Chương 6
“Yes.”
Simon did not elaborate.
Forty-one was quieter than the conference floor.
There were fewer offices, more glass, and no visible reception desk.
Simon led her to a sitting area overlooking the harbor.
“Can I get you anything?”
“No, thank you.”
“Coffee?”
“I’ve had enough coffee to begin vibrating.”
Simon smiled politely, unsure whether that was a joke.
Eve decided not to rescue him.
He disappeared.
She sat alone.
A ferry moved across the gray water below.
Cars crawled through the streets like blood cells under a microscope.
For the first time all day, no one expected her to speak.
Her phone lit up.
Preston.
She stared at his name until the screen nearly went dark.
Then she answered.
“Hi.”
His voice sounded cautious.
“Hey.”
The familiarity of it hurt instantly.
He had said that exact word while carrying groceries into her kitchen.
While answering from bed.
While waiting outside restaurants.
While calling her from his parents’ house on Christmas morning.
Eve said nothing.
Preston cleared his throat.
“I wanted to check that you got in okay.”
“I arrived three days ago.”
“I know.”
“Then I guess the suspense has passed.”
“Eve.”
She closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know this was a terrible way to do it.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you?”
Silence.
She could hear traffic on his end.
For one ridiculous second she pictured him standing outside her apartment with the blue duffel bag she had bought him.
“I didn’t think I could do it in person.”
“That is not the defense you think it is.”
“I’m not defending it.”
“You’re explaining it.”
“There’s a difference.”
“Not a useful one.”
He exhaled.
“You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Turn everything into an argument you have to win.”
Eve stared through the glass.
There it was.
Not the reason, exactly.
But something sharpened enough to cut.
“I’m not trying to win.”
“It feels like it.”
“You ended our relationship in a voice message while I was at an airport.”
“I know.”
“And now you’re criticizing the way I’m reacting to it.”
“I’m not criticizing you.”
“You just did.”
“I’m trying to tell you why things got hard.”
Her fingers tightened around the phone.
“Things got hard?”
“For me, yes.”
The answer was so plain that she almost missed its cruelty.
She lowered her voice.
“Was there someone else?”
Preston hesitated.
That hesitation changed everything.
Eve sat very still.
“Preston.”
“No.”
“That was not a no.”
“There isn’t someone else.”
“Was there?”
Silence again.
Her stomach dropped.
He spoke quickly.
“It wasn’t like that.”
She laughed once.
The sound came out dry.
“That sentence should be illegal.”
“Eve, listen.”
“I am listening.”
“There was someone at work.”
She stopped breathing.
“We got close.”
“How close?”
“Nothing happened.”
“How close?”
“I don’t know how to answer that.”
“Try using numbers or body parts.”
“Jesus.”
“I’m serious.”
“We kissed once.”
The harbor blurred.
Eve looked down at her shoes.
They were the black pumps Preston had once told her made her look intimidating.
“When?”
“December.”
Christmas.
Emerald or oval.
Her throat tightened.
“You asked me about engagement rings in December.”
“I know.”
“Before or after?”
“Eve.”
“Before or after you kissed her?”
A door opened somewhere behind her.
She did not turn.
Preston was silent long enough to answer.
“After.”
Something inside her went quiet.
Not calm.
More like the strange silence after glass breaks.
“Who is she?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“We’re not together.”
“Who is she?”
“I don’t want to drag another person into this.”
Eve stood.
Her suitcase tipped against the chair.
“Another person is already in this.”
“Nothing is happening with her.”
“Then saying her name should be easy.”
He did not.
That refusal hurt more than the kiss.
Eve swallowed.
“Did you leave me because of her?”
“No.”
“Would you have left me if you’d never met her?”
“I don’t know.”
There it was.
The first honest answer he had given her.
Eve pressed her knuckles against her mouth.
Someone moved at the far end of the corridor.
She turned away from the glass and found Adrian standing twenty feet away.
He had stopped when he saw her.
Their eyes met.
Eve looked away immediately.
“I have to go.”
“Can we talk tonight?”
“No.”
“Eve.”
“I said no.”
She ended the call.
For a few seconds, she remained standing with the phone pressed uselessly against her ear.
Then she lowered it.
Adrian stayed where he was.
He had removed his jacket.
His white shirt sleeves were rolled once at the wrists, and without the armor of the suit he looked less like the man whose name was on the building.
He looked tired again.
“Bad time?” he asked.
Eve put the phone into her bag.
“Apparently I’m collecting those.”
“You can take a minute.”
“I’ve taken three years.”
The bitterness in her own voice embarrassed her.
She bent to right the suitcase.
Adrian crossed the distance between them and picked it up before she could.
“I can carry that.”
“So can I.”
“I know.”
He set it upright beside the chair.
The gesture was ordinary enough to make her eyes sting.
She hated that.
She turned toward the window.
“He cheated on me.”
Adrian did not speak.
“It was one kiss.”
Still nothing.
“Which apparently exists in a category where I’m supposed to be grateful.”
“I don’t think gratitude is required.”
She glanced at him.
“No?”
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
The sympathy in it irritated her more than judgment would have.
She folded her arms.
“You didn’t invite me here to discuss my relationship.”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I invited you because of what you said this morning.”
“About credibility?”
“Yes.”
He gestured toward a nearby glass-walled office.
“Can we talk inside?”
Eve followed him.
The office was larger than her apartment’s living room but strangely plain.
A long desk.
Two chairs.
Shelves with books and framed photographs.
No awards.
May you like
No magazine covers.
No obvious evidence that its owner regularly appeared on lists of people who could influence markets before breakfast.
