Earnings Season #4
The rain continues.
They catch their breath.
Slowly, she loosens her tight grip in his hair. Letting her hands drift across his back, she traces patterns over his shoulders.
Against her neck, Aleksandr breathes. He kisses her skin, before pulling back to look at her.
She holds his gaze, clear-eyed. A smile starts to warm her lips, before she leans in and presses a kiss to his jaw.
“Those cigarettes in your closet,” she says. “Let’s share one.”
He laughs, light. He traces the slope of her cheekbone, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Doesn’t your generation abhor smoking?”
“Well, we prefer vaping,” she admits. “But I doubt I could get you to try that.”
She laughs at the expression on his face.
While he opens one of the huge casement windows—screech of iron, incoming rush of city sounds—Lili gets the cigarettes. As
she clambers onto the ledge beside him, she taps the pack a few times against her palm.
Aleksandr smirks at the motion. “What an expert.”
The open window lets the rain in, the humid storm outside. Lili lets the chillier air wash over her as Aleksandr lights a
cigarette—flick of a lighter, slight sizzle of paper. She watches him inhale, taking a long drag. The smoke kicks past his
teeth, a momentary furrow of his brow; then a sigh, a long exhale in the direction of the open window, before passing the
cigarette to her.
Afterwards, she asks him to read more of Cancer Ward.
She likes the way he smiles when she asks, then the way he rests his hand on her stomach when she lays her head in his lap, the sound of his voice reading as she looks at the rain pelting the windows.
At some point, she puts on a Buckley record while he makes more coffee.
He hasn’t pushed her again about last night. She feels a quiet gratitude.
Late afternoon edges into evening. She runs a bath.
“You can get in,” Lili says, piling her hair into a bun.
Aleksandr settles down beside the bath. “I think you actually need to bathe, and not get distracted.”
Lili sniffs, stretching her leg out of the water as she lathers soap behind her knee. She doesn’t miss that his gaze follows
the line of her leg. “Fine,” she says. “You can go, then. I won’t drown.”
“I don’t know, you came close last time.”
She splashes water at him, making him laugh.
Afterwards, he gives her a clean shirt—soft white linen. “I have my own clothes, you know,” Lili says, even as she rolls the
shirtsleeves up.
“Suppose I like you in my clothes,” Aleksandr says, sitting on the edge of the bed. He draws her towards him. His hands—cold
against her warm, bath-flushed skin—smooth up the backs of her thighs.
Smiling, Lili leans in, and kisses him; in a sudden motion, he pulls her back with him against the unmade bed. With a sharp
inhale of surprise, she falls over him, and Aleksandr’s mouth meets hers, hard. She can feel his smirk, but she lets the kiss
grow hotter, deeper—
“I see you are still alive.”
Lili chokes back a shriek, recognizing the familiar voice, unwelcome and exasperated. Aleksandr throws the sheets over her
before she can react further, pulling her into his chest.
“I’m busy, Michael.”
“Far be it from me to interrupt, I’ll just call off the mortician.”
“Michael, go away.”
Michael does not go away. “Do you have any idea how many phone calls you’ve missed?”
Aleksandr drags a hand down his face. Lili resists the urge to laugh, as he mutters: “It’s Saturday.”
Michael frowns. “Are you well?”
“I was until you got here.”
“Saturday? Is that supposed to mean something to me? Earnings season starts on Tuesday, and you’ve been missing for almost
twenty-four hours.”
From the nightstand, Aleksandr grabs his phone. Lili realizes he had it on Do Not Disturb, as he scrolls through a long list of missed calls, texts, emails. He opens a text conversation—Kara Taylor, the contact reads—making no move to hide the screen from Lili.
(9:30 a.m.) Deck’s ready for 10am review!
(10:07 a.m.) 10:30am review?
(10:45 a.m.) 11am?
(11:07 a.m.) Petrov?
(11:31 a.m.) I triple-checked, your EAs said you’re free the whole day.
(11:57 a.m.) In your inbox, you’ve got the deck (final pending sign-off), talking points, and a draft statement.
(12:03 p.m.) At the very least, I need your statement today.
(12:56 p.m.) You do realize you have to go live after we release? Not even you can just wing that.
(1:47 p.m.) Imagine what the markets will do if it gets out that you’re missing.
(1:47 p.m.) Imagine the consequences for the stock price.
(2:50 p.m.) Does this mean I’m CEO? Does this count as formal notice of my promotion?
(4:30 p.m.) PETROV
(5:47 p.m.) Michael’s coming to find you, you deserve this.
Aleksandr sighs. He sets his phone aside. Instead of getting up, he starts playing with Lili’s hair.
“Is this really necessary?” He twists a strand around a long finger. “I’ve seen the numbers, I signed off on the report weeks ago.”
Michael looks like he’s about to have a conniption. “Yes, it is necessary.”
“I think he’s going to just stand there until you go,” Lili stage-whispers to Aleksandr.
“The stray child is correct,” Michael says. “If you don’t bless me with an hour of your time now, you’ll have my resignation.”
“Fine,” Aleksandr says, getting out of bed. “Let’s get this over with.”
As they leave the room—Aleksandr ignoring the shirt Michael throws at the bed, Michael grabbing it with a grimace—Lili finds
her own phone. Scanning her messages, she finds a new group chat, sans Amina.
Jackie (5:59 p.m.) ok ok ok. tonight’s the night, gallery doors are open. ETAs?
Jackie (6:00 p.m.) amina’s nervous but don’t comment on it, you’ll get a black eye
James (6:01 p.m.) on mercer, be there in 15!
James (6:01 p.m.) with varsha, hassan, and everyone
James (6:01 p.m.) we’re just grabbing flowers
James (6:04 p.m.) actually update tommy’s relieved me of my duties
James (6:04 p.m.) apparently there is a LANGUAGE of flowers? and i’m illiterate
James (6:04 p.m.) i was about to friendzone my girlfriend by getting her sunflowers?
Jackie (6:07 p.m.) lol ok perfect!! just waiting on marwan to crawl out of her sex dungeon
Lili (6:08 p.m.) HEY
James (6:09 p.m.) SHE RISES
Jackie (6:10 p.m.) SHE LIVES
James (6:10 p.m.) be honest now, are you able to walk? do you need help?
Lili (6:10 p.m.) Ha. Ha. Ha. i’ll be there around 7
Jackie (6:11 p.m.) but does that account for how your limp will slow you down?!?
Smiling, Lili throws her phone on the pillow. Sitting up in bed, gathering her hair into a loose bun, she starts mentally
calculating how long it’ll take to walk over to the show, how much time she has to get ready—she should pick up flowers for
Amina, too, that’d be sweet—
Her phone starts to buzz, muffled.
Lili glances at its screen, half-distracted—and then freezes.
Incoming call from Jane Remnick.
Lili stares at her phone. Her hair falls back around her shoulders. Her phone’s buzz is muffled, its glass and steel vibrating
in the tangled sheets. It seems alive, and wholly dangerous.
She can count on her hands the number of times her foster mom has called her since she graduated high school, and each time
was prescheduled and pursued by Lili: discussing forms that she needed from Jane and Robert to prove her foster status so
she could keep receiving undergrad financial aid from Columbia without requiring their tax forms each year; figuring out confusing
health insurance mail—Lili had to be on Medicaid, since, as a foster, she didn’t qualify for Robert’s family plan—that kept
getting mailed to Mill Valley instead of New York; organizing shipping logistics to send Lili the last few boxes of her stuff,
since they needed to clear out her room, new kid coming in—that was a tense discussion, sophomore year, the sense of being
erased so methodically and matter-of-factly it made her numb, gripping her phone as she tried not to cry, then going out and
getting so drunk with Jamie that he threw up, she ended up swimming in Bethesda Fountain—
The call runs out, screen falling black.
Seconds later, a text notification appears.
She snatches up her phone.
Jane Remnick (6:13 p.m.) Hi Lili, I thought I’d try you. Nothing urgent, but give me a call when you can. It’s been a busy summer, but
you’ve been on my mind recently. Would be good to catch up. Hope life’s treating you well.
She exhales a little unsteadily.
That’s—new. New, and—surprising. She’s not entirely sure how to react.
Lili shakes her head, brushing free of it temporarily. Later. She’ll deal with it later.
Getting out of bed, she makes sure her shirt buttons are done up—leaves her phone in the sheets—and pads out into the hall
towards the voices in Aleksandr’s study.
“No.”
“I’m trying to protect you. You’ll regret it when this is over—”
“Michael, enough. I’m not having her sign an NDA.”
“Is this a midlife crisis? Is it? We can get you help for that—”
Lili knocks on the doorframe.
Looking up from his open laptop at his desk, Aleksandr smiles, catching sight of her. He’s pulled on a shirt, leaning over
his desk with his hands pressed into fists. Over his shoulder, Michael scowls.
Lili resists the urge to stick her tongue out. “I’m heading out,” she says. “Amina has an art opening.”
Aleksandr walks over to her. “You mentioned you head upstate with work tomorrow, for the week?” he asks, settling his hands
on her hair.
She nods.
“Come back tonight, then.”
Lili hesitates, suddenly on guard again. “Why?” she asks warily. They’ve moved past the need to discuss what happened, haven’t
they? They don’t need to raise it again, do they? She isn’t being avoidant—but she doesn’t need to talk about it. She just
wants to experience it.
He gives an easy laugh. “I’d like to spend more time with you.”
Her wariness melts a little. The feeling of the day lingers in her skin, a soft warmth throughout her body, insulating hope.
She wants that—more time with him.
Looking up at him, Lili smiles, and nods.
A grin breaks across his face, and he kisses her. It’s an unexpectedly deep kiss, and Lili stands on her toes, leaning into
it.
A stern throat clears.