He got off the phone. He looked at the food. "You didn't have to do this," he said. "I know." She handed him the mug.
He ate standing up because he couldn't sit down. Not because there wasn't a chair, but because he'd been in crisis management mode for long enough that sitting felt wrong, like the wrong posture for the wrong situation. Clare watched him eat with the patience of someone who had observed him through enough crises to understand which ones required intervention and which ones required simply being nearby. "The parts are coming at noon," he said, between bites. Best case, we have heat in all 12 units by this evening.
"Good." Three of the families have kids under five. I've been checking on them every 2 hours. I know. M Patterson in 4B called the family services line this morning to say thank you.
She said the maintenance man was the first person from the organization who'd actually physically come to her door. Malcolm set the fork down for a second. "She said that?" "She said that." Clare picked up her own coffee.
"That's you, Malcolm. That's what you actually do here." Not because it's in the job description. He picked the fork back up. He kept eating, but something in his posture shifted a very small change, like a fraction of tension releasing from somewhere around his shoulders.
"The board meeting is going to be rough this morning," he said. The funding crisis is going to come up. "I know. I'm prepared." If Harrison starts in again about restructuring the maintenance division, "I'll handle Harrison."
She said it with the complete confidence of someone who had handled Harrison approximately 40 times and had developed a comprehensive operational strategy for it. "That's not your fight right now. Your fight is that boiler. Focus on the boiler." He looked at her.
"You've always done this," he said. "Done what?" Known which thing I should be focused on when I'm trying to do too many things at once. He shook his head slowly. I never I always just thought that was you being practical.
It is me being practical. That's not all it is. She held his gaze for a moment. Then she looked at her watch, picked up her bag, and stood. "The parts arrive at noon," she said.