“Neither are you.”
“I’m finding the people who can.”
She crossed her arms.
“So am I.”
Luke sighed.
“You have meetings tomorrow.”
“So do you.”
“Yes, but nobody cares if I look tired.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow.
“You think people don’t care if I look tired?”
“People write magazine articles about you.”
“That is not an answer.”
Luke turned toward the machine data.
Four hours later, the line restarted.
Evelyn handed Luke a vending-machine coffee.
He took one sip.
“This is industrial solvent.”
“It cost a dollar twenty-five.”
“Overpriced.”
They sat in the empty cafeteria.
Evelyn looked exhausted.
Without tailored clothing, sunglasses, or executive posture, she seemed younger.
More human.
Luke remembered the roadside.
“You always come in for breakdowns?”
“Not always.”
“Why tonight?”
“Major customer.”
“That’s Robert’s problem.”
“He reports to me. Everything eventually becomes my problem.”
Luke recognized the sentence.
He had lived it as a single father.
“You have trouble delegating.”
She looked at him.
“You’ve worked here four months.”
“Long enough.”
“You’re becoming dangerously comfortable.”
“Fire me.”
She smiled.
“No.”
They drank terrible coffee.
Then Evelyn asked, “How’s Noah?”
Luke looked surprised.
“Good.”
“Baseball?”
“You remember?”
“You mentioned playoffs.”
“They lost.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He isn’t.”
Luke smiled.
“He got two hits. Apparently personal statistics override team tragedy at eight.”
Evelyn laughed.
“Smart child.”
“Terrible teammate.”
Silence settled.
Luke asked, “Why don’t you have kids?”
He regretted it immediately.
Evelyn’s expression changed.
“Sorry.”
“No.”
She stared into the coffee.
“I was engaged once.”
Luke waited.
“Daniel wanted children.”
“And you didn’t?”
“I did.”
She smiled sadly.
“Just not while building the company.”
“What happened?”
“He married someone else.”
Luke winced.
“That sounds efficient.”
She laughed softly.
“He waited three years.”
“Still.”
“I kept saying next year.”
Luke understood.
“And next year moved.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn looked toward the dark windows.
“By the time I decided maybe the company could survive without me controlling every hour, he had stopped believing me.”
“That hurt?”
“Very.”
Luke nodded.
“Then why keep doing it?”
She looked at him.
“Doing what?”
“Working like everything collapses if you sleep.”
Evelyn smiled without humor.
“Do you always psychoanalyze executives after midnight?”
“Only when machinery is working.”