Page 21 of Strictly Business
“Can we discuss what happened earlier?” I ask stuffing a piece of a California roll in my mouth. Nina offered me dinner at her place before she leaves to meet Nick somewhere out West in the morning, and I couldn't refuse.
“What is there to discuss?” She refills her glass with Chardonnay.
“The fact that you want me to work with the most impossible man on the planet.”
Nina chuckles behind her wine glass. “You wanted a change, right?”
“Anything would be better than working with him. Anything.”
“You’re being a little dramatic, don’t you think?”
“I hated him growing up.” I make sure to emphasize the hated. “He has always been an asshole, I don’t know how Josh and Nick have stayed friends with him this long.”
“You didn’t seem to mind him at Josh's wedding.”
“There were hundreds of other people there to keep him preoccupied, and I did everything I could to stay away from him.”
Not that it worked, we still managed to run into each other.
“Look,” Nina sighs, “he’s a little rough around the edges, but Finn is not that bad. I’ve been helping him, but I don’t have the time to keep focusing on it. Besides, I think this is exactly the thing you need.”
"How is this the thing I need?" I stuff another piece of sushi in my mouth.
"It'll help get you out of whatever rut you're in. It’s only two weeks, that’s about all the time left before it goes to the board, anyway; but, in two weeks, if you're still adamant about it, I'll pull you off the project.”
Two weeks, huh? I can do that. I'll make it work. After two weeks, I'll ask her to take me off. Except two weeks will be the end of the probationary period she put me on. If I ask to be taken off… I bite my bottom lip, unsure if I want to ask this next question. “What happened to my month’s probation?”
“We’ll see how things play out.”
Her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes, and for the first time, I see how tired she looks with dark circles under her eyes showing through her makeup. If she’s been working on the new DV offices and helping out with corporate and helping Finn with this project… I can’t imagine. Nina has always been there for me and helped me, continued to put up with me when I messed up, the least I can do is suck it up for two weeks.
"Fine," I sigh. “I’ll help him. I won’t like it, but I’ll do it.”
“You can always call me.”
“And bother you when you finally have a chance to get away from the devil himself? I don’t think so.”
Nina rolls her eyes and finally asks what she’s been wanting to know since she invited me for dinner earlier. “Where’s David, by the way? I was hoping he’d be in town,”
No, she wasn’t, she’s just nosey.
“D.C.,” I lie avoiding her gaze. It’s not a total lie, I assume he is in Washington with Barnes, but I don't know for sure.
“Everything still okay with you two?”
"Yeah, we're fine. Busy, you know how it is." Without having to tell her, Nina knows something is going on, but she’ll wait for me to come to her. I should tell her. She won’t judge, but if I tell someone, that makes it real. And I don’t think I’m ready to admit this is happening to anyone but Elias.
“Listen, you don’t have to tell me, but I’m here when you want to talk.”
“He’s been traveling more than normal with Barnes,” I shrug and pick at the remaining pieces of sushi.
“Aren’t they usually on recess right now?”
“Not yet, still another week or two.” At least, that’s what I remember looking at the calendar last November. “The work never truly stops, does it?”
A soft sigh in return, “No, it doesn’t.”
Chapter Nine