You've got till then. " She came in. She sat at the small kitchen table where Marcus had written in his notebook every night for 3 years. He made her coffee because that was the kind of man he was and he set it in front of her and he sat down across from her and he waited. "I've been doing some reading," Evelyn said, "about you. The parts I'm allowed to read, which isn't much, but it's enough to understand that I have spent 3 years walking past one of the most qualified aviation minds in this country and treating him like he was invisible. " She wrapped her hands around the coffee cup.
"I want to offer you a senior position at Falcon Dynamics, Chief of Flight Operations and Safety. You'd oversee test flights, pilot training, safety review, everything. The salary is" She named a number. Marcus didn't react to the number. Most men would have.
He just watched her. "That's a lot of money," he said finally. "You're worth more. " "It's not about the money. Marcus turned his own coffee cup slowly on the table. Ms.
Carter, can I ask you something? And I'd like an honest answer because I think we're past the point of anything else. Anything. Yesterday, before you knew who I was, before Colonel Hollis said my name and the government got interested, and I turned out to be somebody worth having. Yesterday morning, when I was still just the janitor who mopped your floor.
He looked at her. If Cortez hadn't collapsed, if there'd been another pilot, would you ever in your whole life have looked twice at me? Evelyn Carter opened her mouth to say something reassuring, and then she stopped. Because she'd told herself she was past anything but honesty, and this was the moment that tested it. "No," she said quietly.
"No, I wouldn't have. I would have walked past you every morning for the rest of your career, and never once seen you. And that's not a flaw in you, Marcus. That's a flaw in me. A deep one.
One I'm only just now starting to understand. " She met his eyes. "I built an entire company and an entire life on the idea that I was the smartest person in every room, and it made me good at business and terrible at seeing people. I looked at a man in a maintenance uniform, and I decided I already knew everything worth knowing about him. And I was wrong in a way that nearly killed someone. She took a breath.