DON’T STOP (Lila and Darrell) novel Chapter 95

Chapter 95

Chapter 95

Daisy

One glass became two.

0:9

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wasn’t counting. I was staring at the counter and methodically not thinking about anything. Not the contract. Not the war oom. Not the way he’d looked at me like I was a mildly interesting problem he’d already solved. Not the way my chest had hollowed out when I saw his hand close around hers-

reached into my bag for a napkin. That was when my fingers suddenly hit something stiff I pulled it out slowly it was a white card. Crisp. Clean. Embossed black lettering.

Norman White. White Industries. And his stupid phone number.

set it on the counter and stared at it. I thought I had left this. I had stood at ftat reception desk and said. I don’t need this nd walked out. And yet here it was, sitting between my fingers like my own hand had betrayed me without telling the rest of me. Maybe I didn’t leave it after all.

picked up my glass and put it down. Then, I picked up the card. I just needed to vent. That was all this was. I had things to ay-legitimate, reasonable things I hadn’t finished saying in that conference room-and I needed to say them out loud to im directly, and then I would hang up and go home, and that would be the end of it.

dialed.

I rang once.

Then, Twice.

Pick up. Pick up-

Hello?”

I was his voice.

sounded low and slightly surprised. That same voice that used to say my name across a pillow, across a boardroom ash cross a divorce hearing while I stared at the wall and refused to look at him.

Something in my chest gave way.

You think you’re so smart,” I said. My voice came out unsteady, and I hated it. hated that he copki bar it, but the word were already coming. “Twelve percent. You leaked our specs to the press. Do you know why today felt like) De you have any dea what you did? You just walked in there with your perfect suit and your-

My voice cracked

Ipressed my fingers to my eyes

Don’t you dare, Daisy I thought

“Daisy” His voice shifted. It was careful now, and much quieter “Have you been drinking

“That is completely beside the point-

“Where are you?”

8:45 am

Chapter 95

My eyes linked this.

“Why do you want to know

“Daisy” His voice sounded firmer this time. “Where are you?”

I looked around the bar. At the low lights, the clusters of strangers, the barman pretending non toleren

35 ww

“Some bar.” I muttered “Downtown Park something I squinted toward the door Noon Bar The sign says Noon Par

There was a pause

“Noon Bar.” Something unreadable in his voice. Then- “I’ll be right there”

“I didn’t ask you to come-”

The line went dead.

I lowered the phone and looked at it. Letting out a soft sigh, I turned to look at the barman

“Can I get another one?”

It wasn’t a question.

Norman arrived in eighteen minutes.

I knew it was him before I turned around-something in the way the air in the room changed, a subtle shift in attention, th particular stillness that Norman White generated simply by existing in a space. I heard the door. I didnt look up

He slid onto the stool beside me.

For a moment neither of us said anything.

You came,” I said, my eyes on my glass.

You called”

I called to yell at you.”

I know He signaled the barman with two fingers. “Yell then”

turned to look at hum

He was will in his shirt from earlier, jacket gone sleeves rolled to the forearm. He looked infuriatingly composed lod a mouth who’d just shown up to a bar on a weeknight to collect his drunk ex wife. His eyes moved over my face with that quick, thorough attention that had always made me feel simultaneously seen and completely exposed

I hated it

I hated him

“You didn’t have to do it like that,” I said, and my voice came out smaller than I intended. “The press leak. The specs You didn’t have to make it public

Something shifted in his jaw. “It was a business decision

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