It felt like such a cop-out, the kind of thing their former selves would have immediately called bullshit on. They both loved talking about work, and even back in their internship days would leap at the chance to monologue on some minor aspect of their jobs. She had once listened to him explain the wind turbine industry for three straight hours during his work-study program in alternative energy. Now, they had to pretend like work talk was taboo, like that was what threw him off and not the decade they had spent avoiding each other.

“Are we not supposed to talk about work?” She looked him square in the eye as he came up from his surprisingly weak throw, almost daring him to admit it was a lame distraction.

“I mean…” he rubbed the back of his neck, considering his words. “We can talk about work. I’ll just be nicer about it.” At the offer, he smiled, openly and rather nervously.

Her heart automatically softened, reminding herself of their pact in the car. She wasn’t convinced it was possible to emerge from the week as true friends, but she could at least treat him with the bouncy distance of a friendly acquaintance.

“I’m sure we’re both looking forward to not thinking about work for a while.” She smiled back, walking over to the bistro table next to the court to sip her drink. “This is my first real vacation in… I’d rather not say how long.”

“Tell me about it.” He looked out onto the passerelle, where a crew member was delivering crates of food. “Writing my Out of Office email was the single most exciting thing I’ve done all year.”

“Hah!” Alex let out a genuine laugh of recognition. “I put a sun emoji in my subject line. I even considered adding the palm tree, but I thought it might be a little much.”

He walked over to join her at the table, grabbing his own drink and gently clinking the glass to hers. “I think it also implies a certain level of tropicality that the Mediterranean doesn’t offer.” He took a sip, relaxing in their banter. “But I’m not an expert—emoji use of any kind is heavily frowned upon at Horace.”

“Is that right?”

“Emoji, work-life balance, starting meetings with anything other than the most depressing small talk you’ve ever heard: all forbidden.”

“I shudder to think of the small talk you’ll get after this vacation.”

“Me?” He laughed. “Aren’t you the one who’s going to have to explain to the revolutionaries that you’ve just been eating caviar off of silk pillows for the past two weeks?”

She raised an eyebrow, bringing her glass to her lips to hide the smile behind it. “One of the many reasons I basically never take vacations.”