Chapter 6: The Rule Breaks First

"HR knows what I tell them," I said to Courtney, "and tonight I haven't told them anything."

I took my coat from the hook and walked out of the founder's front door into the rain.

Elliot was already at the curb, holding the passenger door of a grey car.

He had seen my face through the glass.

"I'll drive you home," he said.

"I live in Logan Square. It's forty minutes."

"Then it's forty minutes."

I got in.

The wipers ticked.

Lake Shore Drive slid by in long wet ribbons of light, and neither of us said a word for ten miles.

At the first red light he spoke without looking at me.

"I broke it."

"The rule?"

"In front of a client. In front of your ex."

His hands were tight on the wheel.

"I walked in and I couldn't stop. I'd have walked through the window."

"You told the founder I gave you a B+."

"It was the truest thing I had."

I turned in the seat to look at him.

Rain on his collar, the silver at his temples catching the dash light, and a mouth that had been held shut for six days.

"Not Logan Square," I said.

His eyes came to mine.

"Where, then?"

"Wherever you're not my boss."

The light went green.

He did not move.

A horn sounded behind us, and then he drove.

His place was a loft above the river, the whole top floor of an old printing works.

One wall was windows, facing the dark water.

He barely had the door shut before I had my back against it and my hands in the front of his shirt.

"Say it," I said.

"Say what?"

"That you wanted to do this on Monday. In front of everyone. On that stage."

"Felicity."

"Say it."

"I wanted to," he said, hoarse.

"I stood up there with your phone in my hand, and I wanted to carry you out of that room."

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