Chapter 5

I sat in the back row, watching her.

"I checked, and plane tickets are sixteen hundred to two thousand one way. Round trip would be three to four thousand. Too expensive." Savannah wrote a number on the whiteboard and crossed it out.

"I also checked buses, but there's no direct route. You'd have to transfer twice, and just the journey alone takes over thirty hours. Total waste of time." Another cross.

"For renting a car, an eight-seater van costs twenty-eight hundred one way, fifty-six hundred round trip. Split among us, that's seven hundred per person. Cheaper than flights, but still not cheap."

She paused, tapping her marker on the board twice.

"The most economical option, actually, is a self-drive. Gas plus tolls for two thousand miles would be about a thousand dollars. Split eight ways, that's only a bit over a hundred per person."

At this point, her gaze moved from the whiteboard and naturally settled on me.

Not just her---everyone was looking at me.

I was the only one in the team with a car. Everyone knew that.

I sat in my chair, twirling my pen, my face expressionless.

"But the problem is," Savannah put down her marker, "Adrian is the only one in our team with a car, and his is electric. Charging is even cheaper than gas. If he could take us, splitting the charging fees among everyone, it might not even cost a hundred dollars."

Kiera was the first to speak: "Less than a hundred dollars! That's such a steal!"

"Exactly," Maya followed up. "Buying plane tickets myself would cost thousands. Adrian, please take us."

Marcus said, "Your car fits eight people comfortably anyway. I saw it once---the back row can fold down into a bed."

"Adrian, you're the best. Please help us out."

"We're all colleagues. This little favor is nothing."

"You're not even paying for gas. You're just giving a few people a ride."

One after another, talking over each other.

I waited until they finished, placed my pen on the table, and slowly straightened up.

The conference room fell silent.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm not going to the West Coast anymore. And I'm not lending my car either."

Savannah's hand holding the marker froze.

Kiera's mouth gaped open.

Marcus leaned back in his chair, his expression shifting from expectation to shock.

"Why?" Savannah asked. Her voice was taut.

"No particular reason. I just don't want to go."

"What about the car? Can't we drive it ourselves? We don't need you to drive."

"No."

Savannah bit her lip. After a long moment, she spoke: "Adrian, you weren't like this before."

I looked at her.

I wasn't like this before.

Right. Before, I would have smiled and agreed, then driven two thousand miles alone, booked hotels alone, made all the plans alone, and taken all the blame alone.

"People change."

After saying that, I picked up my phone and walked out of the conference room.

I'd barely sat down at my desk when my phone vibrated.

It was the department group chat.

Savannah had posted a message, @-ing my name.

"Adrian, I don't know what you're upset about, but everyone has been preparing for this trip plan for a long time. You're the only one with a car but you're unwilling to help everyone. I respect your decision. But I want everyone to know---it's not that I didn't try."

Silence for about ten seconds.

Then Marcus posted an emoji: a thumbs-down.

Kiera followed with a sighing emoji.

Maya didn't post an emoji, but she liked Savannah's message.

I stared at that message for five seconds.

In front of the whole team, Savannah had pinned me in the position of being "unreasonable." In my previous life, she'd done this after I got burned. In this life, she'd done it early.

But in my previous life, I hadn't taken screenshots.

This time I did.

I was about to lock my screen when Savannah sent another message. Not in the group this time---a private message.

"Adrian, I don't want our relationship to sour. But think carefully. I'm the one who arranges the on-call schedule. Next month's project assignments go through me too. Do you really want to oppose the entire team?"

I looked at that line of text, my finger hovering above the screen. This wasn't a request anymore. This was a threat!