Another one of the men cut in with an equally condescending tone. “How about you just show these to your boss and see what she thinks, okay? No need to turn this into something nasty.” He gave Shawna a kind of annoying smile that said he clearly thought she was being unnecessarily dramatic.
“Ain’t happening.” Shawna raised her eyebrows at him. “You want me to march back with these half-assed plans that are half wrong and tell my boss you just expect her to forget her standards and expectations on this? If you want to tell her that yourself, feel free, but I am sure as hell not taking the heat for your screw-ups. I’ll take back what matches her specifications.” She picked up the pile she approved of. “These,” she motioned to the others, “you either redo or show to her yourself and you get to hear her ream you out. I’m not your scapegoat.”
I listened to them argue for a bit longer, but Shawna refused to budge and they clearly underestimated her knowledge of the project and flat-out stubbornness and likely overestimated their supposed charm as well.
“Shawna,” I deliberately interrupted one of the men’s kind of whiny speech about how they did all this work and she was just delivering stuff and it wasn’t up to her to get to choose whether or not to reject any plans, “you think Boss would agree if we suggested some different contractors? I feel like these guys are going to make this processes longer and more complicated than necessary, since they can’t even follow basic instructions.” I deliberately glanced over at them with a semi-disappointed look. “It might be simpler to just go with someone else.”
Shawna took a moment to look like she was seriously considering my suggestion. “You know what, it might set us back a couple of weeks, but totally worth it over dealing with these idiots.” She swept them with a disapproving glare. “I’ll take what we have just to show how little they got done in all this time and given that, I bet she’ll agree about switching.”
The contractors immediately began changing their tune and started promising that they’d fix the designs and color suggestions by next week.
“Better make it the end of this week,” Shawna suggested airily. “Otherwise it’ll be hard to convince Boss to give you much more time when we could get new plans from another contractor by then.”
By the time we left with the swatches and designs Shawna approved of, the contractors were clearly fuming, but had dutifully promised to finish up the revised designs by the end of the week. I saw one of them open his mouth and look like he was about to say something less than flattering to Shawna while she started to head out the door, and took a moment to level him with a glare that warned him he really wouldn’t like the consequences of saying what he was thinking. He immediately shut his mouth, subsiding, but looked really less-than-happy about my silent put-down.
“Uggh,” Shawna announced once we got on the elevator. “I know Boss picked these guys because they were cheaper and their designs are pretty popular right now, but they’re so annoying to deal with. Thanks for backing me up, though.”
I shrugged a bit. “You could have handled it on your own.”
“Yeah, but it would have taken a lot more arguing. Plus your idea about threatening to hire someone else? Genius, that might be the only thing they’d actually listen to.” She rolled her eyes. “Buncha idiots,” she grumbled as we got off the elevator and started through the lobby. “Did they really think Boss wouldn’t notice that they submitted colors she specifically said she didn’t want? Or that their designs weren’t up to her specifications? I really wanted to give them a piece of my mind.”
I raised an eyebrow. I honestly thought she had given them a piece of her mind, but apparently what she’d said was a tamed-down version, at least.
And then, before we were totally across the lobby, I heard a voice and a name I never thought I’d hear again.
“Maddie? Maddie?!?!”
Shawna didn’t stop, but I hesitated, glancing back to see Ambrose on the other side of the lobby, staring at me with his jaw dropped open.
He’d grown up. Not so surprising, given that it’d been, uh, almost 75 years since I saw him last, but he’d still been a teen at the time and now was a man. A nice-looking man at that, and, based on the way he was dressed, I’d guess he was doing quite well for himself. That wasn’t entirely unexpected – he’d had his parents’ money to help with that – but it was still nice to see.
I felt a pang of wistfulness at seeing him again. Ambrose had been the only person I had ever cared about deeply, even if I hadn’t ever told him that, and working for him – protecting him – had been some of the best years of my life. Sure, it had ended in a flaming disaster, and I’d always regretted not getting a chance to say a proper goodbye, but it didn’t mean I didn’t secretly cherish those years immensely.
But – no. It was no good to admit that to him now. Not just because of all the decades that had passed, but because it was best if he didn’t get involved in my life. There was no benefit for him to do so. It might be nice to politely acknowledge our past, but beyond that, nothing. Knowing Ambrose, though – unless he’d changed a lot – I suspected it might be difficult to convince him of that fact.
I opted to give him a polite nod and then turn to follow Shawna out the door. Shawna hadn’t even realized I’d paused and was still going on with her rant.
I’d just arrived at the door and was starting to reach out to grab the handle when I heard hurried footsteps across the marbled flooring and a moment later someone grabbed my arm tightly.
“Maddie!” Ambrose’s face had gone from shock into pure delight. Before I could stop him, he grabbed me in a hug. “I didn’t think I’d see you again! Where have you been? What have you been up to? What are you doing now?” He demanded eagerly as he released me.
Shawna looked at him, eyebrow raised, then turned back to me. “Maddie?” She asked. “And since when do you have friends?”
I rolled my eyes a bit. “I know people, I just don’t bring them into work. Give me a minute, okay?”
“Fine, fine.” She waved me off as I went to open the door for her. “Deal with your friend, but don’t be late. Boss’ll be mad.”
As she left to go wait for me in the car, I took a deep – but silent – breath and then turned back to Ambrose.
“Work?” He asked immediately, curiosity all over his face. “Are you still in the same business? Oh, I guess you might not be allowed to talk about it.”
“I’m – not.” I sighed more audibly this time, running a hand through my hair as I tried to figure out a way to deal with this situation. The movement unintentionally brought his attention to my right eye, which I generally attempted to cover with a longer hairstyle because it tended to bother people, and he automatically frowned a bit.
Best deal with this whole situation as quickly as possible, before he started asking questions that I didn’t want to have to answer.
“It’s nice to see you again, I’m glad you’re doing well,” I informed him. “I never got the chance to properly thank you for helping me back then, or I probably wouldn’t be alive now. And your help with the hospital bills and all. So, thank you. But I really need to be getting back to work now.” I started attempting to inch towards the door.
“Nuh-uh.” Ambrose grabbed my arm and refused to let go, forcing me to remain in place. “You don’t get off that easily. I’ve actually looked for you, you know? After I became an adult, I tried to find you again, but you practically disappeared. Every so often I’ve tried again, but it’s hard with name changes and all,” he rambled on. “Leo even tried to help me sometimes – my old butler, you know?”
I wondered if that meant he’d ever found out about Leo’s relation to him.
“But now I did. How? What are you doing here?” His eyes were piercing, like somehow he wanted to find out everything he could about me right this second.
“Work,” I explained briefly. “And I really do have to get back to work. I’m sorry.”
“Fine, where do you work?” He demanded, with all the expectations of a kid born to a wealthy family that his question would be answered.
Instead, I raised an eyebrow at him. This really needed to be headed off before he got any crazy ideas. “I don’t see any particular need for you to know that.” When he looked a little shocked at my answer, I continued. “Ambrose, it is nice to see you again, but there’s no need for anything more than that. It’s been – a long time,” I decided against mentioning the actual number of years since we weren’t the only people in the lobby and sound unfortunately carried quite well here. “Things have changed for both of us, doubtless, and I daresay neither of us are the people we used to be. How about we accept a nostalgic memory of seeing someone from our past and let things go at that – let the past be the past?”
He stared at me like I’d grown another head. “Um, no? I don’t care how long it’s been, Maddie, I’m not just ignoring that I’ve found you again!”
I nearly groaned. This kid – man, now, but he was still naïve in some ways – he didn’t understand some basic things about how the world worked still, did he? Sure, things had changed by now, so there wasn’t the same stigma about befriending a servant as there had been back then, but that didn’t change one thing about him and me now.
It wasn’t a good idea for him to get close to me or get anywhere near my life. I knew he wouldn’t be happy if he found out I was working as a bartender, not entirely able to afford surgery I needed, and he wouldn’t understand why I couldn’t find a job that better fit my skills. If I admitted that was due to my physical limitations, he’d blame himself and feel like he had to help, while if I admitted the other reason, the same reason for why he’d had a hard time tracking me down – that I was trying to stay under the radar – then he’d want to know why.
And he couldn’t get involved in any of that.
So I gave him a tight smile instead. “I have to get back to work,” I told him firmly. “And I’m sorry, but…we can’t be friends now. Please, just go back to your life and forget about me.”
He started to protest that he couldn’t do that, but I pulled free and began heading for the door again, being very careful not to limp despite the pain.
“Maddie!” He hurried after me. “At least give me your phone number, anything! We can talk later, when you’re not on your way to work.”
I hesitated. It might be the easiest way to get rid of him, but…no. He didn’t need me in his life.
“Go back to your life, Ambrose,” I told him, a little gentler now. “I wish you good luck.”
I quickly slipped into Shawna’s car and locked it while he stood on the sidewalk, looking dismayed, before suddenly he took off running towards the parking garage.
I had a very good guess what his plan was.
“You’d better go,” I warned her. “And for crying out loud, if he follows us, you have to lose him.”
She didn’t even ask, just immediately started up the car and headed back towards the club, deliberately taking a route that would be next to impossible to follow.
“Maddie?” She finally asked as we pulled onto the street where the club was at.
“He was a kid when I saw him last,” I grunted.
“Ah.” She nodded, understanding filling her face. “The kind that finds it hard to let go of the past, huh?”
“Pretty much. He doesn’t get that sometimes, the past needs to stay the past.”
As she parked the car, she hesitated a second and then glanced at me. “If you want to talk about it….”
“Thanks. I don’t, for now at least, but thanks.” I did appreciate it. Shawna and I weren’t exactly friends, but we had a mutual respect for each other and I knew that she was kind of offering to become friends if I wanted, by making that suggestion. It was kind of a big concession for her, same as it would be for me.
We both had secrets. We both preferred to keep people out of our lives. Shawna could play nice with the club’s patrons better than I could, and I could make drinks better than she could, but at the end of the day, we were similar in some ways, even if we were human and naga and she had no idea that the supernatural world was a thing – so by default, I couldn’t really explain this situation anyway. But it was a big deal for her to offer to step into my world and let me step into hers, even if I didn’t take the offer, and even if she seemed a bit glad of that. I still appreciated that she’d made the offer.
As we reentered the club and Shawna turned her attention to updating Boss about the situation with the contractors, I realized I might have a new problem.
There was a possibility it was time to move. I’d stayed in this town for over 20 years, which had been nice in some ways, such as seeing the same doctor for a while, a doctor I knew I could trust. I was also comfortable here that I was invisible enough I wouldn’t be found by people I didn’t want to find me. But if Ambrose was here, and he now knew I lived here, too…there was a chance he’d try to track me down.
So the question was, did I want to risk that chance of him finding me versus leaving and starting over somewhere else? That was always a risk. There was always a chance that moving would bring attention to me from the wrong places, and then I’d have to deal with finding a job and a doctor and all of that. Dealing with naga nest(s) in the new area, making sure they didn’t feel like I was a threat. Moving to a new city would be a pain, but…staying might be risky, if Ambrose refused to let this drop. Not to mention, if I had to move, it would definitely put off my hip surgery for several more years.
The question was, was letting him potentially find me worth the risk?
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