Head still lolling back against Sawyer’s shoulder, Nellie panted with what might have been exhaustion. Sawyer pressed her mouth to her ear, feeling the fine damp curl of her hair against her lips. “I’m nowhere near done with you yet, baby.”
Sawyer woke before her alarm and switched it off before quietly climbing out of bed. It took every ounce of willpower she possessed to disentangle herself from those sheets. Not because she had any desire to sleep any longer, but because a beautiful, beguiling, gently snoring woman lay sprawled across her mattress.
She couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. Not the sex, the staying. There had been women over the years, but she had managed the goodbyes with the same clean efficiency she brought to business meetings: a car called, a glass of wateroffered, a departure made mutual and pleasant before it could become awkward.
Nellie had not been given those options. She had fallen asleep in Sawyer’s bed, against Sawyer’s chest, and had remained there until dawn. She slept now with one arm thrown at an angle that should have been uncomfortable. Mouth very slightly open. A curl stuck to her cheek that Sawyer had stared at for far too long before she shook herself out of it and padded to her closet.
She had work to do. The board meeting was at eight. Gina’s motion was pending and unresolved and required her full attention, which she was not, apparently, capable of generating from her bed while Nellie Fuller lay mere inches away and looked like that.
Of course, Martha was already at her desk when Sawyer came through the elevator doors. “All board members have confirmed their attendance. Josie at seven-fifty for a quick debrief.”
Sawyer set her bag down and stood at her desk, clicking through the overnight email summaries without sitting. “Gina?”
“Has not confirmed attendance.”
“Did you invite her?”
Martha raised an eyebrow at her.
“Send her a reminder,” Sawyer said. “Tell her that her presence is requested at eight-fifteen.”
“Eight-fifteen?”
“She’s not on the agenda. She’s an addendum.”
The corner of Martha’s mouth twitched. “Noted.”
“And Martha?—”
She paused, turning expectantly in the doorway.
“Thank you.” Sawyer was looking at her screen. “For calling Nellie.”
“I don’t know what you’re referring to.” Martha walked back to her desk, sat down, and immediately resumed typing.
Josie arrived at seven fifty on the dot. She shook Sawyer’s hand, accepted coffee, and sat at the head-adjacent seat that she’d occupied for six years without anyone ever formally assigning it.
By five past eight, all board members were present and the room had arranged itself into its habitual configurations: Danielle and Patricia whispering at one end, Emery Cho reviewing the printed agenda, Francene Dragova with her hands loosely clasped on the table as if she were holding court.
Sawyer sat at the head of the table and let the room settle.
“Thank you all for making time on short notice,” she began. “As you all know, Gina Marsh filed a motion for a vote of no confidence with Josie as board chair, and Josie agreed the matter should be heard formally. So”—she looked around the table—“go ahead.”
Francene straightened. “I think what we need to address first is the question of?—”
“The vote,” Sawyer cut her off. “Call it.”
Josie cleared her throat and opened the folder in front of her. “The motion before the board is a vote of no confidence in Sawyer Alburn as Chief Executive Officer of Alburn Systems, as filed by Gina Marsh, Head of Development, on the grounds of strategic mismanagement.” She looked at Danielle first. “Farr?”
“Against the motion,” Danielle said,, almost bored, as if she’d decided days ago and found the current moment slightly redundant.
“Cho?”
“Against.”
“Ng?”
“Against the motion.” Patricia set her printed agenda down, deliberately. “For the record, I’d like it noted that I reviewed Gina’s filing in full, and I found the factual basis for the claim of mismanagement grievously unsupported.”
