He didn’t appear to hear, and he didn’t stop. He didn’t even wait for the elevator, but ran them down the three floors of stairs and out the building. Back on
K Street
, he kept moving. Now she was tugging on his arm for him to stop.
“What are you doing? I need you there. They’re going to fire me.”
“Good.” He stopped so fast she barreled into him. They were at the fountain near the White House already. They’d gone a full two blocks?
“You’re never going back there. May, they treat you like a slave.”
“I work for them.”
“That doesn’t mean they own you.”
It sort of did. “They own my time.”
“No one should treat you like that.” He crossed his arms and glowered at her.
She crossed her own arms. “You did, when you first got here.”
“I did not.”
“Selective memory much? You even made me go get coffee.”
“No, we went to get coffee together.” But he was cooling down. May shook her head.
“Edmondsson’s a sucky boss, yeah. But he’s not meant to be a boss. He’s meant to do those adventures. Or whatever.” Now it was her turn to frown. Wasn’t leading an expedition a lot like being a boss?
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m wondering who is going to be the Sadie on the expedition.”
“You mean the real boss.” He shook his head, too. “That’s who should get my money.”
May’s insides went cold. “You’re not going back on the agreement, are you? It’s a contract. Right?”
“It’s an agreement, not a contract. And it’s not finalized, as you Americans put it. Because he’s such a prima donna about the schedule.”
“There must be a reason.” Her words sounded prim to May’s ears.
Beau laughed. “Excusing the abuser. The reason is he hasn’t hired the expedition manager, so he doesn’t know. Or worse, he’s pissed off his manager. There are only two men in the world who could pull this off, and neither seems to me the sort who could work with your Edmondsson.”
May almost shouted out he wasn’t her Edmondsson, but as she’d just argued he was she kept her mouth shut.
She racked her mind for reasons this should not happen. “But what about the penguins?”
“That’s the best you can come up with?”
“It’s the reason we do everything.”
“Oh, love. If all we wanted to do was save the penguins, we’d spend the money buying them ice-makers. Edmondsson wants an expedition.”
His hard face grew still harder, a cubist scowl. “And I’m not going to give it to him.”
May’s heart lurched into her throat. He couldn’t. It would ruin everything, not to mention cost her her job. She’d have to stop taking her medicine—it was tier three on the cost chart—and that would make it even harder to get a job. Nobody wanted to sit beside someone who couldn’t sit still.
She snatched her hand out of his. “You’re just looking for a way to get out of this.”
Now it was his turn to look surprised. He reached for her hand, and she wanted to give it back to him. She fought the urge. He knew what was best for her? He didn’t know anything.
“You’re just as bad as Edmondsson.” That stopped him. She pushed on. “Don’t you think I can decide for myself how I want to be treated? I’m not a ‘my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours’ man; I don’t need the boy-stroking you do.”
He frowned, as if trying to follow her line of reasoning. May wasn’t sure she could follow it.
“It’s your choice to work for someone who abuses you?”
“Exactly. My right. I know he’s not perfect, but I love my job. I love what I do, and I think it’s important. Let him get off on thinking we’re his slaves. I know I’m not.”
“Classic abusive rationalization.”
“You don’t know anything about it. About me,” she corrected herself. Maybe he did know about the other.
“I know you are stalled on your painting. I know you let some other man trample into your uterus without taking responsibility after.”
“That’s enough. I make my own decisions. I do. Bad or good, they’re mine. My right.” She bit her lip. Why did she feel like crying? Because his face was softening, empathetic. Pitying.
“And my rights to free expression? What about those?”
“Fine. You’ve had your say.”
“But you don’t have to listen.”
“But I have to act the way I see fit.” Which meant leaving him. “I have to go back to work. Now.”