He thought Calvin would say something like, "Took you long enough, man. " And then he'd laugh that big laugh he had, the one that took up the whole room. Darius signed both lines. He handed the letter back. Victoria looked at his signature. Looked at him.
"Welcome to Hayes Global," she said. "Thank you," he said. And then, because this was who he was, because he was a man who had spent his entire adult life saying what he meant without extra words, he said the other thing that was true. "I want to do this right," he said. "The work and whatever else is happening between us.
I want to do both of them right, and I don't want them to get confused with each other. " She looked at him steadily. So do I. She said, I've thought about it a lot and and I think the answer is the same one you gave me on day one. She said, give it time. Do the work honestly.
Don't rush what shouldn't be rushed and don't hold back what shouldn't be held back. She paused. I'm better at the first two than the third one. I know, he said. I'll remind you when you need it, she almost smiled.
I'll probably push back. I know, he said. I'll handle it. This time she did smile. Small and real and completely unmanaged.
The smile of a woman who was not performing anything at all. 6 months later, Darius Coleman stood in the lobby of Hayes Global Logistics on a Tuesday afternoon and watched Gerald at the security desk process, a visitor with the precise professional efficiency of a man who understood that his role was the first line of everything that happened in that building. On Gerald's desk in a small frame that had appeared there about two months ago was a printed card that read all safety concerns reported here. Response guaranteed in 72 arts. It was one of 42 such cards distributed through the building as part of the new safety communication protocol.
Gerald had been the one to suggest the exact wording. The Ethan Caldwell trial had a date 14 months out, which was exactly what Okafor had predicted. Arthur Ben had entered a plea agreement 2 months after his arrest, the details of which Darius did not follow closely cuz they were not his responsibility, and he had learned over the course of his life to give his attention to the things that were his responsibility and trust that the rest would be handled by the people whose responsibility they were. Marcus Webb had cooperated fully and completely, and his sentencing was pending. Did not have strong feelings about Web's sentencing.
He had sat across from Web in a records room at 1:30 a.m. In a storm and seen a young man who had made catastrophically wrong decisions and knew it. What happened next was for a judge to decide. Maya turned 13 in October. Darius took her to a Dodgers game for her birthday, which she had requested with the specific precision of a person who knew what she wanted.