"I am not doing a photo," Franklin said.
"Understood."
"I will speak to management. Once. Then I will decide whether I escalate in writing."
Adrian nodded, relief and dread braided together. "They've cleared the upstairs meeting room. Ten minutes?"
Franklin stood. His back complained again, a familiar tenant. "Ten minutes. And Adrian — when we walk out there, you do not apologize for me. You do not soften me. You do not translate me into someone easier to digest."
"I won't."
"You will want to. It's your job instinct. Sit on it."
Adrian almost smiled. "Sitting on it."
The upstairs meeting room had a white table, a tray of untouched water bottles, and a view of the parking structure that made the city look like it was holding its breath. Three people waited: a store manager named Priya Nandakumar, composed and tired; a regional partner liaison named Brett Halvorsen, who wore optimism like cologne; and Liam Croft, who sat too straight, curly hair still defiantly cheerful above a face that had learned fear in the last half hour.
Franklin took the chair that faced the door. Old habit. Adrian sat to his right.
Priya spoke first. "Mr. Cole, thank you for making time. What happened on the floor was unacceptable. We take—"
"Don't start with we take," Franklin said gently. "Start with what he said, and what he thought it meant."
Liam flinched as if the sentence had touched him.
Brett leaned forward. "Of course. Liam, would you like to—"
"I can speak," Liam said. His voice cracked on the second word, then steadied into something rehearsed. "I made an assumption based on — based on appearance. I treated a guest like he didn't belong near a high-end product. That was wrong. I'm sorry, Mr. Cole. Truly."
Franklin watched him. The apology was real enough to have sweat in it. It was also, Franklin suspected, still partly about Liam's job and Liam's shame and Liam's sudden education in how quickly a room could turn. Real and incomplete could live in the same mouth. Franklin had apologized that way himself, years ago, to a junior engineer whose idea he had dismissed because it arrived in a nervous voice. He still remembered the look on her face when she realized his sorry was mostly about his discomfort.
"What did you think you were protecting?" Franklin asked.
Liam blinked. "Protecting?"