Chương 6
“For what part?”
“The standing part.”
She looked up.
“You told me you weren’t.”
“I said I thought it should’ve been your choice.”
“It was.”
“Yes.”
“So what are you sorry for?”
He rubbed his hands together.
“I asked without knowing what would happen if you said yes.”
“That sounds like regret.”
“It might be.”
Marcus leaned against the counter.
Noah looked at him.
“I’m not saying she shouldn’t have done it.”
“Good.”
“I’m saying I got to walk away from that ballroom and she didn’t.”
Lily stopped peeling the label.
Noah continued.
“People are calling me the boy who made you walk.”
“I didn’t walk.”
“I know.”
“Tell them.”
“I have.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere they ask me.”
Marcus folded his arms.
“And how many interviews have you done?”
“None.”
That surprised Lily.
Noah pulled out his phone and set it faceup on the table.
The screen showed dozens of missed calls and messages.
“I turned down Good Morning America.”
Lily blinked.
“They called you?”
“My mom runs the foundation. They found me before first period.”
“How was school?”
“I got asked if my hands have healing powers.”
A laugh escaped Lily.
Noah looked wounded.
“It’s been difficult.”
“Did you test them?”
“I tried on chemistry homework. Nothing.”
Even Marcus smiled.
The humor vanished slowly.
Lily asked, “Why does your mom care so much about the foundation?”
Noah’s face shifted.
Not closed.
Cautious.
“She started there as a grant coordinator when I was little.”
“That’s the public answer.”
He looked at her.
“Are you always like this?”
“Yes,” Marcus said.
Lily ignored him.
Noah stared at the water ring his glass had left on the table.
“My grandmother used a wheelchair after a stroke. She lived with us for four years.”
Lily waited.
“She hated being introduced as inspiring.”
“Good.”
“She also cheated at cards.”
“Better.”
“She’d deal from the bottom and then say her hand slipped.”
Marcus turned away, hiding a smile.
Noah continued.
“My mom spent years fighting insurance, transportation companies, buildings with one broken elevator, every stupid little thing. After my grandmother died, she went full-time at Bright Futures.”
“That explains why she cares,” Lily said. “Not why she used the video.”
“No.”
He looked at her directly.
“She thought she could do something wrong for a good reason and still end up on the right side of it.”
The sentence settled between them.
Marcus looked out the kitchen window.
Lily said, “Do you think that?”
“No.”
“Does she?”
“She’s not sure.”
“How do you know?”
“We had an awful breakfast.”
Lily almost smiled.
Noah picked up his glass.
“My mom wants to apologize to you in person.”
Marcus said, “No.”
Lily said, “Maybe.”
Marcus closed his eyes.
Noah wisely drank water.
The next morning the waiter from the gala lost his job.
Lily found out by accident.
A short article appeared beneath one of the viral videos. The venue had issued a statement saying the employee responsible for “the service incident” no longer worked at the rooftop garden and that safety procedures were being reviewed.
His name was Mateo Alvarez.
Twenty-two.
A graduate student working catering shifts.
Lily read the sentence three times.
Then she searched his name.
Marcus saw what she was doing from across the breakfast table.
“No.”
She did not look up.
“You don’t know what I’m doing.”
“I know that face.”
“What face?”
“The one you had before you cut your own hair when you were nine.”
“That was different.”
“You used craft scissors.”
“I was experimenting.”
“You removed four inches from one side.”
“It grew back.”
“Eventually.”
She kept typing.
Marcus came around the table.
“Lily.”
“He got fired.”
“He nearly hurt you.”
“He bumped a cart into my chair.”
“That chair rolled toward a glass dance floor.”
“Because the brake wasn’t locked.”
Marcus stopped.
Lily looked up.
Neither had said that out loud before.
The chair had been stationary while she spoke to a donor.
Marcus had stepped away to greet someone.
The brakes should have been locked.
They had not been.
Lily usually locked them herself.
That night she had been holding a champagne-free sparkling cider in one hand while adjusting her gown with the other.
She had forgotten.
Marcus’s face changed.
“You’re not blaming yourself.”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
“I’m blaming the fact that three things happened at once.”
“That doesn’t mean the waiter keeps his job.”
“Why not?”
“Because his employer decides that.”
“His employer is protecting itself.”
“Probably.”
“So?”
“So you are not responsible for every consequence.”
Lily hated the answer because it sounded reasonable.
She wheeled away from the table.
Marcus followed.
“You almost got hurt.”
“I didn’t.”
“That is not the standard.”
“No. The standard is apparently that one mistake gets you fired if the rich people in the room get embarrassed enough.”
“This isn’t about rich people.”
Lily turned her chair.
“Dad, it happened at a charity gala on a glass rooftop in Manhattan. It is extremely about rich people.”
Marcus stared at her.
She surprised herself.
Then she noticed something else.
On the original video, seconds before the cart struck her chair, a man in a white dinner jacket stepped backward into the aisle while taking a selfie with two women.
Mateo had turned the cart to avoid him.
The rear corner clipped Lily’s chair.
She replayed it.
Again.
Again.
Marcus leaned over her shoulder.
“You’re looking for someone else to blame.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I’m looking at what happened.”
“Why?”
“Because they fired him.”
“And what do you plan to do?”
Lily hesitated.
She had not gotten that far.
Marcus knew it.
His expression softened slightly.
“Exactly.”
That made her angrier.
At noon she texted Noah.
Do you know how to find someone who got fired from your mother’s gala without becoming a stalker?
He responded two minutes later.
This feels like a trap.
Then:
Yes.
By four, they had an email address.
May you like
Noah did not give it to her.
Instead he asked Mateo through a former catering supervisor whether he was willing to receive a message from Lily.
