“It was for both of you.” She laughed.
As I put Julia in the back and buckled the car seat, she started to cry. Shit, I thought to myself, and I was already running late for the meeting. She had just eaten so I knew she wasn’t hungry, and I had just changed her diaper before we left. I reached in the diaper bag and pulled out her pacifier. Ellery wasn’t too keen on her having it, but this was an emergency. When I put it in her mouth, she stopped crying. I let out a sigh of relief as I climbed in the driver’s side and headed to the office. Traffic was horrible, and Julia started crying again. I looked in the rearview mirror and her pacifier had fallen out of her mouth. Her screams grew louder as I tried to reach back and grab it. After I finally found it, I put it back in her mouth, but she didn’t want it. She spit it out and started screaming. I didn’t want to call Ellery because I didn’t want her to worry, so I dialed the next best person: Mason.
“Hel—Connor, why is the princess crying like that?”
“Mason, I need your help. I’m taking Julia to the office.”
“By yourself?” he interrupted.
“Yes. I’m stuck in traffic, and she won’t stop screaming. She won’t take the pacifier either.”
“You gave her the pacifier? Does Ellery know this?”
“No, and you’re not going to tell her either. Help me; I don’t know what to do.”
“Do you have any classical music with you?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Look in the diaper bag. There may be a CD in there.”
Reaching in the back, I grabbed a hold of the diaper bag and, as I was bringing it up to the front, items started falling out onto the floor. Julia was still screaming, and I was about to have a nervous breakdown.
“There’s no fucking CD in here!” I screamed into the phone.
“Connor, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing you can do until you get to the office.”
After hanging up, I looked at my phone and had an idea. Still stuck in traffic, I downloaded some classical music onto my phone. Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” was the first song on the list. I hit play and turned the volume up as loud as it would go. I held the phone towards the back and closer to Julia. She didn’t stop crying right away, but the noise was becoming softer. As traffic started moving, Julia fell asleep, and I felt like I could breathe again. Finally, we arrived at Black Enterprises. I pulled into the parking garage and parked in my spot. As I looked behind me, I saw that Julia was still asleep, and I needed her to stay that way. I carefully opened the door and started picking up all the things from the diaper bag that fell on the floor. As I gently unbuckled the car seat, Julia’s eyes opened, and I froze. Grabbing the pacifier that was sitting next to her, I put in her mouth and her eyes slowly closed. I started to sweat at the thought of her screaming bloody murder again.
Stepping off the back elevator that led to my office, I was instantly surrounded by a flock of women who wanted to see Julia. When I walked down the hallway to my office, I realized that Valerie wasn’t sitting at her desk. Shit, her vacation started today, I remembered as I was counting on her to keep an eye on Julia. Opening the door to my office, I set the car seat on my desk, while I gathered some files for the meeting.
“Whoa, Connor! Why is Julia here?” Phil asked in shock.
“Because I didn’t have anyone to watch her, Phil,” I replied with irritation.
“Don’t you have a manny or nanny or whatever?”
“He’s on vacation, and Ellery is working on her paintings.”
“You can’t bring a baby to a meeting,” he said.
Glaring at his stupidity, I calmly said, “Have you forgotten that Black Enterprises is my company and I can do whatever the hell I want? If I want to bring my daughter to the meeting, then I’ll damn well do it!”
Phil sighed and walked out of the office. “The meeting starts in five minutes,” he said.
Julia opened her eyes. I grabbed my files and the car seat and headed to the boardroom.
Upon entering the room with fifteen men and women, all eyes glared at me when I walked in. “Sorry I’m late, but as you can see, I have my daughter with me today and if any one of you has a problem with it, the door is right over there. Are we clear?”
While I stood and looked at the people in the room, there was silence. “Very good. Now let’s proceed.”
***
As I changed Julia’s diaper, I looked up and saw Ellery standing in the doorway of the nursery with a smile on her face.
“Hey, baby, how long have you been standing there?” I asked.
“Long enough to hear that little conversation the two of you were having.”
“That was a private conversation between me and my daughter.” I smiled.
She walked into the nursery, gave me a kiss, and picked up Julia from the changing table.