Page 95 of Handle with Care
“You most certainly are not fired,” she assures me, leaning back in her chair. “I hope you had a restful Friday.”
Friday was a lot of things, but restful wasn’t amongst them. Thinking of the reunion with Will brings color to my cheeks.
“Yes. Very.”
“Good.” She sits back in her chair, looking tired. “On behalf of the Executive, we would like to apologize to you, Dylan. It’s my poor mentorship that led to not enough oversight for the exhibits. I gave you both a great deal of responsibility to juggle. And you did exceptional work. But ultimately, I should have provided better support to you both. And have been more approachable when you had struggles.”
“We wanted to come to you with solutions, not problems,” I say. “I hope you’re not in trouble too.”
What ifLily’sfired?
Then she wouldn’t be sitting here across from me.
Though does that mean?—
“Is Will unfired?” I blurt. “Because he really should very much, without question, absolutely be unfired.”
Lily coughs, looking flustered. She shuffles papers around her desk, lining up a pen with her notebook, then her phone. “That, I’m afraid, still stands. That is not my decision to make. Or unmake.”
“Right.” I probably shouldn’t have said anything, but I couldn’t help it. Since I’m already in it, I decide to continue. “Well, I would like to suggest that you and the Executive reconsider. What’s happened is definitely not his fault. Will’s amazing. He’s a great worker. And thoughtful. And kind. And?—”
Then my voice betrays me and breaks. Now, Lily’s looking at me all too intently. I swallow down the unexpected burst of emotion, raw on my face.
“I suppose to come fully clean, I should let you know I’ve—we’ve—er, we’ve been dating. In secret. Because we didn’t want to get in trouble. With work. And…”
I trail off into the long, awkward silence. We can hear voices down the corridor, the hum of a printer working away as it churns out sheets of paper.
Lily’s looking at me as if I’ve totally lost my mind. Which I have. I clench my jaw shut to keep me from blurting that I’m in love with Will, like shouting that down the hall or loud enough across the museum is going to help either of us.
“Sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t’ve said that.”
Lily does an admirable job of trying to pull it together. “I see.”
I cough, running a hand through my hair. “Yeah. So, maybe I’m biased, but I’m not wrong when I say he works hard, is super organized, and amazing with the lenders. They all love him. And… he was really great to work with. He was really patient with me—and I, uh—can be a lot sometimes—and I learned from him as much as he learned from me.”
“Thank you for telling me. I will take everything into consideration.”
That sounds like an official end to that conversation.
“Now.” She looks down at the sheet of paper in front of her. Some things have been crossed off in marker. “I need you to do a couple of things. I need helium balloons for the presser at 5:00 p.m. And find where the special editions of the catalogue have gotten to, as soon as you can. There’re two boxes of them that I’m meant to sign for the VIPs tonight, but I don’t know where they’ve gotten to.”
Boxes clearly don’t have good odds lately in this museum. Wisely, I keep my mouth shut this time.
“Okay,” I agree. “Anything else?”
“There may be more, but we’ll see how you fare. Thanks. Text me if you have any problems. I need the boxes by 4:00 p.m. latest.”
“Right. Done.” I can’t help but think this would be faster with Will here. Getting up to leave, I pause at the door. “Lily?” I ask softly.
“Yes?” She looks up from her laptop, already giving in to the siren song of her email inbox.
“Er, is it alright if Will comes as my plus-one tonight?”
Her eyes widen. “I’ll need to get back to you on that. By 4:00 p.m., when we talk.”
“’Kay. Thanks. I really appreciate it,” I blurt, then turn and bolt.
Because my chest is rattling with my heartbeat, and adrenaline’s definitely winning over reason right now.
