Another pause, shorter this time. Is she good to you? This woman as a boss. He thought about it honestly. She's fair.
She's demanding. She sees the work clearly. Does she see you clearly? He didn't answer right away. I'll drop Lily off Friday morning, he said.
His mother made a sound that was equal parts resignation and something else. Something almost like anticipation. You bring me back details, she said. Every single one. He didn't tell anyone at work.
He spent the rest of Tuesday in back-to-back project reviews, acting exactly as he always did, focused, measured, thorough. At 4:00 p.m., he passed Vanessa in the hallway, and they exchanged a nod that meant absolutely nothing to anyone watching and absolutely everything to both of them. Wednesday, he went over the basics with her in a second meeting. This one framed as a vendor briefing on the conference room schedule. Full names, she said, sitting across from him with a legal pad.
She had written actual notes, bullet points. He would have thought it was absurd if it weren't also completely her. Malcolm Jerome Brooks, born in Detroit, raised in Columbus, Ohio. Degree in civil engineering from Ohio State. Moved to New York at 26.
Why architecture? My father built things with his hands. Houses mostly, additions, decks. I grew up watching him turn blueprints into something people lived inside. I wanted to do that on a larger scale.
Vanessa wrote something down. What? He asked. That's good. She said that's the kind of thing a partner would know and repeat.
Is it true? Does it matter if she stopped, looked up? You actually just described your real reason. Yes. You didn't make something up.
Why would I make something up? She held his gaze for a moment. Then she looked back down at her notes and kept writing. Your daughter, Lily, Lillian May Brooks, named after my wife's grandmother. She's seven.
She's in second grade. She is currently obsessed with the life cycle of monarch butterflies and has strong opinions about cereal. He paused. Her mother passed away four years ago. Cardiac event.