Masuk(Mason)"That's not Maya's bag.""No."Chloe sets it down inside my front door."Maya's at Natasha's until tomorrow. With her own overnight bag. This one's mine."I look at the bag.I look at her.She's wearing the zipper dress and she's watching me put it together, doing nothing to help, because watching me put it together is clearly the fun part."How long have you been planning this?"Nobody with a baby decides things on the spur of the moment."For eleven days. Bryce said this week's favorable, and for once my gut and the stars agree, so."She steps through the door and puts her bag down next to the table in the entryway."Sit down, Mason. It's my turn to say things and you're going to let me finish."I obey without question, sinking down onto the sofa.She stays standing. No phone. No notes app."Aren't you going to read it to me this time?""No. I know this one off by heart and I’m not nervous because it’s what the universe wants."My heart's beating hard enough that she can pro
(Natasha)"We are instructed to seek renegotiation of the agreement in its entirety."Priya lowers the letter."Instructed. In its entirety. This is a contract about moving frozen chickens.""Who's it from?""That's the fun part." She slides it across my desk. "Look at the letterhead."Four names. Thick paper. The kind of firm that doesn't take a call for less than what our freight client makes in a month."His counterparty is a distribution yard with eleven trucks," I say."It was. As of this morning it's a distribution yard with eleven trucks and representation you'd want for a murder."I put the letter down next to the other one.Because there's another one."And the importer's landlord?""Fired the bad lawyer yesterday."Priya's enjoying this in the way she enjoys things that are about to be a problem. "New counsel confirmed this morning. Marble lobby. They sent a holding letter about a damp bathroom that quotes case law. Two cases. For damp.""Overnight.""Overnight. Both of them
(Natasha)"No, Tuesday doesn't work for her, she has a delivery. Wednesday morning. She'll bring the lease and the photographs of the damp."Priya is at her desk, on the phone, with her sleeves pushed up, and there's a white bakery box sitting open on mine.She holds up one finger at me as I enter.A finger.At me.In my own office."Wednesday. Lovely. She'll see you then."She hangs up."Morning. The landlord finally got a lawyer. A bad one, which is lucky. He just called about the importer lady’s contract. Apparently you offered to help her.""You don't work here.""The eclairs are from the good place. I got extra because I assumed you'd be difficult about this.""Priya. You resigned. To go and work at Doheny.""And yet the locks were never changed. Sloppy, honestly. I'd fire whoever handles security, except that's also me."I put my bag down slowly, because if my hands have something to do, my voice might stay level.It doesn't."Kastner sat in that chair yesterday and told me ever
(Natasha)"Your tree is dying.""So people keep telling me."Kastner stands in my lobby with his coat still buttoned, looking at the tree with open disapproval."It's lost branches.""It's being trimmed. Gradually. Did you fly down here to talk about my tree, Gerald?""No."He turns away from it."May I sit?"There are two desks in this office.He walks past the empty one slowly enough for me to notice him doing it, then takes the chair across from mine."Fran Ochoa sends her regards," I say."She sent mine first, I hope.""Best wishes. Very warm. What do you want?"He sets a folder on my desk."I want to buy your firm."I don't touch it."You're aware my firm consists of a door, a tree, and me.""I'm aware. The number's on page one. You'll find it generous to the point of embarrassing.""For a firm with no clients.""For a firm with your name on it."He crosses one leg over the other."I've spent thirty years being right that everyone has a number. Then you turned me down over breakf
(Natasha)"You told my dispatcher you were from the insurance company.""She looked busy. It was easier than trying to convince her to let me in to see you."Fran's half out of her chair behind the desk, a pen still in her hand."You can't keep doing this to me," she says. "Turning up.""This is the first time I've turned up without being invited."I put my bag down on the visitor's chair."All I’m asking for is ten minutes of your time and for you to listen to what I have to say. Then I'm gone and you never have to be polite to me again."She sits back down.I put the folder on the desk in front of her.One page and a phone number."Halloran Freight. Family company, their head office is out past the airport. They've bought four carriers in eighteen months, all of them your size or smaller.""I know the name.""Then you know what people say about them. Every driver kept his job. All four times. They don't buy companies to strip them. They buy them to run them."She doesn't touch the f
(Chase)Lily's standing on the coffee table.In socks, one fist around the lampshade, the other reaching for a candle she's been warned about at length."Hey. No. We've discussed the table."She grins and takes a step toward the candle to clarify her position.I get her under the arms before physics does its thing.She goes rigid with outrage, then forgives me the instant I flip her upside down, because she's sixteen months old and has already forgotten she was angry.And being upside down is apparently her favorite thing in the world now.Natasha doesn't look up from the laptop."She was on top of the table again.""She was," I agree."I turned around for one phone call.""She was probably waiting for exactly the right moment."Every phone call this week is part of the business problem, and I'm not allowed to solve any of them, so I figure it’s best to be elsewhere for a while.I take Lily up and do the whole bedtime routine, because it's the one job nobody's told me I can't have.Ba
(Natasha)I stare at the merger documents on my desk until the numbers blur into a solid black line.Above me, the water stain on the ceiling drips.A single, fat drop of condensation hits the edge of my metal trash can.Tink.The sound drills right into the base of my skull.I drag my finger down
(Natasha)I make an appointment.His assistant tries to offer me a slot next Thursday and I tell her I'll be there at eleven, which is when Chase has a gap in his schedule.I spent years working with him. I know he leaves himself breathing room before lunch meetings start.Time to gather his though
(Natasha)My mother makes tea at six in the morning because she doesn’t know what else to do.I sit at the kitchen island and watch her move through the townhouse, calm and efficient in a way that only makes her worry more obvious.She raised me to be stronger than this, and now she’s pretending no
(Nathanial)My mother has put flowers on every surface.It's a good instinct.Flowers fill space, give the eye somewhere to land, make a house feel inhabited rather than merely occupied.She’s thought carefully about this afternoon and it shows.What she hasn't thought about, or perhaps has thought







