12. Anna

12

ANNA

W hen my driver drops me off next to a warehouse in Red Hook, I stare up at the old building with its black shutters as surprise burns through me. When I imagined Adam’s company, it was in some hi-tech business park, not this. It’s quiet, with beautiful views out across the water and so deserted I don’t think the paparazzi would ever find it.

How does all this work for him? His office and his staff? We’ve had so little time to talk about any of it, but I’d love to help his business out if I can. He’s said a couple of times that it’s struggling. I’m beginning to understand him a bit better, but I’m totally adrift with his business and what it takes to be successful in his line of work. Perhaps I should talk to Janus.

I head into the entranceway to the building to find a large open area with brick walls surrounding a gray-painted staircase winding upward. There’s no reception and no front desk. Pepper trots along by my feet on her leash, and I eye up an old steel elevator in the corner before heading over and pressing the button. Unit five, Adam said, in the basement.

When I step out of the elevator, Adam is standing in the corridor, an unchecked smile on his face, and Pepper shoots forward as he bends down to give her a tummy rub .

“Welcome to Electronic Man,” he says, long fingers sifting through her fur as I watch his graceful hands.

My eyes dart to his face to find him smiling up at me. “I hope we can help,” I stutter out.

He straightens and gestures to his left, and we head down the corridor past neon light sculptures hanging on the walls between a series of black doors.

“Are you sure you’re okay with doing this?” he says.

“Absolutely. You were so great coming along to that event at the last minute, it’s the least I can do.”

“I’ve realized we haven’t been very organized about this being a shoot: things like makeup, etcetera. Although we’ve got a photographer and some lighting. Susie thinks we can do casual stuff as well as some more official shots.”

“I’m happy with something more informal: Behind the scenes always works well,” I say, stopping by one of the illuminated signs. “Or so they tell me. In fact, we could take a picture here.”

“What?” he says as I grab his arm and hold up my phone to take a selfie in front of the sign.

“Smile!” I say, and as he starts laughing, I take a few shots.

Adam looks at my phone as I flick through the pictures. The fluorescent lighting gives it an interesting vibe, but something’s missing … I pick up Pepper and smush her near our faces as she wriggles about and I snap more photos, then she licks Adam right up his face.

“Ugh!” He wipes his sleeve over his cheek, and I snatch some more shots. “Can you tell I’m not an influencer?”

It makes me laugh, but oh, the images are gold! A fantastic one of Pepper licking Adam: his face is all scrunched up as her tongue swipes across his nose.

So, I pull up Instagram and post the picture to my account, Pepper’s too, adding the caption “Looking forward to a day trying out some exciting new electronic toys!”, and I tag Adam and his business and several big dog accounts in the hope they’ll share it, and dump some hashtags in for good measure.

Adam peers over my shoulder as I do it, and he smells of something like … bu rning rubber? It’s strangely appealing. I turn my head after I’ve posted the shot, and his face is right there, smiling.

“You’re good at this.”

A smattering of freckles run straight across his nose. Small black lines in his hazel eyes. Warmth starts in my chest and seeps downward. You’re staring, Anna . His eyes catch mine for a beat before he takes a step back.

I look down at my phone and clear my throat. “Damian, my social media manager, taught me to keep filming and shooting until you capture something that works.”

“Look at the sign behind us on the wall in the picture,” he says, not meeting my eyes but leaning in again and tapping the screen as a smile curves over his lips.

LET’S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED says the neon right behind Adam’s left shoulder, and we both turn to look at it.

I start to laugh.

“Serendipity,” Adam says.

I’m not sure if he means me and him, or Pepper licking him or something else.

“Damian will be in touch if it’s bad,” I say as my phone buzzes in my hand. “Uh-oh.”

I pull up our marketing WhatsApp channel. The words …

Fabulous, Anna!

are followed by a few heart–eye emojis.

“Wow, he’s on it, isn’t he?” Adam grins as he reads the message, and I sneak a quick look at his freckles again. “Come on, let’s go and meet the team,” he adds.

Farther down the corridor, we stop by a black door with a huge white five written on it, and he turns the handle to reveal six people standing nervously in the center of a large room. Two guys with long hair are setting up lights in front of a mural of two dogs that takes up the whole wall at the far end of the room. Pepper starts jumping up, nearly strangling herself with her leash in the process, desperate to say hello to everyone. I turn to Adam.

“Can I let her off her leash?”

“Go for it,” he says.

Tail going like a propeller, she races around, and Adam’s staff crowd in. Dogs just remove all awkwardness in any social situation. Adam is laughing at Pepper, so I study the office. The walls are whitewashed, and the ceiling has all its old beams on display. A squishy red couch and Persian carpets adorn the concrete floor. Brown wood desks spill out across the space at jaunty angles, and there’s some tall cupboards and a separate room at the back. It’s so Adam—warm, relaxed, welcoming.

“What a lovely place.”

Everyone looks up from where they’re fussing over Pepper and stares at me. God, did I say something off? It is a nice office, isn’t it? Sometimes my lack of depth with people screws with my radar, I think. I swing around to focus on the mural. “And I love this!”

One of the guys with dreadlocks and painty fingers beams at me from where he’s setting up the lights.

“Are you the artist?” I add.

He nods as a girl in pink pants and red boots steps forward. “I’m Susie. Adam’s marketing manager. It’s great to meet you, Anna.”

I instantly like her offbeat vibe. “Likewise.”

She gives me a crooked smile. “You posted something on the way in!”

“Yes! Was it okay? I realized I should have brought Damian with me to video me arriving and …”

She shakes her head. “It’s a brilliant shot. I’ve reposted it to Adam’s personal account. Maybe we could shoot some more behind-the-scenes footage. I’ve got some of the guys putting the kits together.”

“I should have brought Damian to meet you.”

“What even is all this social-media stuff?” Adam says, waving his arm around.

“None of us understand TikTok, boss,” says a man with a beard standing to my right .

“This is Keith,” Adam says, “and Sean, and Chris, Don, José.” He points to each member of his team in turn.

“I’m the only woman in the office,” Susie adds.

“Yeah, but you do the work of six people,” Don mumbles with a grin.

“You’re basically our mascot,” the guy next to him says. Sean, I think.

I open my mouth, but Susie gets in before me, “Not sure we should be talking about women being mascots in a professional company, Sean.”

Sean flushes and starts stammering an apology, but Susie rolls her eyes at me. “Welcome to my life working with a bunch of engineers.”

“Don’t be engineerist,” Don mutters, and Susie punches him in the arm. He howls. “Workplace abuse!”

“Guys. Can we try and look at least semiprofessional for Anna?” Adam says, swinging around as a grin splits my face. These people are adorable.

“This is Chico, who did the graffiti mural, and Andy who’s going to do the photos for us today,” Adam adds. Chico waves, but Andy blushes to the roots of his hair, steps back, and crashes into a light.

“He’s a bit of a tennis fan,” Sean whispers.

“If you have all finished being lunatics, maybe we could do some test shots?” Chico says.

Susie directs Pepper and me over to the mural, and I bend down to fuss over the dog while Andy takes a few pictures. Keith has his phone up, filming everything.

“Looking good,” Andy says. “Sean, can you bring over some of the toys?”

Sean brings over a small dog made of electronics and metal parts and sets it on the floor, and Adam comes to stand next to me as Pepper sniffs it. When it starts to move, she stares at it for a couple of seconds, tilting her head quizzically to one side, and then she barks.

The dog does a backflip, and Pepper goes berserk, down on her haunches, growling and barking like mad, circling around and around. Everyone begins to laugh: Chico, Andy, and Susie all double up. I put my hand on Adam’s forearm as I start giggling. The solid muscle flexes under my fingers, and when I glance up at him, his head is tipped back and he’s laughing uproariously, too, and all the noise makes Pepper bark more and more. I stare at the joy on his handsome face. He hunches over, and when he straightens, water is leaking out of the corner of his eyes. He puts his hand over mine on his arm and squeezes.

“This is priceless,” he says, wiping his eyes with his other hand.

What a lovely guy he is.

“Can I turn it off?” Keith says, stepping forward, and still grinning himself as Pepper carries on growling.

“Was that a success or a failure?”

“Who cares?” says Susie. “I got some amazing footage. Never mind people making this themselves as a kit, I think we should put it up, ready-made, as dog entertainment and find out if it sells.”

“More like human entertainment,” Keith says as he bends down to switch it off, and Pepper comes back to me and hides between my legs, looking uncertain. I don’t want to move my hand from where it is under Adam’s, but I have to give her a stroke and a fuss.

“You silly,” I say, bending down to ruffle her fur. “It’s stopped moving now.”

Adam crouches down, too, fondling her soft ears, still grinning. “Well, that’s the most fun I’ve had in about a decade,” he says drily, but an odd expression flits across his face.

What? What has he been doing for the last ten years of his life? Surely his business hasn’t been in trouble all that time? And he has close friends, like Janus. The people in his company also seem lovely. Why has he not been having any fun?

My solitary car ride home does nothing but fuel more questions, so when I get back, I call Janus, but before I can get anything out, he wades right in:

“So, you and Adam, eh? He’s been typically tight-lipped about it.”

Really? Janus has talked to him? Does Adam play his cards close to his chest, even with good friends? I mean he’s self-contained, almost stoic. Maybe especially with guys who might rib him about things.

“What did he say? ”

“He told Fabian and me to mind our own business.”

I chuckle. “Adam and I are just friends. I don’t think either of us has the space for a relationship right now.”

There’s a long silence on the other end of the line. “I think it’s about time Adam made space for a relationship.”

Oh, interesting. “Really? He mentioned something about a woman at college …”

But Janus is too smart to fall for a leading question and barrels on. “I worry about Adam’s business. Hardware is difficult, especially consumer stuff, and all this stuff in the press … Do you know whether he’s got a PR person?”

“I think he’s got a marketing lady, Susie, but no agency.”

“He needs somebody to handle stuff like this or it could all blow up in his face.”

“Yeah, he does.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

I roll my lips together. Is Adam’s business the reason he’s not been having any fun? Or is it his past? “This woman he went out with in college … can you tell me any more about her?”

There’s a long silence. “It’s not really my story to tell.” He pauses. “Why are you asking?”

That’s the fifty-million-dollar question, isn’t it? “Adam’s a nice person. I like him. He’s never tried or suggested anything with me. I guess I’m curious.” Is that all I am? Ugh. “I’m trying to be his friend.”

“He’s a great guy. Be careful with him, Anna. It’s not my place to tell you about his relationship in college, because it’s his story to tell. But he was deeply bruised by it. On the surface he’s fine, but underneath … I don’t know. I can understand why he hasn’t had another relationship. He thought she was the one, and she turned on him in the worst possible way.”

What? Now I’m all kinds of curious.