Chapter 18: One Cake

"Yes," I said. "I'll stay."

He let out a sound that was half a laugh, and put his face in my shoulder.

We slept until the gulls woke us.

At seven he brought me tea and dry toast on a tray and watched me eat every crumb.

"I have a lab to run," I said.

"The doctor said light activity."

"Standing at a bench is light activity."

"Sitting at a bench."

"I'll compromise. A stool."

He kissed me with toast on my breath and called the driver.

We were on the ninth floor of Draper Tower by eight-thirty.

My nine people were already at their stations, and they looked up in a body when I came in.

"Dr. Fairbank," said my postdoc, and then he blushed to the ears. "Dr. Fairbank. We saw the video. All of us. Twice."

"The gala?"

"We cheered in the break room," said the young tech. "A guy from legal came to tell us to be quiet and then he stayed."

I laughed for the first time in a week.

Then the elevator pinged behind me.

I knew the footstep before I turned.

Porter stood in the doorway of my lab in yesterday's suit with a pink bakery box in his arms.

His hair was flat on one side. His eyes were red.

"How did you get up here?" I said.

"The guard on the ground floor let me through. I told him I was your husband."

"I won't be your wife much longer."

"Cora, five minutes."

Eli came out of his glass office at the end of the hall.

He did not hurry.

He stopped between Porter and me and put his hands in his pockets.

"You're on private property," Eli said.

"I'm not here for you."

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