"I need a minute," he said.
"Take it," Nia said.
He went into the small conference room and shut the door. Through the dark-framed glass they could see him sitting with his head in his hands. Solomon and Nia did not speak. After four minutes Xavier came back.
"Show me the letter," he said.
VI.
They read it together. Bertrand's prose was warm and exact, the writing of a man who had spent a career translating idealism into budgets. The placement began in January if she accepted by November first. Housing provided near the University of Ghana campus. Local co-director already identified: a woman named Afua Mensah who had twenty years in municipal planning and no patience for diaspora romance. Travel home twice in eighteen months. A public report at the end. A clause that made Solomon whistle under his breath: the Trust would consider a deferred partnership with Threshold Studio on knowledge exchange if the fellow's home firm remained solvent and willing.
"They're dangling a future contract," Solomon said. "So you don't burn the bridge. Or so the bridge feels burnable."
"Bertrand's idea," Nia said. "He said if I was going to break something, I should leave a way to mend it."
Xavier's finger rested on the acceptance deadline. "November first is three weeks away."
"Yes."
"You've known since August."
"Yes."
"And every sticky note since then was a choice."
Nia met his eyes. "Every sticky note was a choice."
He nodded once, as if filing the sentence somewhere he could find it later when tenderness tried to erase it.
Solomon closed the folder. "Operationally. If Nia leaves in January, we lose our lead facilitator on Red Hook, our primary writer on the grant renewals, and half the client trust that is attached to her face. We can hire. We can redistribute. We will bleed for six months. We will not die unless we pretend we won't bleed."
"Thank you for the eulogy," Nia said, trying for dry and landing on raw.
"It's not a eulogy," Solomon said. "It's a forecast. I love you. I also love this firm. Those two loves are about to have a meeting, and I will not lie to either of them."