All Chapters of THE PRICE OF LETTING GO: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The gallery event was Petra’s idea.A Thursday evening opening in Chelsea, a mixed media show she had been tracking for three weeks, and she appeared at my desk at four-thirty with her coat already on and the address on a sticky note and the expression of a woman who was not asking so much as informing me of my plans. I looked at the environmental graphics file open on my screen and then I looked at Petra and she waited and I saved the file and got my coat.We took the subway. Petra talked about the artist the whole ride, the use of industrial materials, weight and lightness playing against each other, and I listened and held the overhead bar and let her talk. The easy rhythm of two people who have worked beside each other long enough that conversation requires no performance.The gallery was the kind of space that took itself seriously without being cold about it. High ceilings, good lighting, enough people that you could move through the rooms without feeling watched. Petra had a gl

The Midtown Hargrove was the smallest of the three properties and the one with the most to prove.I had studied the floor plans until I could walk them in my head, which meant the moment I stepped through the service entrance behind the front desk manager I was already two steps ahead of where my feet were, measuring the actual space against the version I had been carrying for six weeks. The ceiling height was right. The natural light from the east-facing windows was better than the photographs had suggested. The corridor from the elevator bank to the first conference room was three feet narrower than the drawings showed, which was going to matter for the wayfinding signage, and I wrote that down before the manager had finished his sentence about the renovation timeline.Dax was already at the far end of the corridor taking measurements with his phone, quiet and methodical the way he always was on site, writing in his small green-covered notebook. Petra had her printed floor plan out

Nicolas picked the restaurant the way he made most decisions, without announcement and with obvious prior thought. Small Italian place on a side street, eight tables, handwritten specials on a chalkboard, bread arriving without being asked.Ro got there first and had already moved two tables together. Petra sat beside him and straightened his fork without looking at it. Dax took the end seat and studied the chalkboard the way he studied everything, like it owed him something. Nicolas arrived two minutes after me and did not apologize because two minutes was not late and he knew the difference.The food arrived and everyone stopped talking for a moment when it did.Rigatoni. A sauce that had been going long enough that you could taste the hours in it. Bread still warm from whatever was happening in the kitchen. Ro poured the house red without asking and it was better than it should have been for the price and he immediately had a theory about why and Petra told him twice to stop and he

Tuesday was a good day until seven in the evening.Not bad after that. Just different.Work had been good, the kind of good that earns its ending. The brief revision was in final review, which meant the day had a shape to it, clear deliverables and a clean close and the particular quiet satisfaction of a document that had gone around three times and come back better each time and was now done. Ro presented the corridor ceiling solution in the afternoon with the focused intensity he brought to things he had thought about longer than he let on, and it landed right, the kind of right that makes you sit back from the whiteboard and think: yes. Nicolas approved in four minutes with two notes, both correct. Petra had the master file updated before the meeting was over.I packed up at six-fifteen. Subway home, standing the whole way, holding the overhead bar and watching the stops go by without counting them. Made tea when I got in and stood at the kitchen counter going through the day in my

The first room was photographs.Large format, black and white, each one showing the sculptor’s hands at work. Clay and wire and resin at different stages. The process of making something that looked like it was still in motion even after it had set and hardened and stopped forever. I walked through slowly and Dominic walked beside me and neither of us said anything and the other people in the room moved around us the way people move around two objects that are not moving.I did not look at him.I looked at the photographs. My hands were in my coat pockets and my coat was still buttoned and the gallery was warm after the cold street and the warmth was the particular enclosed warmth of a room where people are being careful with their voices. I walked through the first room and through the doorway into the second and he followed without being asked and without crowding and without saying anything and I did not look back once to check.The second room was smaller. Studies and sketches mou