I went without her. I sat at Nadia's dinner table and told everyone Petra wasn't feeling well. Drove home at 10:00 to find the lights off and Petra in bed, phone face down on the nightstand.
I didn't say anything about it that night. But two weeks later, when she came home from Damon's on a Saturday and I was finishing up some work at my desk, I turned in my chair and said carefully, "I want to talk about the amount of time you're spending over there."
She tilted her head. "What about it?"
I feel like we've lost our weekends. Between Friday nights and Saturdays, you're gone most of the weekend. Most weekends.
Damon's going through a hard time, she said. His business partner left the company. He needs a friend right now.
I understand that. What I'm saying is that I feel like I'm losing track of you.
She looked at me with something that wasn't quite patience and wasn't quite irritation. Something in between. Eli, he's my friend. We've talked about this.
We haven't actually. Not really.
I'm not doing anything wrong.
I didn't say you were.
It sounds like you think I am.
And there it was. The pivot from my concern to her defense. I didn't know how to push back on that without sounding like I was accusing her of something.
So, I backed off. Said I wasn't accusing her of anything, just expressing how I felt.
She said she'd try to check in more. She didn't check in more.
January of the following year, I got a call from my director at Meridian, a man named Ford Gallagher, who'd been with the firm for 22 years and knew the business like he knew his own breathing.
There's an opportunity in Singapore, Ford said. Meridian is expanding our Asia-Pacific operations.
We're looking for someone to head the new regional analysis team based out of the Singapore office, three-year commitment with a review option after that.
I'd been on Ford's radar for this kind of move for a while. He knew my work. He knew I was ready for that level.
What's the compensation package look like? I asked.
He told me. It was the kind of number that reorganized your understanding of what was possible.
I'll need a few days, I said.
You've got a week.
I went home that night and told Petra over dinner. She was quiet while I explained the offer, the role, the location, the package.
When I finished, she put her fork down. Singapore, she said. Singapore.
Eli, I can't move to Singapore. My entire career is here. My clients, my firm, everything I've built is in Seattle.