Page 71 of The Law of Attraction
Adam offered her the first shower, and Olivia took him up on it. When she came out, toweling off her freshly washed hair, he said he’d been down to the office to talk to Linda, who’d told him the roads to the plant were all open again. They were back in business—and another day behind.
“She said she’d have a new room for me tonight,” Adam said as he dug his electric razor out of his suitcase.
“Too bad you’re not gonna need it,” Olivia replied as she ran a comb through her clean, wet hair.
“Yeah, there’s a pretty good chance we’ll have to work through the night,” he agreed as he disappeared into the bathroom.
Which wasn’t what Olivia had meant at all, but he was probably right.
They stopped off at the motel lobby to grab coffee and breakfast—which was fresh this morning, thanks to the miracle of restored electricity—and drove straight to the plant.
In the car, Olivia checked her phone and found no less than five panicked emails from Gavin since yesterday afternoon.
“I think Gavin’s having an extended panic attack,” she told Adam.
“Tell him we’re on the job and everything’s going to be fine.” His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel, making a liar out of him.
“Maybe we should ask for an extension,” Olivia suggested. They had two days of testing left to do, and only one day to do it. She couldn’t imagine a scenario in which they’d be able to meet their deadline tonight.
Adam shook his head. “I still think we can make it.”
“How can you say that?”
“We just have to accelerate the process.”
“What does that mean?” she asked. “How do we do that?”
“It means we work smart and prioritize.”
“As opposed to every other day when we work dumb and fly by the seat of our pants?”
He threw her a glance. “I mean you might have to skip a few things on your checklist.”
She felt her hackles rise. “My checklist isn’t just there for fun. Everything on it is important.”
“I know you like to have all your i’s dotted—”
“It’s actually the energy commission that likes that. They’re pretty particular about it.”
“I just think it’s too early to throw in the towel.”
“And when might you be willing to throw in the towel?” she wondered. “I’d prefer to warn them sooner rather than later if we’re not going to make the deadline.”
Painting a rosy picture of a probable imminent disaster went against Olivia’s nature. Her preferred strategy was to prepare people for the worst, then hopefully deliver more than they were expecting. Adam’s false bravado in the face of likely failure felt like a bad idea.
He glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “How about two o’clock? We work our asses off until then and get as much done as we can, and at two p.m. we reevaluate. If we need the extension, that still gives Gavin plenty of time to smooth the waters with the CIO.”
“Fine,” she said. “I can live with that.” Barely.
She spent the rest of the drive typing out an email to Gavin explaining their game plan and letting him know they’d give him a status update later that afternoon.
They pulled up to the gate just as she hit send.
“Ready for this?” Adam asked after he’d parked the car. She could feel him itching to dive back into work, but she wasn’t quite ready to leave their bubble yet.
All morning she’d sensed him pulling away, retreating back into his no-nonsense work persona. He hadn’t touched her once since he’d climbed out of her bed. It felt like the Adam from yesterday was disappearing, and she was afraid she’d never get to see him again.
“Is it going to make things weird?” she asked. “What happened last night?”
