Naomi was studying him suspiciously. “Wasn’t tonight the event at the library that you were taking your girlfriend to?” she asked.
He groaned, regretting telling them a little about Nell over the last few days. “Not my girlfriend,” he said. “And I just wanted to familiarize myself with the new NYPL part of the server a little more, now that our team is set up there and the scans are starting to come in. We’re already up to a hundred thousand.”
Naomi and Priya both stared flatly, unconvinced.
“Why are you two here on a Sunday night?” he asked, hoping to deflect.
“We’re not really,” Naomi said. “Priya was having dinner with my wife, Charlotte, and me down the street at Trinity Place. We decided to swing by so she could pick up her dry cleaning.”
Priya held up a set of hangers with clothes wrapped in plastic that had been draped over the back of her chair as evidence. “We would have invited you if we knew you weren’t at your party.”
Felix nodded.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Naomi asked.
“Yeah,” he said, so unconvincingly that they all laughed. “Sorry. Just got a lot going on right now.”
“You want to talk about it?” Priya asked, propping herself on the side of his desk.
“I was just thinking,” he began, slowly spinning in his chair. “Once we have our copies of all the library’s maps—”
Naomi threw up her hands. “It’s always work with you!”
“I know, I know.” He shrugged helplessly.
“Look, Felix,” she said after they’d finished chuckling at him. “I have to go—we left Charlotte in the lobby since visitors aren’t allowed outside of business hours. You should go home, too.”
“I will.” He sighed.
“I mean it,” she replied, rolling her eyes at his tone. “Go do something not work-related, for once.”
“Maybe go apologize to Nell for whatever reason you gave for ditching her at the event you just left,” Priya suggested.
Felix groaned. “No, that’s definitely over. It wasn’t ever not over to begin with. But it’s definitely over now.”
“Felix.” Priya sighed, throwing up her arms.
“I don’t know,” he said, and sighed too. “It’s all a mess. There’s too much history there.”
Naomi shook her head. “This is life, Felix—not a test scenario. It’s never going to be perfect. You just have to go for it.”
“So inspirational,” he replied with mock awe, and she pretended to punch him in the arm. An alert popped up on his screen as Felix rubbed his bicep, catching his attention. “Well, next time you’re all going out, let me know. I’d love to meet your wife too, Naomi. And your boyfriend, Priya,” he said.
“I’ll bring him if you also bring Nell,” Priya winked.
He grimaced. “Touché.” He glanced at the alert out of the corner of his eye again, trying to see if it was actually an emergency, or if it could wait a moment. “I think I really need to move forward with my life. I’m doing my best to forget about all of that.”
Naomi shook her head, sighing, and turned to head toward the door. “There’s not a map for this, Felix. If you keep waiting around until you have one, you’re going to lose her for good.”
But Felix was no longer listening. And neither was Priya, it seemed.
“Hey,” she said, her eyes on the screen as well. The alert had flagged part of the NYPL system.