There was a little silence. She didn’t ask him how he was. She was quiet for long enough for him to realize she wasn’t going to ask.
“Corbin, I just called to say I’ll be away from the office through the beginning of the year.”
That was the first time she’d given herself a hard deadline like that.
He was silent for a moment. Astounded, if she had to guess. “That’s—that’s—about a month and a half away.”
“Very good. And to think there was a time I didn’t think you knew how to use a calendar.”
From the beginning, he was late to dates with her and sometimes forgot them altogether. She was so starry-eyed back then that she wrote it off as all part of him being a brilliant, absentminded eccentric because he’d gone to Dartmouth. He’d coasted on allowing her to feel that way, too.
Butshehad created something out of nothing. Funny how Mac had called her magical, when it was precisely how she’d once thought of him, too. And her something out of nothing kept an apartment roof over Corbin’s head.
Corbin just took all of that for granted.
“You’ll be back at work in San Francisco after that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Probably.”
Silence.
She savored the texture of his silence, because she could almosttastehis frustration.
“But what are you—”
“I bought a house.”
Her words were clipped, suddenly, like a German commandant in a movie with subtitles. She didn’t know why. Maybe because she didn’t want to accord him a particle more time than necessary.
This silence was lengthier.
“Sorry,” he said gingerly, like a man expecting to be flicked with a rubber band every time he spoke. “I thought you said you bought a house?”
“Yes. I did say that.”
Understandably, news of the purchase of a house amazed San Franciscans, given that even teeny shacks in the city were upward of a million dollars. And people did buy them for that price.
She and Corbin had once talked about saving up for one of those teeny shacks.
“You used your savings?”
“Yes.”
He was smart enough to draw conclusions about what all this meant. That’s what he was doing in the silences. He also knew they both drew on their savings in cases of emergency budget shortfalls.
“But... where... I mean... does that mean you’re never coming... it sounds like youareplanning to leave San Francisco for good!”
His voice had climbed in pitch.
“I’m going to do some renovations on the house and sell it. And they should be done by the first of the year. I’ll keep a light hand on things at GradYouAte via email, but you’re going to need to be the boss. Period.”
She owned 5 percent more of the company than he did. And the company was Corbin’s sole source of income. He could argue if he wanted but that would get him nowhere.
Smart guy that he was, he’d figure this out, too. “What will I tell the staff?”
“Tell them I’m taking a leave of absence for personal reasons.”
“They’ll think you’re in rehab or something. And do you have any idea what that will do to the stock pri—”