Chapter 4: Signed Before

I woke up at half past five with a stranger's sheet over my hip and a city going gray outside the glass.

For one second I did not know where I was.

Then I remembered, all of it, and heat climbed my neck.

Nolan stood at the window in suit trousers and a white shirt, with a mug in each hand.

He turned when I moved.

"Coffee," he said, and he set one on the nightstand.

"There's a sweater on the chair.

"I didn't think you'd want to ride to work in yesterday's blouse."

I looked at the sweater, which was soft gray wool and cost more than my bus pass for a year.

"I'm going to my room first," I said.

"I'll drive you."

"And then I'll take the bus."

"Hattie."

"It's an hour until the first person gets to the fourth floor," I said, pulling the sheet up.

"If anyone sees me get out of your car, I'm the intern who slept with the CEO the night she accused her boss."

He thought about that, and he nodded once.

"Then I'll drop you two blocks away," he said.

I drank half the coffee standing up.

My phone had sixty-one notifications.

Most were my father, and one email sat at the top, sent at 5:12 that morning.

SUBJECT: Offer of Permanent Employment, Marketing Associate.

I opened it with my thumb and read the first line, and my stomach fell.

The letter was signed at the bottom.

N. Whitaker, Chief Executive Officer.

I looked up.

He was knotting his tie in the mirror, calm as a man checking the weather.

"You signed it," I said.

"Which one?"

"My job," I said.

"You signed my job at five in the morning, after last night."

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