Chapter 32 - Day 14 The Last Day
I entered Vale Architecture for the last time.
One last morning.
One last walk through those doors.
And-
one last coffee.
Except there wasn't one.
I stopped at my desk.
Nothing.
I looked around.
Maybe Adrian wasn't here yet.
I looked toward his office.
The door was closed.
But through the glass-
there he was.
Sitting behind his desk.
So-
where was my coffee?
I looked at my desk again.
As though maybe I had somehow missed an entire cup sitting directly in front of me.
No.
Nothing.
This was the first time in a long time.
No coffee.
I had been expecting it.
My last one.
One last time.
And he took that away from me too?
"What happened?"
I looked up.
Maya was watching me.
"What are you looking for?"
Then her eyes dropped to my desk.
She froze.
"Noooo."
"Yeah. I'm thinking the same thing."
She stared at the empty spot where my coffee usually waited.
"Something terrible must have happened."
Then she stopped.
Looked toward Adrian's office.
Then back at me.
"Or maybe because it's your last day, he finally lost his shit."
I didn't reply.
I stood.
And walked toward his office.
The door was closed.
I didn't knock.
I didn't care.
What was the worst he could do?
Fire me?
I opened the door and walked in.
Adrian was sitting behind his desk.
Staring at his monitor.
Not typing.
Not scrolling.
Not moving the mouse.
Just-
staring.
I stopped in front of his desk.
"Where is my coffee?"
His eyes lifted to mine.
"I didn't get you one today."
"Why?"
"Because you won't get one tomorrow anyway."
His expression didn't change.
"Why bother today?"
Oh.
I stared at him.
"So I don't even deserve my last coffee?"
"Get your own coffee."
His eyes returned to the monitor.
"You'll have to do it from tomorrow anyway."
That hurt.
More than it had any right to.
"So you've decided to behave like this on my last day?"
His face remained completely controlled.
"Ms. Stone, I've already explained myself. If you're finished, let me work. I'm busy."
I stared at him.
Then-
at his monitor.
I leaned slightly to the side.
And blinked.
Wow.
I looked at him.
"You're staring at a wallpaper."
His eyes moved to mine.
"What I'm doing is none of your business."
I went quiet.
There was nothing left to say to that.
"Okay."
I stepped back.
"If that's what you want."
I turned.
Walked to the door.
Opened it.
And waited for something I already knew wasn't coming.
He didn't call me from behind.
I walked out.
Closed the door.
And went back to my desk.
I never wanted my last day to be like this.
By nine-thirty, Adrian's office door was still closed.
By ten-
still closed.
By ten-thirty-
still closed.
I tried not to look at it.
Which meant I looked at it approximately every six minutes.
Nothing.
No Adrian walking through the office.
No Adrian appearing beside someone's desk.
No-
"Ms. Stone."
No email.
No message.
No phone call.
Nothing.
Apparently after our wonderful morning conversation about my missing coffee, Adrian Vale had decided the best way to survive my final day was to pretend I wasn't here.
Fine.
I had things to do anyway.
A lot of things, actually.
My desk had slowly started becoming less mine.
The personal things were already disappearing into my bag.
The actual work was going everywhere else.
Solara coordination notes to Nicole.
Material documentation to Ben.
Current drawing markups.
Vendor contacts.
Open items.
Pending responses.
Every file that had lived in my hands for months was finding somewhere new to belong.
At ten-forty-five, Claire appeared beside my desk.
"Ready?"
I looked at the folder in her hand.
No.
"Absolutely."
She gave me a look.
I stood.
We spent almost an hour going through everything.
Not casually.
Everything.
Solara.
The open coordination items.
The north entrance canopy.
The revised fa?ade package.
The things waiting on consultants.
The things that would probably come back wrong because apparently that was the natural lifecycle of construction documents.
Claire took notes.
Nicole joined us halfway through.
Then Ben.
By the end, three people had pieces of what used to be my work.
I looked at the folders spread across the table.
Weird.
Claire closed hers.
"I think we've got it."
"That sounded dangerously confident."
"I said I think."
"Much better."
Nicole smiled.
Ben looked at the stack in front of him.
"So this is really happening."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"You're actually leaving."
"Yes, Ben. That's generally what resignation means."
"I thought he'd stop you."
The room went quiet.
Not completely.
The office was still moving around us.
Phones.
Keyboards.
Someone laughing somewhere near reception.
But our little corner went quiet.
I looked toward Adrian's office.
Closed.
Still.
Ben followed my eyes.
"So did I," I said.
Nobody joked after that.
Claire gathered the folders.
Then she looked at me.
"You've done a very thorough handover."
"Thank you."
"We'll be fine."
"I know."
And I did.
That was the problem.
Vale Architecture would be fine.
Solara would continue.
Someone else would answer the emails.
Someone else would argue about dimensions.
Someone else would sit in meetings.
The company would survive me leaving.
Of course it would.
I glanced at the closed office door again.
Apparently Adrian intended to prove that too.
By noon, people had started noticing.
Not me.
Adrian.
Or more specifically-
the complete absence of Adrian.
Daniel stopped beside my desk.
"Is he here?"
I looked at him.
"Who?"
He pointed toward the closed office.
"His Majesty."
I almost smiled.
"Yes."
"I haven't seen him all day."
"Neither have I."
Daniel frowned.
"He didn't come out?"
"No."
"Not once?"
"No."
Nicole looked over from her desk.
"He hasn't."
Ben joined from approximately nowhere.
"I've been monitoring."
I stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because something is wrong."
"Please find work."
"I have work."
"Do it."
"I can do two things."
Maya looked toward Adrian's office.
"He didn't even come out for coffee."
That shut everyone up for a second.
Because Adrian didn't need to come out for coffee.
He drank black coffee.
But he came out.
For something.
A question.
A document.
A meeting.
To tell somebody something could have been an email.
To stand somewhere and make the entire area slightly more stressful simply by existing.
Today-
nothing.
His door had remained closed since I arrived.
Ben lowered his voice.
"Do we know if he's alive?"
"He spoke to me this morning."
Four heads turned toward me.
I immediately regretted contributing.
Maya stared.
"You talked to him?"
"For approximately two minutes."
"And?"
"He's alive."
"That wasn't my question."
"It is the answer you're getting."
Daniel looked toward the office again.
"Should somebody check on him?"
"No."
That came from all four of us.
Daniel nodded.
"Excellent. Glad we're aligned."
I turned back to my computer.
Behind me, Ben said quietly-
"This is creepy."
And for once-
I agreed with him.
At twelve-fifteen, Maya announced that nobody was allowed to eat lunch at their desk.
Apparently this was law now.
"Why?"
"Because it's your last day."
"I have work."
"You have four hours and forty-five minutes of employment left."
I stared at her.
"Thank you for converting it into hours."
"You're welcome."
"I hated that."
"I know."
Ben appeared with his keys.
"Lunch."
Nicole grabbed her bag.
Daniel was already standing.
I looked around.
"Did you organize this?"
Maya looked offended.
"Obviously."
"You could've warned me."
"Then you would've found a reason not to go."
"That is completely untrue."
She stared at me.
I stared back.
"Fine."
We went.
Claire came too.
So did Ethan.
And somehow what Maya had called lunch turned into half the people I actually cared about from Vale Architecture sitting around one long table.
It wasn't fancy.
Thank God.
I didn't think I could survive fancy today.
There was too much food.
Ben stole fries from Daniel.
Daniel threatened him with a fork.
Nicole told both of them they were embarrassing.
Maya informed me that I was required to visit.
"Required?"
"Yes."
"Are you putting that in my exit paperwork?"
"I'll ask HR."
"You don't have that authority."
"I'll acquire it."
Claire shook her head.
"You're all exhausting."
"You'll miss me," I told her.
Claire looked at me.
"I will."
Oh.
I blinked.
"Well. That was unnecessarily sincere."
She smiled.
"Deal with it."
I looked down at my plate.
Across from me, Ethan smiled a little.
For a while, everyone kept the conversation light.
Stories.
Projects.
Office disasters.
Things I had apparently done that people had decided to remember forever.
Nobody mentioned Adrian.
Which meant everybody was thinking about Adrian.
Including me.
Especially me.
At some point, I looked at the empty chair at the end of the table.
Ridiculous.
He wouldn't have come even if someone had invited him.
Adrian Vale did not participate in office goodbye lunches.
He barely participated in office humanity.
Still.
I looked away.
When we got back, his door was still closed.
Of course it was.
One-thirty.
Two.
Two-thirty.
Nothing.
Not once.
People went into his office.
Claire did.
Someone from finance did.
Ben disappeared in there for approximately four minutes and emerged looking mildly traumatized, which was fairly normal.
But Adrian never came out.
And he never called me in.
Not once.
No email.
No text.
No work question.
Nothing.
It was almost impressive.
He had spent thirteen days finding reasons to keep me.
On the fourteenth-
he couldn't even find a reason to speak to me.
At three-fifteen, Ethan stopped beside my desk.
I looked up.
"Hey."
"Hey."
He glanced around my desk.
There wasn't much left anymore.
A few things.
My bag.
My computer.
And the mug he'd given me on Thursday.