He gently wipes his mouth, setting his napkin back in his lap. “So how does Elijah see all this? Does he have a response?”
“We have one. I mean, I think we do. I’m nervous to tell you the next part. Eli wouldn’t like it.”
“You’ve called me here in a mentor capacity, so unless it impacts the company as a whole, you have my confidentiality.”
“Okay. I just don’t know how to ask for your advice without you having all the details.” I take a deep breath and close my eyes. “I’d been working massive amounts of overtime on all my projects. I was getting burned out. I had a meeting for one on a Monday. Eli agreed to work with me the weekend before to help me get my last project on track to the best of my abilities.
“We were in the office on a Saturday. We were totally alone, the only two people in the entire place. The cleaning crew wasn’t even there. We were working until lunch. We brought a picnic in, and Eli was laying it out. We started teasing each other and…”
I can feel my face getting hotter and redder by the minute. Where I thought this was a good idea even thirty seconds ago, I wish now I could back out of the room without another word.
Jack clears his throat. “And you decided to have dessert first. Correct?”
“Oh my God. I’m sorry. I feel like it was super disrespectful. I…”
Jack takes me out of my misery. He lays his hand over mine before he starts talking again. “Since you brought me here under confidentiality. May I expect the same from you?”
“Yes, of course. Absolutely.”
“You’re not the first ones to carry out extracurricular activities in the office. Some of us didn’t utilize an empty office floor.”
My eyes grow as wide as the mouth of the water glass just to my right. I carefully look up and find Jack staring at me with a slight smile. “I suppose it’s a rite of passage of sorts. I wouldn’t advise making it a habit.”
“Oh my God. No. Like no.”
“While I appreciate the unneeded confession, I don’t understand what that diversion has to do with Elyse.”
“She saw us. She was in the building, on the floor, and…well, hung around for a bit.”
“Let me make sure I understand this. She not only was there unauthorized, but she heard things, didn’t make her presence known, and you’re saying she watched you? How do you know she was there?”
“She sent Eli and me an email with vivid descriptions and hinted she might even have a photo or two.”
Jack has always been so even-tempered since I’ve known him. I’ve never seen him raise his voice even once for any reason. He doesn’t get rattled in meetings. Nothing seems to surprise him. This does.
His grip loosens then tightens then loosens again over my hand before he gets up to pace the room over to the window. “Has she asked for money?”
“No. Not directly. She wants a seat on ALITE. Elyse sees it as some power play. I just want it to be about the kids. I know that’s what most people want. If global eyes are on us, she gets eyes.” I shrug. “So I guess now I’m back to my original question. What is her deal?”
“That’s a complicated question, Dylan. I don’t have an exact answer. I do have facts that you’re missing. That Eli is missing. You wouldn’t know it now, but Elyse comes from a modest upbringing. She attended the same prep school I did, on scholarship. We were friendly and even went on a date or two.
“She did follow me on to college. On my first day of classes, Lily sat next to me in my English literature seminar. I immediately broke off the relationship with Elyse. I knew inside of two minutes I’d met the woman I would marry. I did four years later. I can’t be certain; however I’m now wondering if she’s still caught up in that.
“I know she’s divorced recently. There were harsh words with Lily when we were younger. Like the saint she is, Lil asked me to have compassion for her. So I did. I will not deny her mind for business is sound and her connections for fundraising are stellar. I will not abide by a vendetta if that’s what this is. I’m going to ask her to come by my office. Would you feel comfortable being there?”
Still in the midst of wrapping my brain around all of what I’ve been told, I agree to it. If this is what Jack thinks will save us from a possible scandal and damage to ALITE before it gets off the ground, I’ll do anything.
Hayley
I’m sitting in the open doorway of the balcony to the world, the world which I feel excluded from. Even if it’s sometimes self-imposed, I feel really alone. I couldn’t even work this afternoon. I spent half the night reading and rereading the texts of apologies and listened to the voice mails that duplicated them. I didn’t have the strength to respond. He should have done better.
I hear the main door open and close, then two bags hit the entryway floor. I hear my name. I don’t answer. My body remains still, watching out the window with my arms wrapped tight around his pillow.
“Hayley?” I know he sees the top of my head. I can hear his voice clearly behind me. “I went to your office, but Kim said you’d gone home for the afternoon. Are you sick?”
“No. Not exactly.”
“Not exactly. What does that mean?”
“It means I couldn’t do it today. I was exhausted from being up most of the night alone, going over things in my head.”
“Hayley, I don’t know what to say.”
“Well, Mav, good thing a picture says a thousand words then, isn’t it?”
“Get it out in the open, Hayley. Just start screaming at me, tell me to fuck off, something. The silence is killing me. You always have a million things to say or a nasty one-liner that puts someone in their place. Say it. Do it.”
“I can’t. I don’t want to.”
“Does it matter what I want?” he asks.
I nearly laugh. I can’t help it. “Don’t we always do what you want? What I want or wanted seems irrelevant.”
“How can you say that? I cut my trip short by a day so that I could fly back to be with you.”
“Just because you got caught lying to me.”
“Lying to you? How did I lie?”
“You claim you were so unhappy you had to go to Atlanta without me. Yet there you were at a party, all dressed up, and having the best time, then posted pictures. How was that supposed to make me feel, Wes? Honestly.”
“It was a work function. I have expectations too. A fucking hell of a lot of them right now, actually. So, yes, I wallowed a little bit and let loose. I was with friends and even my cousin came out to see me.”
“I wonder what that’s like? I was here alone…again.”
“You know this is my job. This isn’t new.”
“What is new is us. What is also new is the fact that I feel less a part of you than I did when we were just friends. Maybe that’s what we need to be.”
Shit. Those words fly out of my mouth and hang in the air like a dark black cloud between us.