Margot’s eyes shot back up to Sydney’s.
“No. My God, no. Of course not. And no, he didn’t tell me. Avery did. When I had breakfast with her to talk about the party.”
Sydney counted on her fingers. Margot knew what was coming.
“You had breakfast with her on Thursday, yes? Last Thursday?”
Margot sighed.
“Yes.”
“Mmm,” Sydney said. “So how did it take you this long to tell me that Avery Jensen made a point to tell you that she wasn’t dating your little fling turned employee?”
Margot tugged her hair up into a bun.
“First, don’t call him mine. Second, she didn’t make a point to tell me, it wasn’t out of nowhere; it was in the context of me hiring his mom’s boyfriend to do landscaping. She told me they’ve been friends since high school. Third, I was going to say some bullshit about how I haven’t seen you since last Monday so that’s why I haven’t told you, but I know exactly what you’d say to that, so I’m not even going to bother, and I’ll say the real reason, which is that I didn’t want you to think I cared that much.”
Sydney raised her eyebrows.
“But you do. Don’t you?”
Margot didn’t say anything for a while.
“Yeah,” she said finally. “I do.”
Sydney took a step away.
“Be right back.”
In a few minutes, she walked up, a paper bag in her hand.
“I was right—we did have more of that ice cream you liked in the back. Let’s go.”
Margot looked up at her.
“I love you so much.”
Sydney dropped an arm around her shoulder.
“Yeah. I know.”
Eleven
LUKE WOKE UP SUNDAY morning and checked his phone. A text from Craig? That was a surprise. Craig had been his mentor at work; they’d always gotten along well, but Craig had seemed as shocked and disappointed as everyone else when Luke had quit. He’d been pretty sure he’d never hear from him again.
CRAIG
Thought you might be interested in this news. Let me know if you want to chat about this. We miss you around here.
Luke clicked on the link Craig had sent him and laughed when he saw the headline. Oh, they’d pledged $10 million toward diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts? And had hired a brand-new chief diversity officer? Right. Of course they had.
He flinched when his phone rang. Craig couldn’t be calling him to talk about this, could he? Did he want Luke to talk to the press, to parade him around in the way they’d done before, this time as a Black former employee who had just loved his time there and didn’t experience discrimination at all?
Oh, it was just his mom. Luke was so grateful he immediately picked up.
“Luke! Pete and I are going to that sale and auction you and I always used to go to today. Want to join us? Maybe you and Avery could come along? That is, if you two didn’t have other plans today.”
This is what picking up the phone got him. And he didn’t have to work today at Noble, so he couldn’t wiggle out of this that way.
“Sure,” he said to his mom. What else could he say? “I don’t think Avery can come, but I’ll meet you guys there.”
Maybe today was a good time to tell his mom the truth about his job. And about this Avery thing. He was feeling better about everything, maybe because he’d been out of that job for over a month, and working at Noble for three weeks now. It was fun, to learn something brand-new, to get to interact with people all day, none of whom seemed to be looking for him to fail. He wasn’t stressed, anxious, about work anymore. That felt weird, almost unnatural.
Maybe Avery had been right—it was good to do something so different from his old job, get some distance from it. He was maybe even starting to get his swagger back.
He laughed at himself and got in the shower.
Before he left home he texted Craig back. Partly to stay friendly with him, just in case he’d ever need Craig in the future for a reference. But also because he’d always liked Craig; he didn’t want to blow him off.
LUKE
Thanks for reaching out—good to see this. Hope all is well with you.
There. That was good enough.
When he caught up with his mom and Pete, his mom grinned at him.
“I can’t believe my son voluntarily came to this place that I dragged him to for years when he was in high school,” she said.
Luke hugged his mom.
“That’s the difference between age fourteen and twenty-eight, I guess,” he said. “Just point me toward the rooster.”