The mention of a hotel room irritates me further. It suggests a level of premeditation I don’t carefor.
“Where are your bags?”
“In our room. We got here yesterday.”
Yesterday.I cast a wounded look at my sister who drops her gaze the second our eyes lock, guiltily looking at her feet.
“Wow. Thanks for tellingme.”
“I wanted to surprise you,” Shannon says. I can’t tell whether she truly means this or it’s a flimsy justification she’s using to make this all seem OK. “We got in really late last night.”
“But—what about the reward flight?”
“I’ll pay you back, OK!” she says, an edge in her voice, like I’m giving her shit here for absolutely no reason.
I shake my head to clear the thought.
“Where are you staying?”
“Dumbo.”
“But I live in Manhattan.”
Dan just shrugs. “I’m sure this place has Ubers.”
My nostrils flare. If I shoved him hard enough, I wonder if I could send him flying back through the revolving door.
“Looks like you’ve got it all figured out,” I say flatly. “But I still don’t understand. What are you doinghere?”
“I was hoping you could give us a tour of the office,” Shannon says. “I really want to see where you work.”
I did offer this to her when we were first planning the weekend. I childishly thought it would be nice to show my big sister what I do all day. But I will take Dan upstairs over my dead body.
“We’re not really supposed to bring people up during working hours.”
“I thought you were kind of a big deal around here, Annie,” Dan almost sneers. “You can’t make a special exception for family?”
“Oh, I can make an exception forfamily.Butyou’llhave to wait downstairs.”
Dan is winding up for some blistering comeback, but Shannon halts him with a squeeze of hisarm.
“Never mind,” she says. “We don’t want to hassle you. I thought it would be a fun surprise. We’ll go, and meet you after work instead.”
It’s been two minutes and the weekend with my sister has already gone pear-shaped. I could howl at the injustice of this. But sending them away will make things even worse. I need a new plan. And fast.
“It’s fine,” I say through gritted teeth. “You’re here now. Let me show you around.”
—
We ride the elevator up to the twenty-fourth floor in near silence. Shannon’s only comment is that we’re so high she felt her ears pop.
I give her a forced smile but say nothing. Beside her, Dan is radiating smugness. He’s ruined my weekend, and he knows it. That’s exactly why he’s here.
I realize, belatedly, that I should have taken them straight up to the canteen and left them there, rather than walk them through the office, but it’s too late now. My only instinct is to get to Connor. He’ll fix it. Somehow.
“Just be quiet,” I tell them, gesturing at them to follow. “People are working.”
Dan rolls his eyes. “They do have offices back in Canada, you know.”
