I called you at 9:45 this morning. Marcus said. Something shifted in her face. Very small, very deliberate. Yes, she said.
You did. She stood, extended her hand. He shook it. The probationary period, she said, ends at 90 days on paper. As far as I'm concerned, you passed today.
Marcus looked at her. It's day 42. I know what day it is, she said. He left the office and walked to his car and sat in the driver's seat without starting it. 42 days.
He thought about the bills on his kitchen table that were no longer catastrophic. About the rent rent paid this month without the specific dread that had become a companion over the last year. About Desawn who had started telling him things again, small things, school things, the ongoing terosaur assessments with the ease of a kid who had stopped holding things back to protect his father. I thought about Patricia, who had texted him that morning after he'd hung up with Viven. You handled that right, for what it's worth.
Which from Patricia was the approximate equivalent of a standing ovation. His phone buzzed. Claire, not a text, a call, he answered. I heard from my grandmother, she said. Not about you, not directly.
She called me about something else. And in the middle of the conversation, she said, and I'm quoting that Reed man handled something well today. A pause. She never says things like that. She said it to you, Marcus asked.
To me, which means she wanted me to know. Another pause. And in it, Marcus could hear Clare working something out. She doesn't do anything accidentally, Marcus. When she tells me something, she's choosing to tell me.
Marcus looked at the building through his windshield. How are you feeling about that? He asked. I don't know yet. Her voice was honest.
A week ago, I would have said I don't care what she thinks, but that's not true. I do care. I just She stopped. I needed to stop caring so much that it paralyzed me. That's different from not caring at all.
Yeah, Marcus said. That's different. Are you going to call her after today? I just left her office, Marcus said. Oh, a beat.