Page 169 of Lorenzo

I turn my pen once between my fingers and focus on the next report.

Security staffing.

Two delayed shipments.

An unresolved permit issue.

These are ordinary complications. Each has a practical response. A person identifies the cause, applies pressure where required, and moves forward.

Donna cannot be handled that way.

She has spent years building a life around her ability to leave.

Her relatives sent her away enough times that she learned permanence was conditional. Then the Bureau placed her in the same position and confirmed everything she had already decided about people and institutions.

She survived by anticipating abandonment and acting first.

It is an effective strategy.

It is also the reason she expected me to leave her bed before morning.

She had not asked whether I was staying.

She had simply assumed I would go.

I remained because I wanted to.

That should have been the only reason necessary.

Now I understand that my presence meant more to her than she allowed herself to show.

When she came downstairs and found me making coffee, she watched me as though I had disrupted an established order.

Perhaps I had.

“Lorenzo.”

Mario’s voice cuts through my thoughts.

The room is quiet again.

This time, he does not pretend the interruption is ordinary.

I glance at the figures on the screen and find a projected staffing increase for one of the distribution operations.

“Why are we adding twelve positions?” I ask.

The director answers immediately. “The new contract increases volume by almost twenty percent. We can manage the first month with overtime, but after that, it becomes more expensive than adding staff.”

“What happens if the volume falls below projection?”

“We hire in phases. Six now. The rest after sixty days if the numbers hold.”

“Do that.”

The director nods.

Mario continues watching me.