I was about to ask but the head of operations summoned her to a meeting. Knowing I wouldn’t get the conversation with Sydney out of my mind, I worked up the nerve to speak to the only man who was actuallyinmy life.
I smoothed down my gray pencil skirt before I knocked on the door frame. Charles looked up from his monitor.
“Hi. Can I speak with you for a moment?”
“Of course,” he said as he took off his bifocals and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
I entered his office and closed the door. He stood up from his mammoth mahogany desk and walked over to his small refrigerator. He pulled out two bottles of water and handed me one.
“Thanks,” I said as I sat down at the small round table in the corner of his office and looked out of the window.
He sat down next to me. “Should I be nervous?” he asked as he ran his hand through his thick salt and pepper hair.
I arched an eyebrow. “About what?”
“Please don’t tell me you’re going to do something stupid and quit.”
My mind raced. “Quit? No. I wasn’t planning on resigning. But if you’d rather I did, so you could avoid firing me, I’ll understand.”
He covered his face with his hands and laughed. “You kill me sometimes.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What’s so funny?”
“For an intelligent woman, you don’t see things clearly. I have no intention of firing you. You have been an instrumental part of this company’s success.”
“I know, but I made a mistake and left us vulnerable.”
“Yeah, you made amistake. I hate to break this to you but you’re human.”
I took a sip of water because I felt my throat tighten.
He continued. “And I made a mistake when I blew you off when you wanted to tighten our security. And I also made a mistake when I refused to listen to everyone’s concerns about my niece Kimmie’s poor performance because I wanted to avoid a difficult conversation with my younger brother. And Jamie made a mistake. And so did Sydney. Do I need to go on?”
“No. But you’ve been avoiding me.”
The wrinkles in the corner of his eyes deepened when he smiled. “No, I haven’t been. I was giving you space to do your job.”
“I would have thought for sure that—”
“What? That I’d yell and scold you?”
I was afraid my voice would crack if I answered, so instead, I just nodded.
“I know”—he patted my hand—“which is why I didn’t say anything to you. I know how you think, Waverly. There would have been nothing I could have said to you that would make you feel worse about what happened than what you are already saying to yourself. Am I right?”
It was my turn to chuckle. “Yeah. I’ve been brutal.”
“I’m sure. Now stop beating yourself up. We’ll get past this.”
But then what?
23
I yawned.Even though it was only nine o’clock at night, I was mentally and physically exhausted from my conversation with Sydney and Charles. I kept thinking about how my boss said I sometimes don’t see things clearly. I knew he was right. I had allowed my fears and insecurities to cloud my vision for so long.
Perception is so subjective. How did I know if my feelings about Pete were true or if they were clouded by my cowardness?
I picked up my cell phone and navigated to my contacts. My fingers hovered over theletterP. I knew the right thing for me to do would be to place a quick call or fire off a text, but I couldn’t work up the nerve to press the button. Frustrated and miserable, I decided to go to bed instead. I flipped off the television and was about to bring my empty wine glass into the kitchen when my doorbell rang.
