Chapter 25 - Day 7 Nature Is Healing #2
"That's depressing."
"You're the one quitting."
"You're supposed to support my life choices."
"I do support them. I can support them while being personally inconvenienced."
I laughed.
"Fine."
"Excellent."
I grabbed my bag and stood.
As we headed toward the elevators, I glanced toward Adrian's office.
The door was open.
He was at his desk, looking at his monitor.
Or-
He had been.
His eyes lifted.
Found us.
Then dropped back to the screen.
I kept walking.
Not touching that.
Absolutely not.
We ended up at the little café a few blocks from the office where Ethan and I had eaten enough times that the woman behind the counter recognized us.
Ethan ordered a sandwich.
I ordered a burger and fries.
We found a table near the window.
For the first few minutes, we talked about work.
Not Solara.
Not Adrian.
Just normal office nonsense.
Then Ethan took a drink and looked at me.
"So."
I knew that so.
"No."
"I haven't asked anything."
"You're about to."
"I heard you had an interview yesterday."
I stared at him.
"How does everyone know everything in that office?"
"Maya."
"Of course."
"She was excited."
"She needs hobbies."
"She has one."
"What?"
"You."
I sighed.
"Unfortunately."
Ethan smiled.
"How did it go?"
"Good."
"How good?"
I picked up a fry.
"Really good."
His smile widened.
"That's good."
"Yeah."
I took a bite.
He watched me.
"You don't sound like you think it's good."
"I do."
"That was convincing."
I pointed the fry at him.
"It was a good interview."
"I believe you."
"I liked the firm."
"Okay."
"The people seemed nice."
"Also good."
"The work was interesting."
"Angelica."
"What?"
"You're defending a company I haven't criticized."
I stopped.
Right.
I put the fry down.
"I could see myself working there."
Ethan nodded.
"Then that's what matters."
Simple.
No strange silence.
No tightened jaw.
No when are they calling?
Just-
That's what matters.
I looked down at my plate.
"They haven't offered me anything."
"I know."
"They might not."
"They might."
"And if they do, I haven't decided anything."
"I know that too."
I looked at him.
"You're being annoyingly reasonable."
"Someone has to balance out your other coworkers."
I narrowed my eyes.
"Was that about Ben?"
"Obviously."
I laughed.
Ethan smiled and went back to his sandwich.
For a while, we ate in comfortable silence.
Then he said-
"I'm going to miss this."
My hand stopped halfway to my drink.
"Lunch?"
His eyes met mine.
"You."
Oh.
Something in his expression shifted.
Then he smiled slightly.
"Lunch with you," he corrected.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Smooth."
"I thought so."
"You absolutely did not."
"You can't prove that."
I laughed.
His smile stayed for a second longer before he looked down at his plate.
"Eight days," he said.
And somehow, coming from Ethan, it sounded different.
There it was again.
Eight days.
Except this time, it wasn't Adrian saying it.
It wasn't me thinking it.
Ethan was losing something too.
Maybe nothing enormous.
Maybe just lunches.
Stupid conversations.
Someone to bother in the middle of the workday.
But I'd become part of his routine too.
And he'd become part of mine.
I looked at him.
"I'll miss having lunch with you too."
His expression softened.
"Good."
"Good?"
"I'd be offended otherwise."
"There it is."
"What?"
"The ego."
"I work at Vale Architecture. It's part of the benefits package."
I laughed.
And for the next half hour, we ate lunch like we always had.
Which somehow made it worse.
Because sitting there with Ethan, talking about absolutely nothing important, I realized leaving Vale Architecture wasn't going to mean leaving one person.
It was going to mean leaving all of them.
By the time Ethan and I got back, the office had settled into its usual afternoon rhythm.
Phones ringing.
Keyboards clicking.
Ben complaining about something that was almost certainly his own fault.
Maya looked up when I passed her desk.
"Good lunch?"
"Yes."
"With your lunch partner?"
I stopped.
"Maya."
"What?"
"Why did you say it like that?"
"Like what?"
I stared at her.
She smiled innocently.
I kept walking.
Absolutely not.
I had enough problems.
I sat down and opened the file I'd been working on before lunch.
Twenty minutes later, Nicole rolled her chair over.
"I need your opinion."
"Architectural or personal?"
"Architectural."
"Disappointing."
She laughed and pulled up a drawing on her laptop.
For the next half hour, the four of us somehow ended up clustered around my desk.
Nicole.
Maya.
Ben.
Daniel eventually wandered over because apparently none of us were capable of having a conversation without attracting him.
It started with the drawing.
It stopped being about the drawing approximately six minutes later.
"I'm just saying," Ben said, "if the client uses the phrase luxury but approachable one more time, I'm putting it directly on the building."
Daniel looked at him.
"Where?"
"Above the entrance."
"In what font?"
"Comic Sans."
I stared at him.
"You should lose your license."
"I don't have a license."
"Excellent. The system works."
Nicole laughed.
Maya nearly choked on her coffee.
Ben pointed at me.
"This is why I'm not going to miss you."
"You've mentioned missing me approximately twelve times."
"I contain multitudes."
"You contain nonsense."
"That too."
Daniel looked toward my desk.
"What are we doing for your last day?"
The laughter in my throat disappeared.
Everyone went slightly quieter.
Oh.
My last day.
Maya immediately looked at Daniel.
"Nice."
"What?"
"She was laughing."
"I asked a normal question."
"You killed the mood."
"I didn't know the mood had a medical condition."
Ben leaned against my desk.
"We're obviously doing something."
"No."
Four faces turned toward me.
I sighed.
"No dramatic goodbye party."
"Who said dramatic?" Nicole asked.
I looked at Ben.
She followed my gaze.
"Fair."
Ben looked offended.
"I can be subtle."
"No one in this room believes that."
"I believe in you," Daniel said.
"Thank you."
"I shouldn't."
"Fuck you."
I laughed.
And there it was again.
Normal.
So painfully normal.
Maya arguing with Daniel.
Nicole scrolling through the drawing.
Ben leaning against my desk despite having absolutely no reason to still be there.
People I'd seen almost every weekday for a year.
People who had somehow become part of the shape of my days without me noticing when it happened.
I looked around at them.
And suddenly I could see the absence.
Someone else sitting at this desk.
Maya turning to tell a joke and finding someone who wasn't me.
Ben bothering somebody else.
Daniel making terrible decisions without my supervision.
Nicole asking another architect for an opinion.
My chest tightened.
Eight days.
Oh God.
I hated that number.
"Angel?"
I blinked.
Maya was looking at me.
"What?"
"You disappeared."
Apparently everyone had started saying that to me too.
"I'm fine."
Her expression said she didn't believe me.
Fortunately, Ben chose that moment to point at the screen.
"Can we return to the actual emergency?"