Page 74 of How to Walk Away

I waited.

“I wasn’t very nice to him. I gloated a bit when I won her. I wish I could go back and change that. It wasn’t kind of me.”

“Okay,” I said, “but Myles is totally the kind of person who makes you want to gloat.”

“Maybe,” Ian said. “But I should have been the bigger man.”

I didn’t say anything to that. I knew all about regrets.

Ian went on. “Kayla and I had been together about a year when I had this idea to strike out on my own from the hospital. I wanted to start a rehab gym for people who are beyond the critical phase, but who still want to work to get better—people who insurance won’t cover. There’s all kinds of great research out there about ways to stimulate the nervous system, get the brain and spinal cord to rewire and communicate with the body in new ways. I wanted to make use of that research.”

“That’s brilliant.”

“And so she came with me. We took out loans, found a facility, worked out a business plan, printed up T-shirts, and sank everything we had into it.”

He gave me a look. “I poached all the best people from the hospital and talked them into coming with me. I filled their heads with ideas about the fun we could have and the path we could forge. We could change people’s lives. We could change the face of recovery.”

“And Myles?” I asked.

“He wasn’t invited.”

“Because he’s a wanker.”

Ian nodded. “He’s toxic, really, in so many ways. Narrow and vindictive and peevish. Not the kind of guy you want around. I didn’t want to work with him. I kept the whole plan a secret from him—but he got wind of it somehow, and he started asking to join. I rejected him over and over. I was cocky about it. When he demanded to know why I didn’t want him, I laid it all out in no uncertain terms.”

“Like, you said he wasn’t right for the job?”

“I told him he was an idiot and everybody hated him.”

“Okay. That’s laying it out.”

“After we all quit, there was almost nobody left. So they promoted him.”

“And now Myles is the boss.”

“Which was fine with me, until—”

I looked over. “Until what?”

“Until the business crashed and burned. And then I found myselfwith no savings and no job. Then a spot opened up here. Somehow, in some circle of hell, I wound up working for him.”

“The business crashed?”

Ian nodded.

“How? Why? You had all those great people! And such a great idea.”

He shook his head, and I could tell we weren’t going to travel far on that topic. “Lots of reasons.”

I watched him a long time, but he didn’t offer anything more.

Finally, he went back to Myles. “He’s had it out for me since the day I came back—just a few weeks before you showed up. He’s actively looking to get me fired.”

“And it’s torture for you to work with him.”

He gave a nod. “He goes out of his way to make everything harder. If I don’t play things exactly by the book, I’m out. But I’ve never been very good at playing by the book.”

“Could you go work somewhere else?”

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