Page 156 of Smoke and Glitter

He's outside twenty minutes later with rain in his curls, an umbrella in one hand and a paper bag tucked under the other arm. The downpour has eased to mist, but the pavement is still slick enough to throw every storefront back at itself.

"What's in the bag?"

"Food."

"That's not an answer."

"It's food, Autumn."

Then he takes one look at my face.

"You said you had something to tell me."

Before I left Chicago I might have made him work for it, just to see what he guessed. Instead I step under the umbrella with him and say it.

"I told Anna I'm coming back to Chicago when the extension is done. I'm starting my own firm."

Sam stops walking.

For one second, everything I have ever wanted from him is right there in his face. Relief. Happiness. Something almost disbelieving.

Then he catches himself, and I watch him make room for the part that belongs to me.

"Is that what you want?"

"Yeah. It is."

His shoulders loosen. "Okay. Then tell me about the firm."

I stare at him. "That's your reaction?"

"No." Sam's mouth pulls slightly. "I have another reaction. I'm trying not to make your business plan about the fact that I get you back in the same city."

My throat tightens before I can turn it into a joke.

"You're allowed to be absolutely ecstatic about it."

"I am very fucking happy about that."

I laugh, and Sam bends to kiss me under an umbrella doing a mediocre job of keeping either of us dry. When he pulls back, he takes the laptop bag off my shoulder without asking.

"I can carry that."

I let him.

We start walking again.

"Small roster," I tell him. "Creative people. Performers. Founders. Public-facing people who need somebody keeping the machine from eating the person."

"Does it have a name?"

"No."

"Good."

I turn on him. "Why is that good?"

"Because if you already had a name, a website and office furniture picked out, I'd be worried you forgot to sleep again."