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It’s the perfect thing. The last piece to the puzzle.
Dominic and Xavier are already bickering downstairs, and I follow the sound of it, heading into the kitchen. They have coffee on, and there’s a spread of breakfast sandwiches laid out.
“There you are,” Xavier teases. “I thought you were going to sleep all morning.”
“It was so hard to get up. But I’m here, reporting for duty.”
“Very good,” Dominic says, smirking. “We need to get this show on the road.”
Tristan comes down a minute later, and there’s a mad dash to pour coffee and eat breakfast and get out the door in time. But it doesn’t feel stressful. If anything, it’s familiar in its chaos. The banter is bright and fun, and everyone seems to be in a good mood. I mean, it’s anyone’s guess if Tristan is, but at least he’s not glaring or acting upset.
It feels like we’ve found a rhythm, the four of us, and that feels good.
At work, I go to drop off something in Xavier’s office, and find him leaning back in his chair with his feet up on the desk.
“Working hard?” I tease him, passing over a file.
“You know it. I’m hard at work thinking up new strategies and plans and stuff. It’s all very technical.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I promise!”
“Sure, I definitely believe you,” I say, shaking my head. “Thank you for the blanket, by the way. I don’t know how you found the perfect one that fast, but it really is what I was looking for.”
Xavier tips his head to one side, looking puzzled. “As much as I’d love to take the credit, it wasn’t me. I’d planned to look online later, but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Must have been one of the others.”
“Hm.” Of the three of them, I would have expected Xavier to be the one who did it, but apparently not. Now I want to know which of the other two it was.
Later, I ask Dominic about it when I have to go to his office.
“Wasn’t me,” he says. “I assumed Xavier was going to look for something and tell the rest of us when he found it.”
“He said it wasn’t him either.”
Dominic’s eyebrows go up as we reach the same conclusion together.
I wait a bit because I don’t really have a reason to go to Tristan’s office, but eventually curiosity gets the better of me, and I find myself outside the door, knocking and opening it just enough to peek in.
“Hi,” I say, when I’m sure he’s not on a call or anything. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
He looks at me and then gestures for me to come in. I do, closing the door behind me. Somehow, it’s a little more intimidating to talk to him like this. At home, it feels more like we’re on even footing, but here, he’s behind his desk, wearing a fancy suit, looking like the hot, powerful CEO he is.
“Did you need something?” he asks, jarring me out of my thoughts.
“Sorry, I just… I found a blanket outside my door this morning. The perfect blanket that I’ve been looking for for my nest. Xavier and Dominic said they didn’t have anything to do with it, so I was wondering… was it you?”
He looks uncomfortable for a second, glancing away from me and fiddling with the pen in his hand, but then finally he nods.
“Yes. I… overheard you telling the other about how you couldn’t find the perfect blanket for your nest. So I thought you might like that one, even if it’s not perfect.”
I stare at him for a second, caught off guard by the show of thoughtfulness. I didn’t even know Tristan had been listening to that conversation, and I definitely wasn’t expecting him to do anything about it.
“It is perfect,” I tell him, smiling. “Thank you so much.”