"Urgent business." Axel shrugged. “Unexpected flu. There are a million reasons he might have to miss an event. Francis will pick the most appropriate one. Speaking of which,” Axel said, tipping his head toward Francis, “keep an eye on the headlines. I donotwant this surprise brother leaking anytime soon. If at all possible, we need to discredit any potential info dump Ian might be gearing up to offer the media. Deleting any hint of a possibility that there’s a surprise Fairchild family member out there will go a long way.”
Francis nodded as he took notes on his tablet.
“Has anyone heard from Ian?” I asked.
“Not since his visit,” Axel said. “I’m not sure if that’s better or worse.”
“And has your dad told your mom about Ian yet?” Francis asked.
“As far as I can tell, no,” I said.
“Every day I wake up and wait for that phone call from Mom,” Axel said. “Dreading it.”
Axel and Francis and I switched gears then, returning to progress on the Programmer’s Ball. RSVPs were rolling in, the keynote speaker had been scheduled, transparency stories were being printed and readied to hang at the event. Friday promised to be a stressful day, waiting to see how this transparency attempt landed, whether our reputation would implode or stabilize. If the SEC investigation cast a shadow over our methods, we’d work double time to shine a light onto our side mission of supporting future generations of coders even more than we already did.
We whiled away almost two hours there, a surprise fruit platter arriving. Based on the sheer number of strawberries, I knew who had sent it without even asking. I ate strawberries with a smile, already planning the ways I’d thank Jessa later with my “kissin’ skills.”
But once we finished our meeting and dispersed to our respective corners, the energy of our session fizzling away, Axel’s words returned to me.
Iwasacting different.
Which meant this thing with Jessa was affecting me more than it should. More than I could handle.
And the whole point of this was to “have fun” only as far as it wouldn’t disrupt, destabilize, or deny me the fleeting grip I had on my life now.
Maybe you need to take a step back.
It would be the smart thing to do. The right thing.
But as I made my way back to my office and caught Jessa half under her desk, swearing softly to herself, I knew taking a step back wasn’t even remotely an option.
“Hello, have you seen Jessa?” I teased as I came up to her. “I think she may have been swallowed by her desk.”
Jessa tried to sit up but bumped her head on the desk, which prompted a giggle fit. She sat on the floor, clutching her head.
“This is all because I dropped my ding-dang earring.”
I offered her a hand, and she took it, coming to her feet. We were inches away then, smiles lingering, quivering on the precipice of breaking the rules again in view of the office.
“How was the meeting?” she asked, a little breathless.
“Intense. A little depressing. Mostly the same as usual.”
She pursed her lips and tapped her chin. “You know, Damian. I’ve been thinking. We’re going to start something new.”
“What’s that?” I drifted closer to her, unable to stop myself. How would we make it through the Programmer’s Ball without tipping anyone off? The entire office would be there, not to mention a hundred cameras, reporters, and more. I could barely keep myself off her in the office—forget about the Rainbow Room where alcohol and excess flowed freely.
I was doomed.
“A sanity break.” She beamed with a proud smile. “You don’t get out of the office enough. We’re fixing this. You need to take a stroll once in awhile. And I will be your accountability partner, because I too need a regular stroll, though for different reasons.”
My gut instinct was to reject this idea. Somewhere deep down, I suspected I had a recessive vampire gene. Daylight and I didn’t mix well, but the way Jessa talked about this at least had me curious.
“A stroll?”
“Yes. Like a walk. With your two legs. Destination: somewhere that is not this office, the elevator, your penthouse, or en route to a fancy dinner or gala.”
It was hard to act annoyed when she looked so pleased with herself.