AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Before he can deliver me an earful, I say, “I know the rule. And I acknowledge that you’ve done a good job of keeping Wednesday sacrosanct with a wife and baby at home.”
For years now we’ve been having our Wednesday non-business dinners, an inviolable tradition we’ve kept up without fail. Wednesday dinner is sacred. Just like my daily call home to Mom, and now to Chari. But sometimes real life gets in the way. And I’m not in the mood to hear otherwise from the person who understands my schedule more than anyone.
I wrap up the rest of my sandwich. “Sorry to kick you out of my office.”
Hayden stands, saluting me. “No you’re not. You love working more than any . . .” He stops. Usually my business partner is all smiles, but he suddenly looks way too serious for my liking. “I’d say having lunch with me. But we both know that’s not true. Breaking bread with me is your favorite thing of all.”
But Hayden’s expression doesn’t match his joking words.
“What were you going to say?”
Hayden shakes his head vigorously. “Nothing.”
And that’s it. He walks away.
“Seriously, what?”
“Let me know what happens at the lab,” he says, ignoring my question. “Later.”
Just before Hayden closes the door, I call out, “Thanks for lunch.”
If it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have eaten anything.
I look at my watch. Forty minutes to wrap things up before my meeting. It’ll be tight, but for some reason, I find myself staring at the glare of my computer screen instead of getting to work.
What was Hayden so worked up about? It’s not like I’ve suddenly turned into a workaholic. Even in college, I sat out most of the parties he went to, choosing to stay home and hit the books instead. Work is important to me, it’s what keeps me running, it’s . . .
How’s Chari?
It’s a lightbulb moment. He’s worried my work schedule will interfere with our relationship. The idea of Hayden as some sort of love doctor is laughable, or at least it would have been before he met Ada.
I laugh, my empty office the only recipient of the sound.
Sometimes Hayden just doesn’t get it. Getting into Cornell wasn’t easy for me, and I never took it for granted, not for one second. I still don’t. Part of me fears the success we’ve worked so hard to achieve could be snatched away. That if we don’t keep making it better, bigger, it’ll drift away like so much smoke. Most of the time I know that’s foolish, but I still
remember the look on my school counselor’s face when I told her Cornell was my top pick.
“Cornell?” she said, her face scrunching up. “I’m so sorry, sweetie, but I don’t think that’s going to be possible.” She went on to point out that it wasn’t the kind of school kids with average grades, or dyslexia, should expect to get into.
Mrs. Forsythe was an old friend of my mother’s, so I trusted her. Believed her. More than I should have. Cornell was my dream, and not only because of its kickass science program. My family had visited the campus on our way to one of Tris’s playoff baseball games, and it had felt right in a way that no other college had. It had felt like home.
It was only a year later, when I hesitantly mentioned the idea to my mother, that she decided Amelia Forsythe was aputana,and I added the new curse word to my expanding vocabulary.
Getting in wasn’t easy.
Even my own father had doubts, which Mom seemed to forgive much more easily than Mrs. Forsythe’s. But he also wanted all four of us to work for the family business, so he wasn’t going to be happy about any college that wasn’t within commuting distance of Bridgewater.
After years of busting my ass, not only did I get into Cornell, but I kicked ass there. And I intend to keep kicking ass until Angel, Inc. offers every alcohol known to man and can be found everywhere alcohol is sold, throughout the world.
Maybe then I can ease up, like Hayden keeps telling me to do.
31
Chari
“Seriously?”
I stare at the email for a full ten minutes and then slam the lid on my school-issued laptop. This is bullshit.
