She turned. The look on her face was something he hadn't seen from her before. Not the CEO, not the controlled woman with the legal pad and the bullet points. Something more stripped down than that. Something almost fragile.
I can sleep on the chair, she said. You're not sleeping on the chair. Malcolm, you're not sleeping on a chair in your own family's resort while your ex- fiance is somewhere in this building. He set his own bag down. We're adults.
We'll figure it out. She looked at him for a long moment. Then she turned back to the window. We need rules, she said. Then let's make them.
She turned back around and sat in the chair, the one she'd just offered to sleep in with the posture of someone about to chair a board meeting. Separate blankets, she said. I'll ask housekeeping for an extra set. Fine. A pillow barrier down the center.
Fine. No reaching across in the night. No, she paused. No unnecessary contact of any kind inside this room. Agreed.
And whatever happens out there, she gestured vaguely in the direction of the hallway, the resort the entire weekend stays out there. When we come back through that door, we are colleagues working a situation. Nothing we perform for my family comes through this door. Malcolm looked at her. Nothing.
Nothing. He nodded slowly. Then I have one rule to add. She raised an eyebrow. If at any point you're not okay, not performing, not okay, but actually not okay, you tell me.
We don't do this alone. If it gets to be too much, you say so. She opened her mouth, closed it. The response she'd been about to give the automatic CEO calibrated deflection visibly dissolved before it reached her lips. All right, she said quietly.
Same goes for you. I'll be fine. You don't know that, she said, and then so precisely that it took him a second to realize she was quoting him back to himself. But you're going to act like you do. He looked at her.
She almost smiled and then her phone rang. She looked at the screen. The almost smile disappeared entirely. My mother, she said. Dinner is in 45 minutes.