Chapter 37 #2
Aubrey stood. The lights had gone down. Jeff was onstage now, saying her name, delivering a speech about her grit and persistence.
She laughed out loud at the absurdity.
Grit and persistence, yes. She remembered now.
Jeff asked her onto the stage. Applause filled the room as Aubrey dutifully threaded her way through the audience. When she
reached the podium, Jeff pressed an absurdly heavy slab of etched glass into her hands.
The ballroom quieted. Hundreds of faces turned her way, expectant.
She leaned toward the microphone. If life puts something in your way, go around it.
“Good evening,” she said. “Thank you all for being here. I’m honored to accept this award, tonight. But I’m going to break
form a bit here and ask you all to excuse me, because I have to leave for Indiana. Right now.”
The audience members exchanged uneasy glances.
Jeff’s eyes popped. “Aubrey?” he whisper-hissed. “What’re you doing?”
“Thanks again,” she said into the microphone, “for the recognition.”
She descended from the stage, arrowing through the crowd toward the coat check. Once there, she handed over her ticket, took
her jacket, and fished in the pocket for her cell phone. If life knocks you down, get right back up. She’d take an Uber to the nearest car rental place. Then drive all night. If the car broke down, she’d walk. If her legs
broke down, she’d crawl.
Jeff caught her arm on her way out of the ballroom.
“Aubrey.” He looked worried. Not angry, but genuinely concerned. “What’re you doing? Are you okay? Do you have some kind of emergency?”
“Yes,” she said. “And I’m sorry I have to go. But since I have you here, consider this my notice that I’ll be working remotely,
going forward.”
He stared. “Remotely? What? No. You know it’s against company policy to—”
“I know,” she cut in. “But it’s the twenty-first century. That policy doesn’t make sense anymore. And that algorithm I built,
Osos doesn’t own it. I made it on my own time. At home. And I never signed over the rights for you to use it. You fired me
before I could. At which point I spent two months writing a document that proves all that, actually.”
He gaped. She hoped he wouldn’t make her spell out the rest. She really didn’t feel like dampening the mood by threatening him with a lawsuit.
“Okay,” he finally said. “But . . . where’s this coming from?”
“It doesn’t matter. I should’ve told you I’d be working remotely when I agreed to come back. But since I didn’t, I’m doing
it now.”
He surveyed her as if looking at a stranger. “Remotely. As in, full-time?”
“Yes,” she said, calm as a summer’s breeze. “Full-time.”
He pulled at his bow tie, then ran a hand through hair he still hadn’t managed to tame, even for this. His frown gave her
the impression she’d strained his goodwill to breaking. “I . . . okay. If you’re not giving me any other option, then I’ll
make it happen.”
“Thank you.” She kissed his cheek, which only deepened the groove between his brows. “I’ll be available by Zoom, if you want.”
“Uh. Sure. We’ll work out the details. But . . . you’re really leaving? Right now? It’s that important?”
She checked her phone. The Uber driver was seven minutes away. “Yes, it’s that important.” She handed him the Innovation Cup.
“You don’t want this?”
“Put it in my office. You can have it shipped to me, okay?”
“O . . . kay.”
She flashed a smile and left him standing there.
In the bright, airy lobby, she scrolled to Paige’s name in her phone, then hit the call button. She needed more than just
Nick’s number. She needed to know where he was so she could do this face-to-face. But she had no idea where he lived these
days, whether he was still sharing a roof with Tansy, or—
“Eeeeeee!” Paige shrieked in her ear. “What’d you say? Tellmetellmetellme!”
Aubrey blinked and held the phone out, giving her ringing ear a reprieve. “Uh, Paige? Hi, it’s Aubrey MacLean.”
“Oh my god, I know who it is, you weirdo. Just tell me the news!”
“News? What do you mean, news?”
Paige rushed in a breath. “Wait. Is there not news? Oh my god, you didn’t say no, did you? Because if you’re worried it’s
going to upset me or something, it totally won’t, and—”
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” Aubrey said. “I just called to see if you could tell me where your
dad is. If he has a new address. There’s . . . something I want to ask him.”
The line went silent.
“Paige? Hello?”
“You haven’t seen him?” Paige sounded subdued now.
Aubrey rocked back on her heels. “Um, no? Should I have?”
“Uh . . . Where are you right now? The Manhattan Center? For the Osos gala?”
Aubrey swallowed her bewilderment and glanced around, halfway expecting to find Paige hiding behind a potted plant, her hand cupped around a cell phone. “How’d you know that?”
“Oh my god,” Paige rushed out, smearing the words together. “Wait, so you just randomly called, wanting to find him? Okay,
this is seriously too perfect. Hold on, lemme check my app and see where he is.”
Aubrey’s head swam.
Paige squealed again, some distance from the phone. Then the line crackled and her voice erupted in Aubrey’s ear again. “Okay,
just walk outside. Right now, okay? Go quick.”
“What? Why?”
“Just do it! And please . . . don’t say no, okay? It’ll make him so happy. And call me back! OhmygodI’msoexcited! Bye!”
The line went dead. The moment collapsed on itself, then spun into the next, bringing with it a tremulous hope that started
in Aubrey’s marrow and seeped into her limbs. Go outside. Well, she could do that.
She took a step, then another. By the time she reached the revolving doors, she’d gathered enough inertia to burst through,
then had to stumble to a stop on the sidewalk.
Because there was the most beautiful man in the world, wearing a tuxedo, staring up at the portico and steeling himself with
an indrawn breath.