I nodded and walked out.
*
The Banana Store was almost empty, and I took a table by the window and set my bag on the chair opposite. James’s last meeting would be done by five fifteen, so he’d be here any minute.
“Can I get you something?” The waitress was standing next to the table.
I looked up.
“Oh,” she said.
It was the one with the pink hair. Except now it was blue. God, I hadn’t thought of her in a while. Was she still with Rudy? She was welcome to him.
“Just a soda and lime, please.”
I unlocked my phone, and the blue-haired waitress slinked off.
The draft was still open in my Gmail, half-written.
Application: AutumnResidency.
I read it again, and a second time.
If I waited for the right moment, I’d still be waiting in five years.
Fuck it.
I hit Send and placed the phone face down.
A chair was pulled out next to me. James arrived in a flurry of bags and mild panic.
“Sorry I’m late, hon. I just spent forty minutes explaining that putting ‘people first’ in a slide deck doesn’t legally count as putting people first.”
“People first. Always right before the asterisk with the disclaimer.”
He grimaced. “Sorry I’ve been so busy.” He’d already grabbed a beer on the way to the table and plonked it down. “Prima von Donna’s got us running around like headless chickens. Everything’s such a bloody mess.”
He looked at me. “Sorry, Andy, I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay,” I said. “I can see HR’s been busy.”
“Yeah. It’s fucked up.”
The waitress reappeared and placed my drink on the table.
“They pulled something of mine,” I said. “Yesterday.”
James’s hand paused midair, bottle of Peroni inches from his lips.
“What?”
“The letter in my file. About Liam. Bonnie called me into a meeting.”
“Oh,” he said. “Oh, fuck.”
He put the bottle down without drinking and rubbed his forehead with two fingers.
“Okay. Right. So. Before you freak out—”
