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“You did a whole thing.” Rachel pointed to the pastries.

“I’m generally a pretty early riser, even on the weekends. Usually, I do a little extra work over coffee, but sometimes, I go to the cafénot far from here andgetmyself a coffee instead of making one. And their pastries are pretty good. I went this morning.”

“So, this is your second cup of coffee?”

“Third, technically. I had one here, and I did do a little work before I went. Then, I ordered a double espresso there, and now, this one. Cream? Sugar?” She pushed the two containers she’d also placed on the table toward Rachel.

“Thank you for this,” Rachel said.

“For what?”

“I don’t have much to do besides work, and I don’t think I’ve had breakfast with anyone in a long time. Maybe since college. And that was in the dorm cafeteria, where I usually ate alone.”

“Why?”

“I was really young,” Rachel reminded her and went to add cream to her coffee.

“Oh, right.”

“I was just really good at math. That’s why.”

“Why what?” Violet asked and added sugar to her own coffee.

“Why I graduated high school so early. I thought you asked.”

“Asked what? Why you graduated early?”

“Yeah.”

“No, I asked how old you were, but that was it.”

“Oh, weird.” Rachel shrugged. “Déjà vu, maybe. Everyone always asks that after I tell them. I guess I just assumedyoudid.”

“No. But if you want to tell me, I’m all ears.”

“It’s just that when I do, it usually becomes all people want to talk about. I put on a brave face that day at the elevators because I was still angry with you for taking my job, but I really am horribly awkward sometimes, so sorry for making this morning about me.”

“You haven’t,” she replied and took a sip of the still-too-hot coffee, slightly burning her tongue. “If you want to talk about something else, we can, but I don’t mind learning more about you.”

In fact, Violetpreferredit because so far, she thought Rachel was adorable and sweet and clearly brilliant. She was also beautiful, and it was taking everything in Violet not to get ahead of herself here. She kept having to silently remind herself that this was a work colleague and that they’d just met. While they hadn’t had time for lunch all week, they’d shared a few glances in meetings, and those glances had come with soft smiles. They’d run into one another in the breakroom once and chatted for a few minutes before Violet had to run, and then,there had been the drinks that first night.

They’d finished the bottle that night, and Violet hadn’t laughed that hard in a very long time, maybe ever. She always handled her wine well, and they’d ordered an appetizer, so she’d felt fine driving, but Rachel hadn’t and she also hadn’t wanted to leave her car in the garage overnight, so they’d remained in the bar for another hour, with Rachel ordering coffee and another appetizer to help her sober up, giving them more time to talk and get to know each other. Everything Violet had learned about Rachel so far only made her want to learn more, so even if they did make this morning all about her, Violet really had no problem with that.

“You don’t want to know if I’m like the guy fromGood Will Hunting? That’s usually what everyone wants to know.”

“Areyou?”

“No,” Rachel told her.

“Then, no,” Violet replied quickly. “I think intelligence is helpful in life. It can certainly take you far where work is concerned, and clearly, it’s done that for you: you’re twenty-seven and already a VP at a huge company. But I also don’t think that intelligence can be defined by one thing, nor does it define a whole person.”

“Not defined by one thing?” Rachel smiled a little.

“There are different types of intelligence,” Violet said in response.

“Yeah, there are,” Rachel agreed. “And I only have the one kind.”

Violet laughed a little and took one of the small plates she’d stacked next to her and set it in front of Rachel, who helped herself to a pastry.