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“You’re going to call Peter Daniels, let him know we’re having the meeting right now, or not at all.”
I kept my exterior calm and unaffected, yet her face paled anyway. She nodded, grabbed the phone, and rolled her chair back slightly as if I might bite her.
“Hi, um, sorry,” she said into the phone. “Mr. Stryker says he’s going to leave. No. Nope. Uh-uh. Okay.”
She hung up.
I raised a brow, waiting for the verdict.
“They’ll see you now.” She rose from her seat and walked quicker than I’d seen anyone move in high heels before.
I followed behind her and entered the door she opened for me. Pamela moved seamlessly by my side as I entered a packed conference room, with plates of half-eaten pastries on the table. They’d been here a while.
“Gabriel, so good to see you.” Peter smiled amicably at me and gestured for me to take the seat beside him.
I didn’t move.
Pamela stood sentinel by my side.
“Grab a donut and some coffee. You’re going to want to sit for this,” Peter said.
When I still didn’t move, he continued smiling, and continued talking.
“All right, then. We here at Biotabloom Dynamics have reviewed the salacious details spread about your relationship with thereality star.”
“Layana,” I said.
“Excuse me?”
“Her name is Layana Hartley.”
“Right,” he said with a chuckle that grated further on my nerves. “You’d think I’d remember that the way my daughter and wife clammer on about her and all of thoseinfluencer types.”
I didn’t like the way he saidreality starorinfluencer typeswith air quotes and a judgmental tone. I didn’t like that he acted as if he hadn’t met her, like her name wasn’t important.
Layana was important. She was everything.
“Sex blogs aren’t the image we’re looking for. We’re a family company,” Peter said.
Families didn’t force you to be someone you weren’t. Whether they were born connected or chose each other, they bound together no matter the circumstances and accepted you as you were, and they loved you for it.
Pretending business was anything like family forced people into thinking they owed more, that it was for the better good. It was toxic under a sugary guise.
This was not the kind of attitude I wanted to deal with. I was done with pretending, done with bending and allowing others to dictate anything about me. Layana inspired that in me. I would speak my truth, always.
“It’s not a sex blog,” I said. “And if it was, that’s her business, not yours. If this merger is going to happen, it happens despite the fact that you think I’m a robot, despite whether I go to galas or hide in my robot compound and never step into the spotlight again. This merger is about sharing advancements in eukaryotic organisms to reduce waste in landfills. It’s about doing good.”
I had had my fill of this meeting, of this interaction. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to work with Biotabloom Dynamics anymore, or that I ever should have, not after the veiled threats to cancel our relationship, not after forcing me into situations I was clearly uncomfortable with.
I didn’t need them to do good in the world. I could find another way.
Peter’s face was red. He appeared to be turning into a tomato in a microwave, about to explode.
“I have another meeting,” I said. “I respect the time of those I associate with, so I won’t be late. Goodbye.”
Pamela was silent as I turned to go. She was silent on the way outside, all the way into the parking lot.
Wallace held open the door for the two of us to climb in, but Pamela stopped a few feet back.
