During the dinner, I could see everyone genuinely cared about her and respected her, and many had asked tactfully about the cancer recurring, but hadn’t pried. But one of the directors had been a prick, and I hadn’t known why, thinking initially it had been because he’d been drunk. He’d been watching us all night like a hawk, and had noticed the affectionate touches Chris gave me whenever she’d walked past me, and also after she’d held onto my hand when we’d stood next to each other as the firm’s chair gave a speech about Chris. His incessant commentary after that had begun to grate on my nerves as the party went on. Everyone else brushed his comments aside with a laugh and a shake of the head, but I’d hated the undertone of his voice whenever he’d said something about me and Chris. Or even just about Chris.

Surprisingly, Chris had bitten her tongue and I’d followed her lead. I was confused, but trusted she knew what she was doing. These were “her people” after all, and I hadn’t known how to navigate around them yet. I’d sorely wanted to tell him off, but I didn’t rise to bite on bait after bait he’d laid out thickly.

Later, Chris had explained that the guy had long harbored feelings for Chris, and she’d considered dating him when he’d first started to drop hints he’d been interested. They’d gone out together to a few of the functions that the firm had thrown for clients, but had never ended up romantically linked.

Chris was tolerating him because he’d brought in a bunch of the biggest clients of the firm, and, amongst all of the senior people there, she said he was the one best placed to buy her out from her investment position in the firm. Chris had been planning to eventually sell her stake in the firm, and she’d wanted to do this before the illness progressed. She had painstakingly built her stake up by dint of hard work, so I’d felt she’d deserved every good thing coming to her because of that. I willing followed what she’d asked me to do and had stayed out of it. She knew best how to get the best compensation for her stake, I’d figured.