Vance twisted back to Georgina. “Would you like tospeak?”
She smiled brightly. “Thank you for asking but goahead.”
He turned forward again. “With this being George’s last week, she and I just debriefed. She wanted to let me know how impressed she is with how you’ve all handled this difficulttransition.”
“With the exception of Albert, of course,” Georgina added. “For him, I recommend a very skilled and patient therapist.” Everyone at the table laughed, myself included, but the usual small smile Georgina wore when she landed a playful insult wasn’tthere.
What exactly washappening?
Whether or not we’dactuallybecome the good boys Georgina wanted wasn’t the issue. We all wanted to hear that we’d been cleared of our charges and were better men now. We’d only needed Georgina to say it to believeit.
Vance frowned. Was it sadness? Disappointment? Was he losing something—me? Her? “Georgina believes you lot have made some of the greatest progress she’s seen in this amount oftime.”
“Easy, Chewbacca,” Justin whispered behind me. I’d gnawed my pen cap to apulp.
“I’m grateful to you all for making this work,” Vance continued, “and to Georgina for taking on what probably sounded like an impossibleposition.”
Justin snickered and whispered, “No less possible than the one she was in lastnight.”
I glanced back at him. He was on his phone, scrolling Facebook. As revenge for getting me in even hotter water with Georgina, I took his cell, updated his status to “When everyone keeps telling you you’ve got Little Dick Energy :(” and dumped it in the pitcher ofwater.
“Hey, what the fuck?” Justin dove in after it. “You better hope this shit iswaterproof.”
“Guys,” Vance warned. “I just complimented you on how mature you’ve been. Don’t make me take itback.”
“Thank you for the kind words, Vance.” Georgina held a tight smile in place. “I’m only as good as myteam.”
She had molded us into something better, and shedidhave what it took. She was qualified. I inhaled a breath and tried to think of how I could possibly respond to being fired in front of everyone who’d counted on me the last few years. She kept any emotion from her eyes as they roamed the room, grazing right over my head, giving menothing.
“Well?” Iasked.
“All right, all right, Sebastian,” Vance said. “I know you’re eager to get the meeting going. We just wanted to thank you all. Georgina’s going to start wrapping things up around here, so if you have any final questions or concerns, see her in the next day ortwo.”
She wasleaving?
She wasleaving.
Right on schedule, if notearlier.
“But you can always e-mail me about anything,” she said. “If things go smoothly today and tomorrow, I’ll be out of your hair even sooner than planned.” She finally glanced at me. “That’s how much confidence I have in youall.”
Her words from the night before hadn’t left me.“If you take over, I become obsolete. Walk in with me as a united front tomorrowmorning.”
She’d been looking out for me instead of herself, and after her history with Neal, no doubt that scaredher.
“I’ve got a breakfast meeting to get to,” Vance said. “Over to you,Quinn.”
Over to me—if I still even wanted that. She wasn’t taking the job. It was all mine. Why didn’t I feelrelieved?
The answer to that was right there in her expressionlesseyes.
I had no idea where I stood withher.
After the meeting,Georgina hung back to talk to Nicole. I didn’t want to wait another minute to hash out this morning’s argument and move on, but the longer I lingered, the more desperate I seemed, so I returned to our office to wait forher.
I raised the window shades. The office became an oven in the afternoon when they were that high, but Georgina liked natural light, so I’d gotten in the habitanyway.
I’d outlined most of our talking points for the first episode of the podcast we were set to record next week when my impatience got the better of me and I went looking for her. Not only did I need her help on this podcast thing, but I wanted it. This was the closest I’d gotten to sports broadcasting, what I’d thought I’d do after college. For the first time in a long while, I was nervous in my role atModernMan.
