipped her bag.
But I'd seen it.
Adrian had barely given her anything all day.
And now he had come across the office to get me so we could leave together.
The elevator doors opened.
Adrian stepped inside.
I followed.
Just before the doors closed, I looked at Emma one more time.
She wasn't watching anymore.
The doors slid shut.
The elevator doors closed.
For a few seconds, neither of us said anything.
Adrian stood beside me, one hand in his pocket.
I looked at the numbers dropping above the doors.
Twenty-three.
Twenty-two.
Twenty-one.
Then-
"Are you hungry?"
I looked at him.
"Why?"
"It's a question."
"From you, it's usually a trap."
"How is asking whether you're hungry a trap?"
"I don't know yet."
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
"Are you hungry?" he asked again.
"A little."
"Okay."
That was suspiciously easy.
"What does okay mean?"
"It means okay."
"No. Your okay usually has logistics attached."
His mouth moved.
The elevator reached the lobby.
"Come on."
"That has logistics attached."
He walked out.
I followed him.
Obviously.
Outside, the evening air was warm, the last of the sunlight stretching between the buildings.
We reached the parking garage.
I started toward Candy.
Adrian kept walking beside me.
I glanced at him.
"Where are you going?"
"With you."
I stopped.
He stopped.
"To my car?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because we're getting food."
I stared at him.