The question hangs between us in the glass-walled office, forty-seven floors above a city that keeps moving even when the people in it are standing completely still. Through the windows, Manhattan does its thing, cabs and cranes and a million people going somewhere, and none of it matters because Celeste is looking at me with those doe-like brown eyes and I’ve forgotten every reasonable answer I rehearsed on the subway.
“I came to see you.”
Her fingers press to her temples as she tilts her head, studying me like I’m a design flaw in an otherwise perfect garment. “But why?”
“You know why.” I beg her to understand the sentiment so I don’t have to awkwardly explain it. But she stands stoically, like she’s frozen in place, waiting to thaw out.
She holds my gaze. I hold hers. The silence is a living thing—it breathes, it expands, it takes up residence between us like a third person in the room who knows more than either of us is willing to say. I can see her jaw working, the almost-imperceptible clench and release of someone who is deciding, in real time, how much of herself to reveal.
She obviously decides: not yet.
“I don’t know why. It’s why I asked,” she says, but the edge is gone from her tone. What’s left is quieter. Curious, maybe. Or tired of pretending.
I lift the Rolex case. “I only came to return this.” It’s a cop-out, but I’m reading the room. And everything in here is saying I really don’t belong. This was a bad idea. Impulse control is a skill I clearly lack.
“I meant for you to keep it. As a thank-you for being such a lovely date, Saylor. Actually, you were so much more than that. An instant friend and confidant. I appreciate it.”
Damn she built the walls up high in just over a week. I might as well be on my tiptoes trying to look over the Great Wall of China.
“I’d have no use for it besides pawning it. Something this beautiful shouldn’t end up at Fast Jerry’s on Eighth Avenue.”
“Who is Fast Jerry?”
“He’s a loan shark who owns a pawn shop that you should only go to out of pure desperation. He pays decent but you’re lucky to make it out alive.”
Her left eye squints. “What? Do what you please with the watch, Saylor. But please don’t go to Fast Jerry’s anymore. There’s a reputable used jewelry exchanger on Fifth. Very honest andlegal. Would you like a card?”
“I can’t accept a gift like this from a client. You know it’s too much.” I hold up my thumb and forefinger, pinching the air. “And it makes me feel about this big.”
“I didn’t mean to—” She sighs. “Just keep it.Please.”
I set the case on the edge of her desk. She looks at it. Looks at me. Neither of us moves it.
“I bet you I’m more stubborn than you are,” I say.
“I highly doubt that?—”
A knock on the glass door startles us both. Through the glass, a woman is pressing her face close to the door with the confused urgency of someone who has just discovered that her own office is locked against her. She’s young, brunette, holding a smoothie in one hand and her phone in the other, wearing an expression that suggests she’s never encountered a locked door in her professional life and isn’t sure this is real.
Celeste closes her eyes. A deep breath enters through her nose and exits through her teeth in a controlled stream that could strip wallpaper.
She unlocks the door.
“Margot.”
“Hi! Sorry, I was just—the door was locked? I didn’t know it locked. Did you know it locked? I brought you a smoothie.”
“Yes, Margot. I’m aware my office locks. And I didn’t ask for a smoothie.”
“I know, but I passed by this place and stopped for a boba tea. This is way healthier than coffee…”
“Well thank you for watching my waistline, but I specifically sent you out for a cortado. I need a boost. I’m going to be here all night working on the fall line.”
“Which is why this is better. It’s brain food…it’s green…it has spirulina.” Margot holds it out like a peace offering from a country that doesn’t understand the terms of the war. I’m the outsider here, and even I want to tell her to zip her lips and stop digging her grave.
“Did you call the linen mill?”
“I left a voicemail.”
