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“You’re probably not going to like this, but we have to go to my boss’s house for dinner tonight.”
Saber sighed.
“You chosetonightto have dinner with your boss?”
“When the CEO of your company invites you to dinner, you accept.”
“The CEO of Glacier?”
“Yeah, Ansel James. Have you heard of him?”
“No. Is he super rich?”
“That’s the rumor, but it’s hard to say. He could be leveraged up to his eyeballs. He’s very private.”
“And you’re just his employee? Or his friend?”
Her dad shrugged.
“I think I’m friends with him as much as anyone at the company is.”
Saber nodded, and the vision of a cold, calculating billionaire summoning her father with a curling finger floated into her mind.
Her father’s house was beautiful, strikingly, geometrically modern, and nearly empty. The kitchen was well appointed, with gleaming stainless-steel, high-end appliances that still had their protective plastic wrapping. There were vaulted, fifteen-foot-high ceilings and ample, enormous windows overlooking a forest with colossal, solid tress.
“Douglas firs and cedars,” her father had said, looking out with her, “but the yard needs a lot of work.”
“The house doesn’t look very lived in.”
“I barely moved in before I got the call about mom,” he said with a shrug. “I locked up, left, and I’ve been with you all summer dealing with that.”
“So sorry to inconvenience you.”
He ignored her and kept talking.
“I’ve always wanted a house like this, modern, clean lines, everything brand new.”
“Sorry you have to share it with me.”
“Oh, come on Saber,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders in an awkward, uncomfortable way. “I wasn’t planning on having you here, but I’m so, so glad you are. It turns out you were the real reason I built it! Look at all these blank walls for your art!”
“Ok.” She glanced around. There were, indeed, many blank walls. “Where’s my room?”
Her room, like the rest of the house, was high-ceilinged and sparse, only containing a bed with plain white linens, a large picture window looking out at the forest, and a huge walk-in closet that could fit five times as many clothes as she actually owned.
“You can do whatever you want with it,” he said. “Really, anything, I don’t care. And we can buy different furniture.”
“Differentfurniture? Dad, there’s barely any furniture at all.”
Saber set her bag down at the foot of her bed.
“You know what I mean. Whatever you want, paint, whatever.”
“Great, thanks.”
She was too tired to think about changing anything about the room.
“I’ll give you a few minutes and then we gotta head out. I’m sorry. If I could move this I would.”
