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Violet wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not, and that was part of the problem. While she didn’t think Diane outright lied often, she was very good at skirting the truth. “What happened today cannot happen again. We’re exhausted from yesterday, and unless there’s a real storm—”
“Therewas!” Diane’s hands clenched. “You need to get over yourself. You’re not the only one who can read maps, Vi. You’re not the only one who can figure out where we need to go and when.”
Violet cocked her head to the side. “No, I’m not. Butyoucan’t.”
“Yes, I can!”
Violet stuttered to a stop. Diane had never taken this position before. “What’s really going on? You’ve never wanted to make those decisions before.”
“You never let me. You’re always the one who takes over that, who pushes to do what she wants to do. Well, I’m sick of it. I’m tired of always falling in line.”
Violet’s mind was blown. It was as if Diane was taking the words right out of her mouth but turning them back around. If anyone fell in line, it was Violet. If anyone conceded, it was Violet. Putting her hand out in front of her, Violet tried to start again, to wrangle the conversation back to where it should be. “Fine, we can have more discussions about what we’re doing before we do them and where we’re going, but the same goes for you. You can’t just up and move us without warning when there are storm cells coming in where we were, without a discussion.”
Diane snorted, anger lighting on her face. “I moved us here so we could find storms.”
“And we’ve found one!” Violet nearly screamed at the end, barely able to contain it. “Exactly one, Diane. And what you dragged us out to today was worth nothing.”
“This is ridiculous. You’re being a fool. Today’s storm was a storm, and you’ve never wanted to avoid them before.”
“Yes! Yes, I have.” Violet sighed. “We’ve never gone out to every storm. We’ve never insisted on traveling so much. Erik—”
“Erik is an idiot, and he followed you around like a lost puppy. I’m sorry I don’t do that, Vi, or that Lando doesn’t do that, but you have got to get it into your head that you are not the center of everyone’s world, that you are not the reason this team functions, and you are not the one in charge.”
Violet’s jaw dropped. She’d never thought Diane would get this nasty with her. She’d seen it before, seen her push others in this way, but she’d never—they’d never—Violet stopped. “Tell me what this is really about. What happened with Erik?”
“I fired him.”
“For what?”
“Not doing his job.”
“He did his job perfectly.” Violet knew that. She’d even argued for him to get a raise on occasion, and the abrupt change in the team had disrupted the way they functioned. They hadn’t found a balance with Lando yet, and Violet wasn’t sure they would.
“He didn’t. You don’t know the half of it.”
That was it, wasn’t it. Diane ran the show. She might blame Violet for the problems, but she was the one who made the decisions without consultation. She was the one who had fired Erik. She was the one who had hired Lando. She was the one who did everything without warning, without explanation, and without discussion.
“We’re a team, Diane. If you’re having issues with someone, then you need to come to me about it.”
Diane shook her head. “You don’t want to know the half of it. You’re not built for business or making these decisions. You don’t have a head for it. You need to accept your role in this team. You’re here for the science, nothing else.”
“I…I’m not here just for the science.” If anything, having Lando hand her that camera the day before was proof of that. She missed it, missed the creativity, the excitement. Lando had shown her all of that again. “I’m here because I love this, because I love you.”
Diane stopped. Violet’s breath caught in her throat. She hadn’t meant to say that. She hadn’t meant for it to come out like that. Panic welled in her chest as Diane’s look turned into a sneer, the quiet between them thickening so it was hard to breathe.
“I don’t love you.” Diane’s words were harsh but true.
Somewhere, somehow, Violet had known that all along. She wasn’t even sure Diane loved her as a friend anymore or if Diane just put up with her. They stared at each other until Violet stood up and walked out of the room, unsettled. She had gone in there to have that conversation, and it was done. It was over. And she’d gotten the answer she knew she would get.
Violet grabbed the camera from her bedroom and walked straight outside. She needed to be alone. She needed to do something with her hands, focus her mind and her body. She didn’t even care that each step pulled at her aching muscles or that she had no place in particular she wanted to go. She found herself at the barn, a storm in the distance. She stopped, lifting the camera to her face and snapping a picture of the oncoming clouds with the bright red barn to the side. She could go in later and make the red brighter, improve the contrast.
“I was just about to head out to the fields.” Eli’s voice startled her.
Violet spun around on the dirt road, eyes wide, fear in her stomach. She said nothing, waiting for more explanation.
“If you wanted some storm pictures, there are some great places I could show you.”
Glancing at the house, the beautiful house that stood stoically, Violet nodded. She piled into the old farm truck with Eli, still keeping silent as Eli drove. Violet didn’t pay too much attention to how far they had gone, watching the storm unfold in front of them.
