Southeast territory base out of Nashville. The word landed in the room between them. Nashville. Nashville. She said, "Yeah, that's 4 hours from Atlanta."
He said, "I know." She understood immediately without him having to explain it. Lily school, Mrs. Patterson theans two doors down the particular ecosystem of people and routines that held a single father and his daughter together all of it 4 hours north. What did you tell them?
She asked. He looked at her steadily. I told them I needed 48 hours. But you already know, she said. He didn't answer.
She leaned forward. Marcus, this isn't the first time they've offered you something like this, is it? A pause that lasted about 2 seconds too long. No, he said it's the third time. The air in the office shifted.
Third time, three promotions, three opportunities. Three times Marcus Reed had looked at a door opening in front of him and chosen not to walk through it. Not because he didn't want to, but because Lily's life was here and Lily's life was not negotiable. You were going to turn it down, Clare said. Not a question.
I was going to think about it for 48 hours and then turn it down, he said. And now, and now I'm thinking about it, he said. Which is why I'm telling you because he stopped. Because you said something to me a few weeks ago that I can't stop thinking about. She waited.
You said I always save everyone else. Who saves me? He looked at her directly now. All the way. Nobody has ever asked me that before.
The room was very quiet. I'm asking it now, she said. I know. His jaw tightened just briefly. That's why I'm here.
She sat with that for a moment. Then she said, "What do you want to do?" Not Lily, not Meridian, not any other variable. "What do you want?" He looked at her like she had asked him something in a language he was still learning.
"I don't think I remember how to answer that question," he said. "Try," he was quiet, then slowly, like something being uncovered rather than built. "I want to do work that matters at a level where I can actually change things. I've been kept here for 3 years. I know this place better than anyone in this building, and I can see five problems a week that I don't have the authority to fix.