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I texted my sister back, decided.How about if we don’t say what I fucked up? How about if I just ask you what to do if I’ve done something wrong? If I ask you, what do I do about it?
I knew the answer; I just wanted to see her say it. I regularly checked in with my sisters because they kept me balanced. Sometimes sane, even if they didn’t know to what extent they helped me.
Her answer came back pretty quickly. You know what to do. You make it right if you can. If you can’t, you say you’re sorry, you mean it, and you don’t forget what you did so you don’t do it again.
I nodded. All of that was exactly what I thought. No shortcuts when it came to making amends. I was going to do the work until I somehow made this up to a complete stranger, one who hated me because I’d destroyed his life.
I hit the button and played the video again. And again. I’d made him into a joke, and he didn’t seem like the kind of man who would ever want to be a joke. Those intense gray eyes, the way he held himself. Max took himself very seriously, and he’d absolutely enjoyed throwing me out of Hyperion today.
I couldn’t say I blamed him.
I triedto work through the morning. There was a lot to do. Muffy—yes, that was her real name—expected to hear from me with at least a partial proposal for the Save the SlomestikanChildrenfundraiser we planned to host next month. She was anxious to get it done. Well,shewas anxious to get her face out there on all the PR we were about to release. I was excited for the actual fundraiser.
I loved that I could raise money to help others and get paid for it.
It might not have been my personal cause, but I became invested in every cause I helped to raise money for and took it to heart like it were my own.
Still, I couldn’t help looking at the clock every two minutes. I called my friend Danny and asked him what time Max usually arrived to open his restaurant. Danny was the person who knew everything that was happening in Manhattan all of the time. So, as my walking source of information, he’d told me Max arrived at noon. I intended to arrive at one o’clock so I didn’t pounce on Max the second he opened his restaurant. It was noon. I had another hour to get through before I descended on Hyperion and got Max to talk to me.
Even if he ousted me from the building at the same time.
I gave up trying to work around twelve-ten. At some point, it was fruitless, so I went to check myself in the mirror. I worked from home most of the time. Technically, I had an office, but it really was just a space for a business card. I was never there.
Love you, I sent to Layla. She might or might not answer. The baby had her up a lot. When she wasn’t helping Zeke get their vineyard set up or nursing the baby, she was frequently asleep. I couldn’t blame her. How did she function with so little rest? I wasn’t sure I ever could.
I dressed simply and for the purpose of apology. I didn’t need to look fancy. In fact, that would be super inappropriate. I wanted to look simple, so my jeans worked. I put on a purple V-neck T-shirt and a denim jacket. Sneakers completed my look, along with a dab of lip gloss, then I left the house.
“Where are we off to?” Theo asked as he caught up to me. Most of the time, he sat in a car outside of my apartment.
“Back to Hyperion.”
He side-eyed me. “Really?”
Theo was fifty-five years old, fit like a twenty-year-old, and I was pretty sure had a military background no one asked about. Aside from his two daughters, aged twenty and twenty-one, he sometimes also parented me. Since I had my own father to deal with, when he was around to be dealt with, I really didn’t need it or appreciate the pseudo-parenting, considering how much freedom I already surrendered by doing what Zeke and Michael wanted from me.
“I have something to do.”
He nodded and opened the door. I got inside. I didn’t think he was technically required to do that, but he did every time. It was nice of him, which made my mean thoughts seem even more petty. He jumped up front with Luke, and away we went. With no traffic, the drive passed much faster, and I was at Hyperion before I knew it. I blinked. Funny, when Iwantedto go somewhere, it took forever. When I dreaded arrival, time zoomed by.
I got out of the car and steeled my shoulders.
I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I go around back and knock on the door to the kitchen or try to go through the front? It was probably locked. They weren’t open for lunch.
Decision made, I walked to the side of the building, where I saw a door that had to lead to the kitchen. I mustered all my courage and knocked. After a few seconds, a man opened the door. He was tall, all in white, which looked like a uniform, and he absolutely wasn’t Max. The stranger was maybe twenty years old, with a piercing in his nose.
“Yeah?” he said.
I swallowed. “Hello. I’m hoping that I can see Mr. Broadley. Please.” I added on the last word as a final thought. Politeness would get me where I needed to be faster than being rude. Sometimes, as a woman, I had to be outright rude to get anyone to follow directions. It went beyond being a squeaky wheel. If I wasn’t just mean all the time, I got nowhere.
That said, this wasn’t that case.Flies and honey. I needed to apologize. The trick would be even getting far enough to see Max, past his gatekeepers.
“Hey, Anna, there’s a woman here to see the boss. Can you deal with it?”
I smiled. “It would be a lot easier if you let me speak to Max directly.”
“Yeah…that’s not how this works.”
Of course not.
