And she wonders why I love her, why sometimes the love I feel for her is so big, so expansive, so immense that it’s all I can do to keep from bursting into a million little pieces. This is definitely one of those times.
“Stu and I will figure out the best way to do this,”
I promise her. “We’ll do everything to keep you as safe as possible.”
“I know, and I’m okay with that, as long as you keep yourself safe, too.”
“I’m not the one I’m worried about here.”
“Aren’t you glad I’m here, then? I can do the worrying for both of us.”
Chapter 19
I walk Chloe back to her office. She’s three buildings over, so we get to spend a few minutes holding hands in the sunshine, and it feels good. So much of our relationship has been, if not fully in darkness, then at least dark, that it feels amazing to have the warmth of the sun beating down on our faces and shoulders.
If I were a more metaphysical sort, I’d say it feels like a sign. But I’m not, so I’ll just run with it. Just enjoy looking at the sun glinting off my wife’s strawberry blond hair. Just enjoy the feel of her hand, warm and steady, in my own.
I’m planning on walking her all the way up to her cubicle, but once we get to her building she puts a hand in the middle of my chest and gently pushes me back from the door. “This is as far as you go.”
She brushes a quick kiss onto the corner of my mouth.
“What do you mean? I’ll walk you up.” I go to open the door.
“No,” she says. “You won’t. I don’t walk you to your office like you’re a little kid, so you don’t get to walk me to mine.”
“I’d love it if you walked me to my office. In fact, let’s head back that way right now.” I waggle my brows at her suggestively. “I’ll clear my afternoon schedule and we can—”
“God.” She rolls her eyes at me. “You are such an idiot.”
“Hey. Ten minutes ago you were calling me brilliant.”
“Ten minutes ago, you were brilliant. Now you’re just pathetic.”
“Watch it, lady.” I grab her wrist, pull her into my body. “Don’t you know us big-business types have very fragile egos?”
“As if.”
“It’s true. We need constant ego…stroking.” I shift my hips against hers to make sure she gets the pun.
She does. “Geez, this is getting more ridiculous by the second.”
She tries to shove me away, but I hold tight. I lower my head and drop a brief, but real, kiss on her mouth. And then I’m letting her go, watching her walk through the building’s lobby and away from me. And praying that she’s as ready for what’s about to happen as she thinks she is.
The minute I’m back in my office, I call Stu back in. I cancel all my afternoon meetings and work on planning the best way to get this done. It’s Friday afternoon and there’s a part of me that wants to drop it into the news cycle tonight so that it can get absorbed over the weekend when everyone is busy with their own lives and not paying nearly as much attention to stuff like this as they do over the weekend.
Stu says that’s a bad move, though. Says it makes us look like we’ve got something to hide. He wants to wait until Monday morning. We’ll have all our “ducks in a row” and we can “blow this thing wide open.”
But my mother’s deadline is hanging over my head. The forty-eight hours runs out tomorrow night and I don’t want to get caught with our pants down on this. Now that Chloe’s made the decision that we’re doing this, I want to do it right.
I tell Stu as much and he responds with, “That’s what I’m trying to do. We’ve got this, Ethan.”
“I don’t want any fuckups, man. Whatever you do has to be super-quiet. I don’t want to tip our hand to them one second sooner than we have to.”
“The only warning they’ll get is the calls that start coming in asking for comments. You hired me because I’m the best at my job, Ethan. It’s time for you to let me do that job.”
“Before tomorrow night.”
He grimaces. “Yes, before tomorrow night.”