Chapter 16: The Raise

I got as far as the end of his street.

Then I pulled over under a streetlight and hit the steering wheel with the flat of my hand.

He was right, and he was also wrong, and I had never in my life been that angry at someone I wanted to kiss.

I turned the car around.

He opened the door before I knocked.

He was still shirtless.

He had been standing in the hall, I think, the whole time.

"You don't get to say that and then let me leave," I said.

"You walked out."

"You said it at the worst moment possible."

"I know. I'm sorry for the timing, not the words."

"Good. Because I have words too."

I walked past him into the kitchen and set the green mug on the counter.

I put my hands on my hips.

"Five years ago you hired me at fourteen dollars an hour."

His face changed.

"That was the starting rate."

"The lowest tech rate in the building, Abram. I was twenty-two. The receptionist told me when I asked."

"Mal."

"I'm not done."

"Go ahead."

"The next tech to start got sixteen. I know because she complained about it."

"I gave you a raise."

"A dollar. After two years."

He pulled out a chair and sat down hard.

"I never looked at the sheet," he said. "I signed what the bookkeeper put in front of me."

"I know you didn't look."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I was twenty-two and you were the boss who gave me a job when I walked in with nothing. I thought I should be grateful."

"You should have asked."

"I did not know I was allowed."

He covered his face with one hand.

I kept going, because I had waited years for this and it was pouring out.

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