She looked up at him. Will you be nervous about Priya? About she gestured between them walking in together explicitly and having the conversation. He thought about it honestly. A little, he said.
Will you? Terrified, she said. But I'm also okay with it. She tilted her head slightly, the 4-degree version, but it was different than the calibrating one. This one was considering.
You make me okay with things I'm scared of. You probably know that. I didn't know that specifically. Well, she picked up her keys. Now you do.
She got in the car. He stood back. She pulled out of the spot, stopped, rolled down the window. Ryan? Yeah.
Next time you have something real to say, she said, say it in the middle of the sentence. Don't wait for the snowstorm. He nodded. She rolled up the window and drove out of the garage. And he stood there until the tail lights turned at the corner.
And then he walked the 12 blocks home because he didn't want a cab because the air was right and the city was doing its thing and he needed the time with his own thoughts. The Monday meeting with Priya lasted 45 minutes. Priya was, as anticipated, deeply unsurprised. She listened to both of them without interrupting, which was not her usual style. And when they were done, she looked at them for a moment with the expression of someone who has been holding a door open for a while and is now watching someone finally walk through it.
The modified structure for Westport is doable, she said. I'd need to present it to Daniel Holt as a premium arrangement, which means we'd need to price it accordingly. And Victoria, you'd need to be available for the anchor weeks without exception. Agreed, Victoria said. And the two of you working at this level of proximity, Priya said, looking between them, means you need to be disciplined about the professional context, client interactions, team dynamics.
I'm not running a studio where the creative director and the project lead are a unit in ways that affect the work. We know, Ryan said. I'm serious. We know," Victoria said. "We've talked about it.
We have a framework. " Priya looked at them. "You already have a framework," she said. "We worked out the broad strokes over dinner Friday," Ryan said. Priya looked at the ceiling. Then she looked back at them.
"Of course you did. " She shook her head, and the look on her face was not disapproval. It was the slightly exasperated fondness of someone watching two very competent people who took 3 years to do something obvious. "Fine. Present the modified proposal to Holt by end of week. Ryan, I need the Q4 resource plan adjusted for the Westport anchor weeks by Wednesday. " "Done," Ryan said.
"And if this becomes complicated for the team dynamic, we're all three going to have a harder conversation than this one. " "Fair," Victoria said. Priya clicked her pen and looked at her calendar. "Is there anything else? " "No," they said at the same time. Priya looked up. "Get out of my conference room," she said, not unkindly.
They got out of the conference room. In the hallway, heading back toward the bullpen, Victoria walked slightly ahead and Ryan slightly behind. The way they'd always move through the office, the professional geometry intact. But when they reached the junction where she turned toward the design side and he turned toward project management, she stopped and looked back at him. "Wednesday," she said.
"Lunch. Not the Thai place. There's a good ramen spot on Fifth. That works. " She turned and walked toward the design bullpen. Ryan watched her go for exactly as long as was reasonable, then turned and walked to his desk.
Marcus was there, looking at something on his screen, and looked up when Ryan came around the corner. "How was the 9:30? " Marcus said. "Fine," Ryan said. "Fine good, or fine I'm not going to tell you? " Ryan sat down and opened his project management software. "Fine," he said.
"In the sense that things are going to be fine. " Marcus looked at him for a second, squinting, and then his face went to some kind of slow dawning realization, and Ryan watched it get there. "Oh," Marcus said. "Don't," Ryan said. "I'm not going to say anything. " "Good. I'm just going to sit here," Marcus said.
"And be quietly very right about something I have thought for a very long time. " Ryan looked at him. "Were you the one who asked if she needed help managing client communications? " Marcus went slightly still. "That was a genuine question. " "Was it? " Marcus turned back to his screen. "I'm going to get coffee," he said, in the voice of a man who was not going to get coffee. Ryan let him go.
He pulled up the Q4 resource plan and started working through the adjustments. And at some point his phone buzzed on the desk with a text from a number he'd had for 3 years. Victoria Lane. "The ramen place on 5th closes at 2:00 on Wednesdays. " He typed back, "I'll check the hours. " Victoria Lane. "Already did. " "There's a Korean barbecue spot two doors down. " Ryan Foster.
"Works for me. " Victoria Lane. "Also, the Holt call is Thursday at 3:00. " "Your calendar is clear. " Ryan Foster. "I know my calendar. " Victoria Lane. "I know you know. " "I'm just saying it's on mine, too. " He looked at that for a second. Ryan Foster.
"That's not a period. " Victoria Lane. "No. " Ryan Foster. Victoria Lane. He set the phone down and went back to the resource plan.
And outside the studio windows, Seattle was doing its gray October thing, and two floors up there was a room where they'd figured out something that had been a long time coming, and it wasn't a resolution, it was a beginning, the actual kind, with difficulty still in it, and decisions still unmade, and a framework that was going to get tested and probably bent before it settled into its real shape. But the distance was gone, and they'd built the new thing themselves. Together, without either of them deciding for the other what it was supposed to be. That, Ryan thought, going back to his spreadsheet, was probably the version that held.