I should have found it insufferable.
I found it the opposite of insufferable, which was the actual problem.
She walked to the door. Pulled it open and stopped.
“Julian.”
“Mm.”
“Next time you deploy a city-wide operation—” She glanced back, just once, the corner of her mouth doing something that wasn’t quite a smile, “—check the weather first. Warm air plays tricks.” She held my gaze for exactly one second. “Just a thought.”
She left.
I sat in the empty boardroom. The door clicked shut. The sun kept coming through the east windows, cutting across the table in long pale lines. I turned that last sentence over in my head the way you turn something small and sharp between your fingers. Warm air plays tricks. It was nothing. A throwaway line. It meant absolutely nothing.
I had been tell
