That isn’t good enough. This is finally a lead; Kaitlyn can sense it. “Please. It’s important.”
Her desperation must be palpable, because the landlord says, slightly more convincingly, “Okay. Yes. I will.”
“Thank you.”
Kaitlyn takes a deep breath, feeling—for the first time in days—like she might actually be close to some answers.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Meera
Meera is angry, and not for any one reason or at any one person.
Her focus has simply been hijacked by pulsating, unrelenting resentment—at Townsend, at her failing body, at the fact that she cannot tuck her daughter in at night. Maybe even at Talia, for making her feel like she’s simultaneously doing too much and not nearly enough to help her.
Sitting at her desk, she tries to channel that fury into productivity, but it’s no use. Her mind keeps slipping off her screen and out the door, hoping to find an answer for why Talia hasn’t arrived yet, and why Talia didn’t let her know she was running late, and why Meera spends more time worrying about Talia than her own kid.
Meera could probably use a hobby or a few more friends; she knows this. But she’s gotten herself too deep into this mess with Talia and Townsend and Amanda to back out now. She’s part of it, whether she likes it or not.
Her computer chirps, signaling a new email. Meera opens it, eager to busy herself, but her heart sinks as she reads the message. It’s a follow-up from the employee seminar about corporate policy a few weeks back, during which Cuff announced an impending security audit. From the audit, it seems the company determined that some customer reportsaren’t getting through to the right teams. So now, they’re going to conduct a comprehensive examination of Cuff’s systems and practices to mitigate potential risks, such as privacy breaches, malicious activity, identity theft ...
This isn’t about you,Meera assures herself, closing the email. All she did was look at a few messages; she didn’t do anything wrong. And while she genuinely believes this to be true, that doesn’t stop her palms from sweating.
Just as Meera starts to feel her anxiety overwhelm her, Talia flies through the door of the ML-team office, harried and panting. Their coworkers barely glance up from their keyboards, but Meera immediately stands from her desk and leads Talia to the bathroom, sensing they need a private space to talk.
“What’s going on?” Meera asks. “Is it Amanda?”
“I don’t know.” Talia drops her bag to the tile floor and leans against the sink. “I don’t know who they were, but I’m pretty sure they were taking pictures of me.”
Using the same tone she always employs when Gracie is frustrated or upset, Meera says, “How about you start from the beginning and tell me what happened.”
“Okay.” Talia takes a deep breath. “I was leaving Jo’s this morning—”
“You got Jo’s this morning?” Meera doesn’t mean to interrupt but can’t help herself. “I would have met you there. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Talia gives her a strange look. “I didn’t realize I needed to.”
“Right.” The words hurt more than they should.
“Anyway. I was leaving Jo’s, and I saw this car with blacked-out windows parked next to mine. And as I was getting into my car, I could swear someone took a picture of me.”
“You think they were waiting for you?”
“I don’t know what to think,” Talia says. “I’m just ...”
“Angry?” Meera wonders if her friend feels the way she does, like her overwhelming rage might come spilling out of her at any moment, burning everything in its path.
Talia shakes her head no. “I’m just tired.” Next to her on the counter, her phone vibrates, and they both look at it with apprehension, as though it has suddenly sprung to life. Cautiously, Talia picks it up and checks the screen.
“It’s nother, is it?”
“No.” Talia shows her the screen. “It’s you.” And she’s right—on the screen is Meera’s weekly performance-optimization email, identifying bottlenecks in the ML pipeline for Talia to tackle.
“Oh, right. I forgot I’d scheduled that to send at ten a.m. I didn’t want to bug you with it earlier because”—Meera shrugs and tries to keep the bitterness out of her voice—“I wasn’t sure where you were.”
Talia misses this dig. “It’s already ten? I’ve got to get to work.”
Meera waves her off. “I’ll be right behind you. I just have to pee first.”
