Ben grinned at me and chuckled, “Focused on him.”
“Yes,” I said. “That is what I just said.”
“No,” Ben replied, still wearing that irritating expression of amusement. “You said focused. I clarified the subject.”
“The subject was already implied.”
“To you, maybe.”
I looked away from him and back to the monitor, where Cove had stood again and was now walking to a different tank.
Ben set the paper bag on the corner of my desk and came to stand beside me, his attention on the screen rather than on my face.
“You know,” he said, voice quieter now, “I’m actually glad.”
“That Cove is competent?”
“That you’re this focused on him.”
I glanced at him, finding him no longer smiling. Or rather, he was, but not in the usual way.
“I haven’t had to clean up any messes lately,” Ben said.
A statement that could have referred to broken equipment, failed negotiations, difficult people, or any number of tedious complications that occasionally required Ben’s discretion.
It did not.
We both knew that.
The room went quiet around us.
“I do not create messes without cause,” I said.
“I know.”
“You say that as though you disagree.”
“I don’t disagree,” Ben replied. “Not exactly.” He looked at the screen with a thoughtful expression, before adding, “I’m loyal to you. You know that.”
“I do.”
He wouldn’t be in my orbit if I thought differently.
“And I’m not suddenly developing a conscience at this late stage, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I was not worried.”
“Good.” His mouth curved faintly. “Because I’d hate to ruin our working relationship with personal growth.”
I let out a quiet breath that resembled amusement.
“I mean it,” he continued, and the levity drained again. “Whatever you are, whatever you’ve done, whatever you’ll do later—I know where I stand.”
“With me.”
“With you,” he confirmed.
Ben had entered my life as an employee. Efficient, personable, somewhat overconfident, but useful in ways I had not anticipated. He handled people better than I did. He remembered birthdays, smoothed offended egos, knew when to offer coffee and when to offer silence. At first, his loyalty had been transactional because all loyalty was transactional until proven otherwise.
