Page 152 of Charming Like Us
“Yeah?”
“Can we just say Farrow is med team tonight and not SFO and start without him?”
“I’ll catch him up,” Donnelly pipes in. “I can take notes.” He’s about to put on reading glasses.
“We’re waiting for Farrow,” Akara decrees, his no-nonsense, strict perimeters part of my punishment, I think. “He’s SFO as much as he’s med team.”
Fucking,ugh.
The clock keeps moving.
Ten more minutes, then another twenty. Three more Pringles cans dusted off. And finally, Farrow dips into the van. He barely reaches the first row, and I can’t bite my tongue.
“Where the fuck have you been?”
He stops in the aisle, meeting my harsh glare with confusion. “At the hospital.” He throws his med bag on a vacant seat.
Yeah…I feel like a dick.
“Is Luna alright?” Quinn asks about his client.
Salt meet wound.Biggest jackass award goes to me.
“She needed X-rays,” Farrow explains. “She’ll be okay.” That’s all he can really reveal under doctor-patient confidentiality. He takes a seat across the aisle from mine and shakes his head at me likewhat the fuck is wrong?
I haven’t had time to talk to him about Jack’s meeting. So Farrow didn’t know the importance of getting the fuck out of here ASAP.
“Tell you later,” I mutter, our eyes veering as Akara heads to the front. Standing, our boss starts the meeting.
Let’s go.
I’m ready to end this thing.
Akara snaps his fingers to his palm. “We all know what happened tonight is grounds for termination. I want to make this absolutely clear, if we were all still employed by Triple Shield, I wouldn’t have the power to keep you two around.” He looks from Quinn to me. “You’d befired.” He addresses everyone now. “We don’t all have to be best friends, but if we’re going at it—the families should never know. We should appear like an unbreakable fortress, and if we show our asses, we’ve failed. They need to have unwavering faith in our ability to protect them at all fucking times.”
The bus is quiet.
We all respect Akara, and I take his words to heart.
I fucked up royally tonight.
“Oscar, Quinn.” Akara speaks to us directly. “If you can’t work together, then you both can’t stay.”
I’ve thought about this moment. I knew it’d come, and I choose my words carefully. “If you fire him,” I tell our boss, “I’m quitting.”
Farrow chews gum slowly with a look at me likewhat the fuck are you doing now?
Donnelly pipes in, “Oscar quits, I quit.”
Farrow shakes his head and rolls his eyes like we’re dumbasses.
I hear Banks say something about “the Yale boys” to Thatcher in the back.
Both of my friends’ reactions are intrinsicallythem, and I can’t help but grin. Before tonight, I would’ve probably given anything for my little bro to be sacked. Leave security behind and apply to college. Get an experience he missed out on.
But Quinn’s pain is still so fresh in my mind. I can feel it against my swollen cheek. I can feel it writhing around in me. And I don’t want him to lose anything.
Quinn turns slightly in his seat, earbud cord hanging around his neck. His expression breaks on me, but I still can’t see the gnarled roots under the oak tree.
