Page 91 of A Little Too Late
“Reed,” she hisses. Then I hear the clunk of a door shutting. “I’m about to interview a new catering manager in the middle of a labor shortage! Pardon me if I’m too busy doing my job to take your irate calls.”
“I’m notirate. But it was shitty of you to go behind my back. Were you even going totellme you offered Sheila a job? Is this amusing to you—letting me be the last to know?”
“I didn’t make her a formal job offer yet!” she yells. “We’re kicking tires. She’s mulling it over, and she’s smart enough to consider the housing market. I picked up your call because she just texted to say you were upset.”
“I’M NOT UPSET!”
She sighs. “Here we go.”
“What doesthatmean?”
“Beupset, Reed. Be mad at your dad for shutting you out. Be pissed at me for not jumping on a plane to California so we could be together without you having to change your life. Be madat Sheila for wanting something different. Be as angry as you want.”
“WHAT GOOD WOULD IT DO?” I scream. My face is hot. My throat burns.
It’s weird.
“Alotof good.” Her voice is suddenly gentle. “Some things justsuck, Reed. They’re worth a little rage. I’m sorry your assistant wants to work in a job where she sometimes gets to go outside. It will suck if she leaves you.”
“She goes outside!Starbucks is outside!” I thunder.
“I have to go,” she says. “But Reed?”
“What?” I snap.
“I still love you.”
My head practically explodes. “Wow, Ava. Great timing. So nice to hear that.”
“I know.” Her voice wobbles. “It’s inconvenient, but still true. Like so many things. And now I really have to go.”
“So go already,” I choke out.
She ends the call.
And now I’m standing in my office holding my phone, and it’s shaking. It’s not, like, vibrating with a notification or anything, it’s just shaking.
I think I might be shaking, too.
Strange. I do a lap around my office to see if it stops.
When I look down at my phone again, there’s a new message from my brother.
Weston:Hey. Want to get beers?
My mood immediately improves by about ninety percent, because my brother never wants to meet up.
Reed:Sure! Where? Are you in CA?
Weston:Oops. Sorry. Wrong thread. I’m nowhere near CA.
Fuck.
Reed:Look, I know you don’t care, but I figured out why the sale price on the resort is so high. The buyer is going to expand over the mountain and build a gross development on Block’s piece of land.
Weston:So?Not your problem.
I lean into the floor-to-ceiling window on my office wall and bang my head three times. My family is a goddamn disaster.
