“I doubt it. After all, he’ll still be here over half the year.”
“Yeah, for the first year. I guarantee you, it starts like that and then quickly becomes most of the year. They get excited about the new place and the new people, and then pretty soon they are just here from May through August, and then it doesn’t make financial sense to keep a permanent place here when they’re gone eight months a year, and then it’s bye-bye.”
It’s sad to imagine, but it rings true. A lot of Mom and Aunt Claire’s friends are now spending the majority of their time in Florida and Arizona; they’ve sold their Chicago places and just stay with their kids and friends when they come visit.
“Well, when that happens, I’ll figure it out. But there’s no rush, he hasn’t even closed yet!”
“I’m just saying, you should keep your ear to the ground, keep your options open, right?”
“Sure, I guess.”
“Okay, gotta go. I’ll text you from Cali.”
“Sounds good. Have a really great time, Lynne.”
“You know it!”
I hang up just as my phone rings again. I’m terribly popular today. “Hello?”
“Dinner at Jon Favreau’s house!!!” Teresa screams in my ear.
“I know, T, it’s pretty cool.”
“Did you see Chef? That man can cook.”
I laugh. Chef is a guilty-pleasure movie—I’ve seen it a dozen times and it never gets old. Probably because it is one of those happy food movies that seems to understand how we really think. Plus, he did all his own cooking, and the man has legit knife skills. I fully appreciate that kind of commitment. “Of course I have. I own it on DVD.”
“Lucky girl. I hope she gets lots of pictures.”
“I’m sure there will be plenty of documentation.”
“Guess what?”
“What?”
“I took my girlfriends from church to that Ethiopian place you recommended.”
“Demera? How was it?”
“Amazing! I ordered all the stuff you said to, and it was delicious. All the girls were so impressed, and eating with our hands was strangely fun. I really like that injera bread; it was more sour than I thought it would be at first, but kind of addictive.”
“That is really cool, T, I’m proud of you.”
“What else is going on with you?”
I fill her in on Lawrence’s news.
“That is so great! Good for him. Ooh! When he is out of town, we should use your free time to hang out! Go explore more food places, and cook together, maybe make some dinners together for all of us.”
I laugh. “Sure, Teresa, that sounds fun.”
She fills me in on Gio and the boys. And then pauses. “Did Lynne talk to you about meeting her new guy?”
“She did.”
“Are you okay with it?”
“Yeah, I get it. I’d probably do it differently, but let’s be honest, what don’t Lynne and I do differently?”
“That is true. But I’m glad you’re cool about it.”
“It’s a first meeting. And they’ll have a chance to connect at the party. If it becomes a thing after that, then we’ll have to figure it out, but for this one time, I’m going to go with the flow.”
I hear a crash in the background. “Crap. My beasts are up to something. I’ll talk to you later.”
I hang up and head over to the counter to pack up the blondies in a Rubbermaid tub, leaving a couple behind for Shawn and me for later. I’ll take the rest to the Farbers tomorrow. I think Brad especially is going to love them; he’s much less of a chocolate guy than the rest of his family.
While I’m layering them between waxed paper, I think about the three of us, and everyone’s reaction to Lawrence’s news as it relates to me and my life. Lynne immediately saw career improvement potential. Teresa immediately saw an opportunity for more quality time with friends. And me? I didn’t really see anything much at all. It makes me wonder. The whole point of the bet was to shake us up, to light some fires, and it has worked in a lot of ways. But can you really teach an old dog that many new tricks? It’s strange—when I realized that I would have some extra time on my hands, I didn’t think that I could take more art classes or meet new people or have more time for exercise. I certainly didn’t think that it would give me time to work on cookbook stuff. I didn’t imagine anything like what either Lynne or Teresa imagined. Deep down, now that I have a chance to think about it, I wonder how I will handle it when it actually comes. And while I’m not making any real plans until it happens, a part of me hopes that I figure out how to use it in some way that embraces the person that I’m trying to be, even though I clearly still have a ways to go.
Twenty-three
SHAWN IS THE BEST!” Geneva yells, arms in the air, head thrown back. She’s wearing a Cubs sweatshirt with the logo in pink sparkles and has chocolate all over her face.
“Yeah, thanks, Shawn, that was awesome,” Ian says.
“Totally cool,” Darcy says sheepishly.
“Rock star,” Robbie says, reaching up for a high five, unable to actually connect with Shawn’s hand until he lowers it halfway with a wink.
“Shawn, you’ve ruined my kids,” Brad says, grinning. Shawn, having recently patched up an expensive rookie’s ACL, took all of us to the game in a skybox, complete with being able to go onto the field after batting practice to meet and get signatures from the players, many of whom were on the World Series Championship team in 2016. The highlight for the kids was getting to play round-robin catch with Jake Arrieta, and Joe Maddon coming over to coach them up while they did it. Ian had made a huge batch of homemade granola bars, packed with all sorts of high-protein ingredients, that he was able to take into the dugout, and the guys made them disappear in short order, all of them praising his skill and saying that if they won today, they would call them Ian’s Secret Weapon Bars and he’d have to make more of them for tough games. He was beaming, and told them all about getting onto the show, and they said they would be rooting for him and watching the show for sure.
“Yeah, thanks a lot, buddy, how do parents top this?” Shelby beams at him.
“It was my pleasure, nothing better than a beautiful day at Wrigley, complete with a win! But yeah, you guys are screwed, because I’m going to do this to them for the Bulls, Bears, and Blackhawks later this season.”
“WE LOVE SHAWN!” Geneva screams, hopped up on sugar and her own brand of almost-five-year-old mania. She spent at least four innings sitting in Shawn’s lap and having serious conversations with him about anything and everything. Watching him with the kids melted my heart. He’s a natural with all of them. I heard him talking to Robbie about colleges and telling Darcy about being a percussionist in the band in elementary school and how sad he was that he had to choose between football and music in high school. He confessed to her that, while he was really great at football, he was an enthusiastic but terrible drummer.
“I love you guys too. You made it a really fun day, so thanks for coming. Eloise and I would have been very lonely in that big box by ourselves.”