Marcus was quiet for a moment. You could have just left me on the couch. I could have, she agreed. But you had your door's picture as your phone screen saver, and it seemed like someone should make sure you got somewhere safe. She said it simply without wait, like it wasn't a revelation.
The guest room was occupied my sister visited last weekend, and I haven't cleared it out yet. So, you got the main room. I slept on the couch. He looked at her. You slept on the couch.
I have a very good couch. You're the CEO of a I'm aware of what I am, she said. And for just a second, the edge came back. Not cold, but present. A reminder.
Then it softened. I'm also a person who didn't want to leave a colleague in a hotel lobby at midnight. It wasn't complicated. Marcus sat down on the edge of the bed because his legs had decided they were done with standing. He set his shoes on the floor and stared at the mug on the nightstand.
"I should call my daughter," he said. "She's with my neighbor, Mrs. Okonquo. She would have called if anything was wrong, but of course." Amelia gestured at the door. "There's no signal issue here.
Take your time," he called. Mrs. Konquo picked up on the second ring, already in the middle of telling him that Lily had eaten two bowls of cereal and was currently watching cartoons and had asked exactly once where her father was, been told he was at a work thing, and accepted this with the equinimity of a 7-year-old who trusted her father completely. Marcus exhaled a breath he'd been holding since he'd seen that ceiling. When he hung up, Amelia was still in the chair, not scrolling her phone, not doing anything, just sitting with her coffee, looking at the window, giving him space without leaving the room.
She's fine, she asked. She's fine. Good. Silence settled between them, not uncomfortable, but waited. Full of the things that happen when two people who have spent three years being professionally careful with each other suddenly find themselves in a context where the rules don't quite apply.
Marcus picked up the coffee. It was black, which surprised him. She'd had no way of knowing how he took it. He drank it anyway. It was excellent.
Can I ask you something? He said, "You can ask." Last night before he stopped, recalibrated on the rooftop. The Henderson thing. Why did you want to know which three people? She turned from the window.