“Okay,” she says softly, “fly safe.” She kisses my lips. “See you on Saturday.”
I nod at her, giving her one more kiss before I open her door and she gets in. I hold my hand up as she pulls out of the driveway before I get into my car. I take my time driving Avery to daycare, and
when I park she hops out. I walk way slower than I should, stopping at her classroom door, I squat in front of her. “I’ll call you tonight,” I tell her, “and then this weekend we could maybe go to the zoo.”
“Okay, Dad,” she says, not even giving a shit that my heart is breaking right now. She has no idea the hold she has on me.
“Give me a hug and kiss,” I tell her and she walks into my outstretched arms and kisses my cheek.
“I love you,” I say to her and she just runs into her class, turning and waving at me before joining her friends who are shouting her name.
Packing is a piece of cake. I’ve done this before so many times, I can do it with my eyes closed.
Even when I get on the plane, I think to myself that this is the longest I’ve been in one place. The flight flies by, and two hours after I left my house, I’m walking into our office. “Holy shit,” my partner, Levi, says when I walk in, “he’s still alive.” He’s dressed in what for sure was a suit but he took off his jacket. We’ve been friends since our first day in college when we took computer coding together.
The two of us were at the top of the class and then we just started hanging out together. We opened the company together and fast-forward about twelve years and here we are.
I laugh. “I worked every day,” I tell him as I walk over to my office, open the door, and feel the stuffiness come out. I dump my bag on the love seat in the corner before walking over to my desk. The mail has been piled up. “What time is the meeting?”
“We can start whenever you are ready,” Levi says to me.
“I’m good to go,” I state, grabbing my laptop from my bag and heading to the conference room.
“The war room,” Levi says, coming in with his own laptop in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. “I don’t know about you,” he says, sitting down, “but I love, love, love these times.” He leans back in his chair, waiting for the rest of the staff to come and join us. “How have things been?”
“Good.” I try not to smile big, but I can’t help it. “Amazing, really.”
“You look good.” He rocks in his chair back and forth. “Saw a couple of pictures of your daughter and your…” He trails off, making me laugh. “What are you calling her?”
I chuckle and look down at my hands and then declare, “Mine.” He just laughs. “You should try it.”
He looks at me, his eyebrows pinching together. “Are you crazy?”
“What?” I lean back, mimicking him. “The proverbial bachelor can settle.”
He chuckles. “Not my thing.”
“Until you find the right person,” I tell him, and he huffs and rolls his eyes at me.
“I’ll take your word for it.” He leans forward, unbuttoning his cuffs and rolling up his sleeves.
“The only woman I’ve had in my life for longer than one night is Eva, and that’s only because she’s always been my wingman. She knows all my secrets and is always there when I need her.”
“You mean she wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole,” I remind him of what she told me the last time she came in, and I joked about them dating.
“That also.” He points at me. “She can smell my bullshit a mile away.” He stops talking when
more people come in and say hello to me.
The seats are all taken as we go through our list of clients. “Okay, people,” I say, clapping my hands, “let’s get this done.” I know we have to go through our client list and see if they have any needs. Then we have to go through our waiting list to see which clients we are going to be taking on in the next couple of months. I lean back in my chair as Levi starts in on the first name on the list.
I don’t even feel the time go by. “We should order in food if we are going to keep going,” Levi suggests, and I look down at the corner of the computer screen and see that it’s a little past eight thirty at night, and I start to panic.
“I have to head home,” I hear someone say as I look beside my computer for my phone and I find it empty. I jump out of my chair, ignoring everyone voting on staying or going. “I’m with whatever,” I say, rushing to my office and finding my phone on my desk. I turn it over to see Addison tried to call me once, but then I have ten missed FaceTimes from Avery.
I sit in the chair and call Addison first. She answers after two rings, and I can tell she was sleeping. “Hey, did I wake you?”
“Yeah,” she mumbles, “I must have fallen asleep with Avery,” she whispers.
“She’s sleeping?” I say, putting my head back and my eyes closing.
“Yeah, she had a busy day. Apparently, she was teaching the class how to wave like a princess.
It’s hard being Avery.” She chuckles, and picturing her is just making it worse, even with my eyes closed. “How is your day?”
“Good, we just stopped to get something to eat or finish, I’m not sure. I saw the time and ran to call you,” I tell her, looking up when I hear people start walking in the hallway. “I think we are going to be ending it. I’ll call you when I get to the hotel.”
She yawns at the same time that she says, “Okay.” I disconnect the phone and put it back on my desk.
Levi sticks his head into my office. “We will reconvene tomorrow at ten,” he says. “Get some sleep. You look like shit.”
“Thanks,” I mumble, getting up and making my way over to the hotel two doors from the office. I check in and make my way up to the bedroom. The sound of the door clicks closed once I walk in.
I toss my bag by the bed and call Addison right away; she answers after one ring. “Hi,” she grumbles, and I press the FaceTime button. The sound of ringing fills the phone. “Are you FaceTiming me?”
“Yes,” I confirm, putting the phone in front of me as the white circle goes around until she fills the screen. “Hi, beautiful,” I say softly.
“You look tired,” she notes. “Why don’t you get a shower and go to bed?”
“I will in a bit. I miss you,” I admit to her and her mouth goes from a smirk to a full-blown smile.
“Do you?” she asks me, turning on her side, and I wish I was sliding into bed with her.
“I do.” I smirk at her. “How is Avery?”
“She’s good,” she says, and I can feel her holding back something.
“She tried to FaceTime me,” I tell her and she smiles sadly.
“Yeah. We called you from my phone together and then she went to her bedroom.” She trails off.
“I found her under the covers trying to call you.”
I close my eyes and it feels like someone kicked me in the balls, and then came back to kick me in the mouth after I fell to my knees to cup my balls. “What did you tell her?”
“You were at work, and you would call her when you weren’t busy. It’s totally normal for a parent to go away for work. Your dad used to do it.”
“I know, but I didn’t. He didn’t come into my life after deserting me for four years,” I groan.
“You didn’t desert her, and I see what Sofia was talking about being dramatic with the family.”
She softly giggles. “Go take a shower, and you can call her tomorrow. Then she can guilt-trip you and you can come home and bring all the stuffies you find in the airport.”
“Should I order them now?” I ask, and her eyes go big.
“That was sarcasm,” she retorts. “You aren’t going to buy her anything because then she is going to think that she is going to get something every time you go away.”
“But she will,” I assure her and she rolls her eyes.
“Goodbye,” she says, “call me tomorrow.”
“Night, baby.” I look at her and she disconnects. I order some food before taking a shower and eat in my bed before going to sleep. “This is my life,” I say, hunkering under the covers.