He stared at me for a second, then looked out the window while the truck rolled through traffic. “Why not,” he asked.
“Because I need to be in my office.”
“You got a whole office in the mansion.”
“That’s not the same.”
“How.”
“Because it’s not.”
He looked back at me then, and there it was again, that same look he got every time this conversation came up. “You really miss that office that much?” he asked.
I shrugged a little and looked down at my phone. “I miss feeling normal.”
He got quiet like he was thinking about it. The truck stopped at the light, and I could still feel his hand on my ankle, but nowit had stopped moving because he was contemplating on what he wanted to do… I knew him so well.
“I just need a few hours,” I said assured him. “I’m not saying I’m going back full time tomorrow. I just need to get in there, look over some things myself, make some calls from my own desk, remind people I still exist outside of the house.”
He watched me for a second, then finally looked down and started rubbing my foot again. “You don’t disappear because you at home. Power is power and you got it.”
“I know that, but that’s not how clients think, and it’s not how the office works either. They need to see me. I need to see them. I got cases piling up.”
He cocked his head, “You got people for that.”
“I also have my own name.”
He leaned back into the seat and exhaled through his nose. “You really not gone let this go. I hate the idea of you somewhere I can’t get to in under five minutes and that’s my problem. I don’t care how many shadows I keep on you.”
“You can get to me,” I said in a softer tone.
“You know what I mean.”
Of course I did. I leaned over and rested my hand on his wrist. “I’m not trying to fight you. I just need a little room to breathe.”
He looked down at my hand on him and something in his face told me I was about to have my way. Then he lifted my foot and kissed the side of my ankle before setting it back in his lap.
“You get a couple hours,” he let me know. “That’s it.”
A smile crept on my face. “So, I won.”
“You ain’t win shit. I just got tired of hearing you talk.”
“That’s still winning.”
Instead of going straight back to the mansion, the trucks rerouted toward my office. By the time we pulled up, the building was quieter than it usually was because it was lateenough that most people had gone home. A few lights were still on upstairs, though, and the security guard downstairs straightened up so fast when he saw Dom step out first that I almost laughed. Dom came around to my side like always, opened the door, and reached his hand out to help me down.
“I can get out by myself.” I teased sticking out my tongue.
“And yet here I am.”
I took his hand anyway. He didn’t let go once my feet hit the ground either. He kept his hand at the small of my back while we walked inside and up to the elevator. Two shadows stayed downstairs, two came upstairs with us, and when the doors opened to my floor, I felt ,myself in my chest relax a little. It smelled so familiar and welcoming because it was my home in a different way. One of my assistants, Nia, was still there at the front desk, and the second she saw me, her eyes got big.
“Oh my God,” she said, standing up so fast her chair rolled back into the wall. “You really came in.”
I smiled. “Clearly.”
She rushed around the desk toward me with a stack of files already in her hands. “I wasn’t sure if you were coming today or tomorrow or next week, but I got everything organized. I put the urgent stuff in your office and the rest on your conference table. Also, two clients called again, and one of them is trying to act like you personally owe him the world because his hearing got moved.”
