Offensive Behavior

Dev turned, eyes down on the floor. “Once I’d have been impressed the great Reid McGrath was admitting he needed my help. That he was confiding in me, showing me he was vulnerable. Human.” He looked up. “Now, not so much. Maybe one day I can stand to talk to you again.” He put his hand on the door and as he closed it Reid heard him say, “But not this century.”

He called the florist, organized to re-home the flowers. He rode to the office. That had to be where Owen was. He no longer had a building pass and given it was a Sunday, there was no lobby reception he could bribe his way through. But unless they’d changed the security coding he could still find a way in.

Hand to the keypad, he paused. Technically this was breaking in to a workplace he was no longer part of. If he did this, it meant he’d learned nothing from last night’s gate-crashing.

He sent Owen a text telling him he was outside the office and wanted to talk.

Five minutes later the double glass doors opened and Owen, wearing the effects of poor sleep and the weight of his decision in red-rimmed eyes and an unshaven jaw, stepped out. “I figured you’d show up.”

“You know I’m going to fix this.”

Owen crossed his arms. He wore an old Plus t-shirt, the same one Reid had with the words Better Together stamped on it. “We’re missing Ziggurat deadlines. You’ve been gone no time and already the wheels are falling off. I’ve sent Kuch my resignation.”

“Call it back.” He said it, knew it to be one of the truest things that’d ever come out of his mouth.

“No point, Reid.” Owen wasn’t angry, he wasn’t even tense, he was accepting. “It’s done. We can hate the circumstances, weather the headlines, but the outcome, having you back, is what Plus needs.”

“You’re wrong.”

Owen laughed.

He rephrased. “I’m wrong.”

Owen stopped laughing.

“I’m wrong about so many things. But first off, Plus. You were right to terminate me. I’m not the guy to run Plus now and you are. I’m the scared weird loner who mentally got stuck at eighteen and knows how to set a vision but can only whip people toward it. You’re the likeable guy who knows how to inspire and lead every day, not just the critical ones, and with Sarina and Dev, you don’t need me anymore, but I made it so you thought you did. Call it back.”

“You mean that?” Owen scrubbed his face with both hands. “You’re serious?”

“I did the wrong thing last night for what I thought were the right reasons. I didn’t think I had anything to live for but Plus. It’s time for me to let go, get out of the way, learn to be your cheer squad and let you guys do what needs to be done.”

“What changed?”

Sarina’s tears, Dev’s confession. A use for more than one kitchen stool. A girl who danced on a pole, who had her own wings, despite not stretching them fully, who eased into his life and filled up the empty spaces. He might not be able to keep Zarley, but she’d shown him the kind of life he needed to grow up to fill.

“I met a woman.”

“Zarley.” Owen gripped the back of Reid’s neck. “You should’ve had more women in your life.” Had Owen guessed how few? Reid had kidded himself they were similar men, dedicated to their work, no distractions. But Owen choose to keep relationships casual, because he’d lost the love of his life, and it’s only now Reid understood how different that made them.

“I didn’t know how.”

Owen gave his neck a quick squeeze. “They change you.” He took his hand away, steepled his fingers and rubbed the place on his ring finger where a wedding ring would’ve once sat before the accident that killed Lacey. “The good ones make you want to be a better person.”

Reid had teared up last night in Zarley’s arms, and his eyes burned now. “I’m going to lose her,” like he’d lost Plus, “like I lost the three of you, because I don’t know how to be with people.”

“There’s a reason they say you shouldn’t hire friends and family. It’s the same reason we lost funding opportunities. When you insisted the four of us were a job lot, it turned some of those money taps off. The smart money wanted you, they could hire plenty of me, a dozen Sarinas, and Dev wasn’t the powerhouse he is now.”

“They were wrong.” He said it unconsciously and Owen had the grace to laugh. “We made Plus, the four of us. It couldn’t have happened any other way and you know I’m—”

“Right,” they finished together.

“Call it back,” Reid said.

Owen smiled. “I didn’t press send. I got your text. Figured if I didn’t come down, you’d hack your way in and then I’d have to have you arrested for breaking and entering. You won’t lose Zarley if you let her see you.”

Only weeks ago he wouldn’t have understood what that meant. But it’s what Dev had been talking about. He sucked at friendship because he didn’t think he had anything to offer that wasn’t business. The two things so mixed together in his head they were indistinguishable, until spending time with Zarley had shown him there was another way.

Not alone. Better. Together.