Page 21 of Borrow My Calm
After the fourth clip, Reid set the remote down. “What helps you stay organized?”
I laughed because I thought he was joking.
He wasn’t.
The laugh died awkwardly. “What?”
“What helps?”
I stared at him. “People don’t ask that.”
“What do they ask?”
“Why aren’t you organized?” I said before I could stop myself. “Why didn’t you write it down? Why didn’t you set a reminder? Why are you late if you care? Why is your apartment a crime scene if you can remember every faceoff tendency from a team we played two months ago?”
His expression didn’t shift into pity. Thank God. Pity made me want to crawl out of my skin.
“And?” he asked.
I looked down at my hands. My fingers were worrying the edge of my notebook page into a soft curl. “Lists help if I remember the list exists. Alarms help unless I turn them off and immediately forget why. If instructions are vague, I’ll fill in the gaps, and sometimes I fill them wrong. If there are too many things at once, I get loud or I shut down. Depends on the day.”
I hadn’t meant to say that much.
The room felt too quiet after.
Reid leaned back in his chair, calm as ever. “Okay.”
I looked over. “That’s it?”
“That’s useful.”
“Usually this is where someone tells me to try harder.”
“Are you not trying?”
The question hit wrong. Or right. I didn’t know. My face got hot.
“I’m always trying,” I said, and it came out rougher than I wanted. “That’s the problem. It doesn’t look like it.”
Reid held my gaze for a second, then nodded once. Like he believed me. Like the answer didn’t surprise him.
“Then we’ll make it look less like guesswork,” he said.
I blinked. “We?”
“You and the staff. Me, when it’s my instruction. Specific expectations. Written when possible. You communicate early if you’re losing the thread.”
“That sounds simple.”
“It won’t be every day.”
My mouth twitched despite everything. “You always this cheerful?”
“No.”
“Special occasion?”
He picked up the remote again. “Next clip.”
