Margaret Hale had been on vacation for four weeks and had spent eleven days of it on the phone.
I knew this because Elena tracked it. Elena tracked everything, but Margaret's phone usage had become a specific point of obsession because Elena had assigned Margaret a "vacation compliance score" and Margaret was failing it spectacularly. The score was based on minutes spent on work calls, emails sent, and number of times the phrase "I'll have my office send it over" was used in casual conversation. Margaret's score was twelve percent. Elena's spreadsheet, which she updated daily on the terrace with a pencil she sharpened every morning, recorded each violation with the clinical precision of a woman who'd spent her career managing institutional budgets and found personal mismanagement offensive.
"She's on a call right now," Elena reported at breakfast, not looking up from her notebook. "That's the third one today. It's eight AM."
"She's a senator, Elena. Senators have calls."
