“Rachel–“
“I’m going to do it,” I said. “It’s my work. It’s a legitimate booking. I didn’t seek it out, Julia forwarded the inquiry.”
“I know you didn’t — I’m not saying you did anything wrong.”
“Good.”
He sat down across from me. He was quiet for a minute. I let him be quiet.
“This is going to be awkward,” he said.
“For you.”
“For both of us.”
“I’ve been awkward for eighteen months,” I said, “every time someone in your family asked me about temp work or bookkeeping certificates. I think you can manage one morning of awkward.”
He was quiet again. Then he said: “Could you — is there any way to do it without making it a thing? Just come in, do the session, leave, not draw attention to the connection?”
I looked at him. “The training coordinator is going to introduce me. My bio is in the directory. My bio that you have seen says who I am and what I do.”
“I know.”
“If you’re asking me to have Julia swap my bio for something vaguer, I’m not doing that.”
“No, I’m not asking that.” He rubbed his face. “I just — I need to think about this.”
“There is nothing to think about in terms of the booking,” I said. “I’m going. The question is whether you’re going to fix the thing with your family before June fourteenth or whether I’m going to do it for you after.”
He looked at me. “What does that mean?”
“It means I have been quiet about this for eighteen months and I am not going to be quiet anymore. After the workshop, I’m going to tell your mother what I actually do. And Beth. In whatever form makes sense. I would prefer you do it first, because it should come from you. But if you don’t, I will.”