Chapter 31 - Day 13 The Truth #2
The Solara north entrance canopy was on his screen.
Again.
I sat across from him.
"You're obsessed with this canopy."
"It's unresolved."
"We resolved it Friday."
"We compromised Friday."
"That is generally how resolution works."
"Not when your compromise is wrong."
I stared at him.
"You agreed to it."
"I agreed to review it."
"You agreed to twelve feet."
"I agreed twelve feet was acceptable."
"That's agreeing."
"No. That's tolerating."
"Oh my God."
He rotated the model.
I leaned closer.
"What's wrong with it now?"
"The transition."
"There's nothing wrong with the transition."
"There is."
"Where?"
He pointed.
I looked.
Then looked again.
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"You didn't even look at it."
I turned slowly toward him.
He realized.
I smiled.
"Careful."
His mouth tightened.
"You've used that line before."
"Actually, you used it on me."
"I remember."
"And what did you say?"
He said nothing.
I waited.
Then-
"It only required two."
I smiled.
"See? You're learning."
"I'm regretting several conversations."
"Yet you keep having them with me."
Silence.
Tiny.
Barely there.
But I felt it.
Because tomorrow-
he wouldn't.
Not like this.
Not across his desk.
Not over Solara.
Not with me telling him his canopy was fine while he invented microscopic problems with it.
I looked back at the screen.
"The transition is fine."
"It could be cleaner."
"It could also be worse."
"That isn't an architectural standard."
"It should be."
He zoomed in.
I sighed.
"Fine. What do you want?"
"Reduce this."
"By how much?"
"Four inches."
"Absolutely not."
"Three."
"No."
"Two."
I looked at him.
He looked at me.
"Are we negotiating inches now?"
"Apparently."
"One."
"Two."
"One and a half."
He stared at me.
I stared back.
"One and a half," he said.
I smiled.
"Look at us. Conflict resolution."
"Don't get used to it."
And there it was again.
Used to it.
My smile disappeared before I could stop it.
Adrian noticed.
Of course he did.
His eyes stayed on my face for a second.
Then moved back to the screen.
Neither of us said anything.
I gathered my notebook.
"Anything else?"
"No."
I stood.
Then looked at the drawer where he'd hidden his pens.
"You know I'm going to find them."
"No, you won't."
"You underestimate me."
"I don't."
I paused.
His eyes were still on the screen.
I smiled a little.
"See you later, Your Majesty."
"Angelica."
I walked out.
And behind me-
I heard the drawer open.
I turned around.
Adrian had one of the pens in his hand.
The crooked one was still sitting exactly where I'd left it.
Three inches out of place.
He caught me looking.
I raised an eyebrow.
He looked at the pen.
Then at me.
"Go."
I laughed and left.
The pen stayed where it was.
By eleven-fifteen, I was back at my desk.
The morning had settled into something almost normal again.
Which was dangerous.
Normal made it easy to forget.
Normal made it feel like Wednesday would come and I would drive Candy here, walk through those doors, find coffee on my desk, annoy Adrian before nine, argue with him about something insignificant before lunch-
and do it all again Thursday.
At eleven-forty, Adrian called me into his office again.
This time, there was an actual reason.
The revised Solara fa?ade package was open on his monitor, along with Nicole's coordination notes and three drawings that apparently required both of us to stare at them until they became more cooperative.
We spent the next fifteen minutes discussing material transitions, revised dimensions, and one detail Adrian insisted would become a problem during construction.
I disagreed.
Naturally.
"You're assuming the contractor won't read the detail."
"I'm assuming the contractor is human."
"That is incredibly optimistic of you."
"Experience."
"You're thirty-eight."
"I've been an architect longer than you've been one."
"Congratulations on being old."
His eyes moved slowly to mine.
I smiled.
He looked back at the screen.
"Change the note."
"No."
"Angelica."
"The note is clear."
"It could be clearer."
"To whom? A golden retriever?"
His mouth tightened.
I knew that mouth.
He was trying not to react.
I pointed at the drawing.
"I'm not changing it."
"Fine."
I blinked.
"Fine?"
"Yes."
"That was suspiciously easy."
"I've decided to conserve my energy."
"For what?"
He looked at me.
"You."
I stared at him.
Then he looked back at the monitor as though he hadn't just said that.
Asshole.
We finished the rest of the review without casualties.
I gathered my notebook and stood.
"Anything else?"
"No."
I turned toward the door.
"Angelica."
My hand stopped.
I looked back.
"Yes?"
He was still looking at the monitor.
"Did you hear from them?"
I knew exactly what he meant.
Still-
"From whom?"
His eyes lifted to mine.
"The company you interviewed for."
I stopped for a moment.
Then-
"Yes."
He went quiet.
Not the comfortable kind.
Not the quiet we'd occasionally found working beside each other.
This one felt different.
"Did you get an offer?"
"Yes."
Nothing moved.
Not his face.
Not his hands.
Nothing.
Then, in an incredibly calm voice-
"Is it better than mine?"
I stared at him.
I wasn't entirely sure I'd ever heard that voice before.
It was too calm.
Adrian was controlled by nature.
This wasn't control.
This was something being held down.
"Oh, come on, Adrian. No one can beat your ridiculous retention offer."
Nothing.
"But it's better than my current one."
His expression didn't change.
If anything, his voice became even calmer.
"When did you hear back?"
"Friday."
His eyes stayed on mine.
"Friday?"
"Yes."
A pause.
"And you're telling me now?"
I frowned.
"What?"
"You were with me for two days."
There was something underneath the calm now.
Something almost accusing.
I stared at him.
"Why would I tell you about my job offer, Adrian?"
Silence.
He went completely quiet again.
Because there was no answer to that.
I didn't owe my boss updates about another company's offer.
Saturday hadn't been work.
Sunday hadn't been work.
And whatever those two days had been-
he had never given me a reason to believe I was supposed to tell him things like that.
His eyes dropped to the desk.
Then, somehow, his voice became even calmer.
"Have you decided?"
"Not yet."
"Are you considering it?"
"Why not? It's a good company."
"Oh."
That was it.
Just-
Oh.
Nothing else.
I watched him.
He looked down at his desk.
"Adrian."
His eyes came back to me.
"Me deciding whether I'm going to join that company has nothing to do with me leaving here."
He didn't respond.
"When I resigned, I didn't have another job offer. I still resigned. The job offer isn't the problem here. It never was."
Something changed in his face.
And for once, he didn't hide it fast enough.
He looked sad.
Really sad.
Then, quietly-
"But you were angry when you resigned."
"Yes. I was."
"Are you still angry?"
I sighed.
"No."
His eyes stayed on mine.
"Then?"
"Then what?"
"Then why are you still leaving?"
There was nothing sharp in his voice.
No command.
No anger.
Just the question.
"Because the reason I decided to leave isn't resolved yet."
His brows pulled together.
"How is it not?"
I stared at him.
"How is it? You tell me."
Silence.
Then-
"I overreacted."
"Yes, you did."
"I crossed the line."
"Yes."
"We both argued about work."
I waited.
"It might not have been extremely professional," he continued, "but we both enjoyed it."
My chest tightened.
"But I blamed everything on you. That was wrong."
"Yes. It was."
"I humiliated you in front of everyone."
His voice dropped slightly.
"I never should have done that."
"No. You shouldn't have."
"Then I apologized to you."
"Yes, you did."
"I haven't done it again."
"No."
"Not once."
"No."
"Not even close."
I shook my head.
"No, you haven't."
His eyes held mine.
"Then how is the issue not resolved?"
There it was.
I looked at him for a long moment.
Then asked the only question that mattered.
"Why do you want me here?"
He went still.
I waited.
His jaw tightened.
Then-
"For the company."
I almost laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because of course.
Of course that was his answer.
"There you are."
His expression changed slightly.
"See? That's what I'm talking about."
He said nothing.
"My resignation wasn't only about one incident, Adrian. Yes, what you did that day was the reason I finally resigned. But this-"
I gestured between us.
"-didn't start that day."
His eyes stayed on me.
"You offered me money. A raise. Coral House. Better projects. Whatever you could think of."
I shook my head.
"But I never wanted any of those things."
His face had gone completely still.
"You know how you can stop me from leaving?"
Nothing.
"By giving me the truth."
His eyes changed.
Barely.
But I saw it.
"I just wanted the truth, Adrian."
My voice came out quieter than I intended.
"The one thing you can never offer me."
Silence.
Complete silence.
And then I watched it happen.
The wall.
Coming back piece by piece.
His eyes cooled first.
Then his expression.
Then his entire face settled into that controlled, unreadable mask I'd known before any of this happened.
Before coffee.
Before dinners.
Before his children.
Before flowers.
Before three-second touches.
Before us.
He didn't say a single word.
I waited anyway.
One second.
Two.
Three.
Nothing.
I stood.
"If we're finished, then I'm leaving."
Still nothing.
I walked toward the door.
Reached for the handle.
And some stupid part of me waited.
For his voice.
For my name.
Angelica.
He'd done it so many times.
Stopped me at doors.
Called me back.
Found one more thing to say.
My fingers closed around the handle.
I waited.
Nothing.
Not this time.
I opened the door.
And walked out.
I made it back to my desk.
Sat down.