“Nothing,” Ben tells him. “We have a visitor.”
He glances up at this, clocking my presence and then reeling back.
Not a great start.
I give a pointless little wave. “Hey.”
He turns accusing eyes on Ben. “You can’t be serious.”
Ben holds up his hands. “I had nothing to do with this, I swear.”
My heart sinks through the floorboards. Connor does not want to seeme.
“He didn’t,” I confirm. “I went by the office to talk to you and the guys said you quit. So I came here.”
“Right,” Connor says, dazed.
Beside me, Ben is what I’d describe as an extremely not-passive observer; all the man needs is a bowl of popcorn. I look at him likewant to chime in here?His smile only grows. Freak.
“Anyway,” I say, my eyes darting back to Connor, “I can see this is probably not a great time, so I’ll just…” I trail off, pointing back toward the door.
“No, you stay,” Ben insists. “It’s me who was just leaving.”
Connor shuts his computer and stands. “I thought we were goingto—”
“Nope. We’re not. Ask her,” Ben says cryptically, swiping his own computer off the coffee table and slinging it under his arm. “Annie, I will see you very soon.”
“Uh, OK? Bye, Ben.”
His footsteps retreat down the hall, and then there’s the click of the door shutting.
It’s even quieter now that we’re alone.
Neither of us says anything. Connor has always been so friendly, so open, so endlessly willing to put up with my shit. Am I on the other side of that now? He feels closed off in a way that scares me. I’m worried it’s already too late.
I clear my throat. “Ask me what?”
I watch him weigh it up, then decide against. “Why are you here?”
Right. It was never going to be that easy.
“I came to say sorry,” I tell him. “And to tell you I’ve learned my lesson, the hard way. And to promise you I’ll never, ever interfere with anything ever again.”
He shakes his head. “I’m not sure I want this apology.”
I don’t get it. “Why not?”
“You interfering is agoodthing, Annie,” he says. “Or, it is when you don’t go straight for the nuclear option. You always fight to fix things. I wouldn’t change any of that about you. I love how much you care about your people. I just wished I was one of them.”
My heart clenches.
“OK,” I say. “Then let me rephrase. That’s not actually what I’m apologizing for.”
“OK…”
“I’m not sorry about leaking the news to Product, or that Andy made Brad look like a dickwad in front of everyone. Heisa dickwad. We don’t even know for sure if he has a computer! I think Andy was right to give him hell.” He opens his mouth, then closesit.
“This is a weird apology.”
