“It doesn’t have to be awkward. Right, Em?” Diya picked up a plate again and piled it with his favorites: crab cakes and mini quiches. “We’re all friends. I know you want us to be happy.”

By us, she meant the two of them. I’d been lost between her two sentences like the Brazilian cheese puff she accidentally knocked off the table.

“Everybody deserves happiness.” For me, right then, that meant staying in business.

I swiveled to Trey and put in my preemptive bid. “I don’t want to shut down. If you two want out, that’s fine. But I’m not letting Ludington’s go.”

We walked out of the break room together.

“Would you prefer a month of emergency meetings first?” Trey’s tone had a sarcastic, belittling edge. Did he do that before? Did I just not notice? “This isn’t the time for a meandering hike up Mount Denial, Emsley. Mark Selig flew back to DC because you couldn’t accommodate him. Anyway, nobody said we should throw away what we have. I looked into political polling. That’s where the money is. I want us to go in the direction of profit.”

Diya shifted closer to him so they were walking shoulder to shoulder, a single unit. “Polling is a growing field.”

I didn’t have time to smother two people, even if I conveniently tripped over a stray chair cushion. “Ludington’s is an auction house. And, I’m sorry, Trey, but you don’t get to pick the direction. I’m the face of the business, and I’m an auctioneer. I came up with the idea because this is what I want to do. I’m not a pollster. I like what we’re doing.”

“So it’s all about you? It’s a freaking ego thing?” Ego he understood.

“It’s a perseverance thing.”

My earliest memory of my grandmother was her visiting us in Connecticut—a surprise visit. She didn’t do any other kind. I had asked her how she’d gotten to be so famous. Violet Velar looked her only grandchild in the eyes and said, “You succeed by not failing.”

Even at age seven, the advice had struck me as a profound truth of life.

I wasn’t going to cut and bail. I refused to be that kind of a person.

Diya soothed Trey with a smile, then glanced at me. “Trey is right. We have to make money.”

For her, Ludington’s had always been a job. She wasn’t emotionally attached to the company. But she was emotionally attached to Trey.

“If you think Ludington’s is going under and you want to quit, quit. You can sign your shares over to me.” Always ask for what you want. If you want to participate in the auction, you have to bid.