“Rules are useful when you can enforce them,” Nessa said from the doorway.
“Then I’ll bring it up with Hassan,” Priya replied. “He listens when I explain a problem. Reid usually talks over me until he thinks the idea is his.”
Megan arrived with a binder and a paper bag of breakfast sandwiches. She handed food to the workers without making a ceremony of it, then set her binder on the office desk. When Lauren described Nessa’s unpaid invoice, Megan added it to the list.
“Did he order the dress using our business account?” she asked.
Nessa nodded and gave her the receipt. Megan inspected it, not in search of a secret, but to make sure the right vendor would receive the right amount. She paid Nessa from the restaurant account after checking with Hassan and marked the invoice settled. Nessa looked at the confirmation on her phone, thanked her, and went back to the dry cleaner’s building with the dress hanging over her arm.
Watching her leave, Lauren realized how seductive Reid’s language had been. He spoke about brave choices and new beginnings. The people around him spoke about fittings, invoices, rented lenses, restaurant shifts, and wages. Those ordinary details had always been the part of his ambitions that someone else had to carry.
Megan asked Lauren to step outside for a moment. They stood beside a narrow bed of rosemary, beyond the kitchen exhaust fan. It was not a beautiful place, but it was quiet.
“I owe you an apology,” Lauren said.
“For what part?” Megan’s tone was not unkind.
“For talking to your husband as if you were an obstacle. For listening when he made you sound petty. I wasn’t confused about whether he was married. I was comfortable letting him explain why that didn’t matter.”
Megan touched a rosemary leaf and released it. “I appreciate you saying it. I won’t pretend it’s easy to hear. But my marriage was troubled before you came back into his life. He told both of us convenient stories because we made different parts of his life easier.”
“Are you going to leave?”
“I might. I haven’t decided what I can forgive. He seems to think if he admits the event was wrong, I’ll return to managing everything. I need him to understand that the problem is older than Friday.”
Lauren looked toward the street. “Owen and I haven’t decided either. He was prepared to let me go. I thought his calm meant he didn’t care. I know now it took effort not to shout.”
“You can recognize that without making it an obligation to stay,” Megan said.
“I know. That’s what frightens me. There’s no grand gesture left to make the decision for us.”
