By the fourth week of our break, I'd gotten good at something. I could sit twenty feet from Augustus Evans for nine hours and never once say anything that wasn't about work.
Nobody gives you a certificate for that. If they did, I'd have framed it.
Monday started with a jammed printer, three emails marked urgent that weren't, and a message from Vanessa asking for the board presentation two days early. I read it twice.
Two days. She hadn't offered a reason, and I hadn't expected one.
I rang Finance, pushed a supplier review to Thursday, and handed Jane the reconciliation. By eleven I'd clawed back most of what everyone else's emergencies had cost me, and I was going through the final projections when Augustus came out of his office.
"Vanessa says it'll be ready Wednesday."
"It will. As long as nobody has a new idea before lunch."
The corner of his mouth moved. "I'll tell them to hold off on ideas until Thursday."
