Ryan used to tell people I was intimidating. Men often say that when what they really mean is that they cannot control a woman and it offends the mythology they were raised on. The truth was simpler. I was not intimidating.
I was exact.
I did not blur numbers to protect egos.
I did not blur facts to preserve fantasies.
I did not confuse affection with surrender.
If that frightened people who expected access without accountability, that was not a flaw in me.
My phone buzzed on the table beside me.
A message from Marcus.
Owen says overhead has been recalculated because he found a cheaper lemon supplier. He wants your opinion tomorrow.
I typed back: Tell him to watch quality control. Low-cost citrus can destroy margins if customers complain.
Three dots appeared, vanished, returned.
He says that is “extremely fair.”
I laughed out loud then, alone on my terrace under the cool Illinois sky. Not because it was grand. Because it wasn’t. Because it was small and clean and ordinary, and ordinary had become precious again.