by J. P. Comeau
I giggled. “Well, Mr. Cataline, remind me to get some food before this coffee goes right to my head.”
And without another word spoken, he dropped a sandwich as well as a cinnamon bun directly in front of me. “You’re welcome,” he said as he made his way for his office.”
My jaw dropped open. “But—why—how—where were you keeping this when we were talking?”
As my stomach rumbled with a need to be fed, I leaned back in my office chair. I had been with the PR firm for a month now, and things were going splendidly. Trey had finally warmed up to my presence. I had finally memorized all of the transfer numbers, so answering phone calls while I was typing away on my keyboard was no longer an issue. And as much as I knew people were talking, Trey and I made it a frequent habit to share lunch in his office. Not to mention, he smiled more, which accented his breathtaking brown eyes.
Get back to work, beautiful. Can’t daydream during work hours.
I pinched off a small sliver of my sandwich and tossed it into my mouth. I refreshed my computer screen, ready to go over my schedule as well as Trey’s before I started making any necessary changes. I quickly figured out that he was terrible at double-booking his time, which left me with messes to clean up and cursing to field whenever I called on his behalf to change something.
However, when the screen popped up, I noticed a change in the schedule. A change that was highlighted in pink for my viewing pleasure.
“Another business dinner,” I whispered to myself.
The fourth one in as many weeks.
I pulled out my phone and quickly texted Suri, making sure she could stay late to babysit. I hoped and I prayed as I watched her typing back that she could watch Rori for me. But, when her text message rolled through, it harbored the one word that destroyed my hopes for the evening.
So, I declined the invitation to dinner on our calendar before quickly shooting an email to Trey.
Hey,
Suri can’t babysit late tonight. I have to head home right after work and take care of Aurora. Maybe we can make something happen Friday evening?
Leslie
I wasn’t sure what I expected after I sent that email. A bit of kickback, possibly. Trey attempting to hire me a last-minute babysitter, most definitely. But, what actually happened still leaves me shocked every time I think about it.
Mostly because I knew deep down that it was a turning point for him and me.
“Why don’t you just bring her?” he asked.
I looked up slowly from my desk and found Trey standing in the doorway of his office. “What?” I blinked. “You want me to bring my daughter to dinner.”
He shrugged. “Sure. Is that a problem?”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “It’s just—our dinners usually aren’t simply… well, you know.”
He grinned. “Leslie, are you insinuating something debaucherous and uncouth of me?”
My face fell. “Possibly.”
He slid his hands into his pockets. “Look, we need this dinner to hash things out for our upcoming Hawaii extravaganza. It’s only two weeks away, and we don’t have time to do it in the office.”
Disappointment filled my gut. “This is a growing truth.”
“So, bring Aurora. She won’t be an issue, and we can get the talking out of the way over appetizers if you feel she’s going to be a distraction.”
I was hoping we’d have more time to do things other than talk, but it also sounded like we needed this time to be strictly professional anyway. So, after taking in some deep breaths, I nodded.
“Yeah, yeah. Sure, I’ll bring Aurora. Just let me know where we’re going for dinner and what time to be there.”
Trey nodded. “Excellent. I’ll let you know.”
Then, he disappeared into his office, as if the man who had become my only source of stress-relief suddenly meeting my daughter wasn’t such a big deal.
“Shit,” I hissed beneath my breathing.
“So, Aurora. I take it you enjoy coloring?” Trey asked.
My daughter nodded as she reached for something in her glitter backpack. “I wanna be an artist someday.”
Trey grinned. “Taking after your mother?”
My daughter looked up at him. “Huh?”
Trey cast me a look. “Your mother paints and sculpts. That’s what I meant.”
Aurora gasped. “You do, Mom? Where’s your stuff? I never see you do it! Why do you get to paint in the house and I don’t?”
Trey blinked. “Oops.”
I sighed and reached for my daughter’s hand. “Rori, we can talk about it later, all right?”
“But, Mom. If you get to paint inside—”
I cut her off quickly. “I don’t. I haven’t in many years, okay?”
I felt Trey staring at me as Aurora leaned back in her chair.
“Okay.”
I patted her knee. “Right.”
I tossed Trey a look and knew I’d hear about this later. But, for some reason, Aurora didn’t want to engage him in conversation. Usually, she was the first to speak and the last to have a word. Yet, she didn’t communicate until either Trey or I addressed her directly.
“Sweetheart?”
“Hmmm?” she hummed between bites of her soup.
“Mr. Trey asked you if you had a good day at school.”
Aurora swallowed hard. “Uh, yeah. It was good.”
Trey nodded. “What’s your favorite topic?”
Aurora shrugged but didn’t say anything, and it shocked me. Who was this girl, and what had she done with my daughter?
“Sweetheart,” I whispered, “he wants to talk with you.”
Trey held up his hand. “It’s all right. She’s uncomfortable, and I get what that’s like.”
That was news to me, though. “Rori?”
She looked sheepishly up at me. “Yeah?”
I took her hand in mine. “Why haven’t you told me you’re uncomfortable if you are?”
She shrugged softly. “I don’t know.”
I drew in a breath to say something, but Trey interjected, “Why doesn’t your mother let you paint in the house?”
I glared at him, but he simply ignored me as Aurora cocked her body slightly toward him. “She says I’ll make a mess.”
“Well, do you make a mess?”
“Sometimes.”
“And do you clean up that mess when you’re done?”
My eyebrows shot up as Rori sighed. “Not really.”
Trey nodded. “Then, that’s why your mother won’t let you paint inside. If you make the mess, shouldn’t you clean it up?”
My daughter clicked her tongue. “It’s not like she told me that, though! She just thinks I’m supposed to know things.”
I shook my head. “Honey, I’ve told you that several times.”
She folded her hands across her chest. “Well, not like he did.”
Trey chuckled. “Why do you want to listen to me instead of your mother? That seems a bit counter-intuitive.”
My daughter wrinkled her nose. “I dunno what that means.”
He grinned. “It means that you want something she can give you, but you aren’t listening to her when she tells you what you need to do in order to get it. It’s counter-intuitive to what you want to accomplish. What you want to get from her.”
“Oh.”
I stepped off my pedestal and watched as Rori talked with Trey more than she had ever spoken with me before. I mean, I felt like I was close to my daughter, but during those times that we butted heads, she usually shut down. I watched Trey talk freely with her as if they had been friends for years, and I learned scores of information about them both simply sitting there and listening to the two of them go back and forth with one another.
He's surprisingly good with kids.
He spoke with her in a very practical way. He didn’t dumb down his language to fit hers; if anything, he defined words she didn’t recognize and taught her while they talked. It was a sight to behold, and it m
ade me wonder if Trey had ever considered the idea of fatherhood. Because he’d make a pretty good one, from what I was witnessing.
“Hey, Mom?”
Rori’s voice pulled me from my trance. “Yeah?”
She looked up at me with little puppy dog eyes. “Why don’t you paint anymore? We could paint together, you know if you wanna.”
I felt Trey watching me like a hawk as I rubbed her knee beneath the table. “I just haven’t had time for it, honey. Raising you is a big job, and I still have to work a big-girl job, too. So, whenever I get some free time to myself, I just like to rest and relax, you know?”
Rori’s brow furrowed together. “What if I start making breakfast in the morning? Can we do some painting, then?”
I sighed. “Honey, it’s not that easy. It’s—”
“I could cook dinner if that helps. Then, we can paint something before we go to bed!”
It felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. “I promise it’s okay. We’ll find a way to get you painting inside again. Maybe we can paint the hallway walls or something, yeah?”
“But, Mom, I want you to paint with me.”
Trey’s voice sounded from across the table. “Just let me know what you guys need in terms of paints and brushes and easels, and I can have it shipped to wherever you need it.”
Rori pointed up to him. “See? Even he wants you to paint again. Come on, Mom. Please?”
I clicked my tongue. “Is it that important to you?”
Rori clapped her hands together. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”
I closed my eyes. “Then, I’ll talk with Mr. Trey and see what we can come up with, but no promises.”
She shot her hands into the air, her fingers balled into fists. “Yes! I knew she’d come around, Mr. Trey! You were right!”
He quirked an eyebrow. “And what did you have to do in order to get what you wanted?”
Rori’s head fell back. “Talk to her like an adult and not act like a child.”
Trey nodded. “Right. Remember that for next time, okay? It’ll save you and your mother a lot of time and heartache.”
I was stunned at how well he handled my daughter. Absolutely stunned. But what left me speechless was when they started cracking jokes with each other. Every time I tried to start in on the conversation about Hawaii coming up in a couple of weeks, Rori would interject with something that would make him chuckle. And then, he’d fire back at her with something that made her giggle as well. Before I knew it, our entire table was taken up by laughter instead of conversation, and the beauty of their intertwining sounds brought peace to my heart.
I’d never heard my daughter laugh like that with a stranger before.
And as I sat there, stunned in my seat, I gazed into Trey’s twinkling eyes as his smile ricocheted across his cheeks. He was a visually beautiful man, but his inner soul was even more stunning than I had once given him credit for.
Which fucked me over in more ways than I could count on my fingers and toes.
15
Trey
I stared at my phone, my eyes drinking in the numbers that made up my friend, Gavin’s, phone number. All night after dinner, I lay in bed, thinking about Leslie. All night, I wished for her to be at my side, intertwined with me while we made love against my soft, effervescent mattress. When I closed my eyes to sleep, I could’ve sworn I heard the life-giving laughter of Aurora as she rushed down the hallway toward us, ready to climb into bed and bounce around until the both of us woke up.
But, when I opened my eyes that next morning, I found myself alone. “I don’t want to be alone anymore,” I murmured.
As I fixed myself a morning coffee and sat at my empty kitchen table, my mind flew back to Gavin and his little family. I wondered how the weekend yacht trip they had taken together had turned out. I wondered if he and that beautiful woman on his arm were still together, trying to figure out how to fuse their lives in ways that I knew that man wanted for his life. And as I stared at my phone, polishing off the last of my second round of coffee, I finally dared to dial him up.
Before his voice came hopping through the phone. “Hey there, stranger! I can’t even remember the last time you called me. What’s up? Everything okay?”
I leaned back and closed my eyes. “I have a quick question for you.”
“Shoot.”
“That woman who was with you at the docks, she’s still with you, right?”
He chuckled. “You don’t even know the half of it. But, yeah, she’s still with me. Why?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Is your daughter fond of her?”
“Oh, they’re two peas in a fucking pod, let me tell you.”
Hope blossomed in my chest. “That’s great. I’m happy for you.”
“So… what’s on your mind?”
“I’d like to know what this woman of yours did to get in your daughter’s good graces?”
He paused. “I’m not following.”
“Like—I’m sure there was a way she bonded with Asia, you know?”
“Yeah, they just spent time together and clicked. There wasn’t anything special that happened.”
“So, there wasn’t, like, a toy she bought? Or a certain activity that brought the two of them closer?”
He clicked his tongue. “Why do you ask?”
I shrugged. “Just curious.”
“Curious enough to call me out of the blue for the first time in a months?”
I sighed. “Okay, maybe a bit more than curious.”
“Question, does this have anything to do with that short, demanding, headstrong secretary of yours that we briefly met at the docks?”
The hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end. “Why? What are you thinking?”
He barked with laughter. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
I scoffed. “See what day? This sounds halfway insulting, and I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know? Dude, is she the mother of this daughter you’re randomly talking about getting to know?”
I rolled my eyes. “That obvious?”
He cackled. “Man, you couldn’t be more obvious if that were the task at hand.”
I shook my head. “Fine. Sorry I asked.”
“No, no, no, no. Don’t hang up and do that defeatist thing you’re known for. That’s not going to get you anywhere with anyone. Now, what’s this secretary’s name?”
“Leslie.”
“Great. And her daughter?”
I chewed on my lower lip. “Aurora.”
“Beautiful name. Okay. So, you want to get in good with the daughter so you don’t fuck it up with her. Right?”
I nodded. “More or less.”
“Great. All right. So, with Asia? There were two things I needed for her that Eva provided right off the bat: stability and kindness.”
“So, I give that to Aurora and I’m in, right?”
He chuckled. “Not so fast. No two children are ever the same in what they need from someone who isn’t their biological parent. The bond is different, see? Asia knew she could trust me. Asia knew I’d be a staple in her life when I was there. But, she needed constant stability and kindness. You know, around-the-clock kind of thing.”
“You mean, Asia could always go to Eva and get those two things every time.”
“Bingo. Now you’re catching on. What you need to do is figure out what Aurora needs because that’s the only way you’re getting in with Leslie. If you are a good match for her daughter, she’ll be more open to making things work.”
It made sense. I’d be the same way if I were a father. Not that I’d ever be one, since I had already worked away my better years trying to build these fucking companies.
“Oh,” Gavin said quickly, “gotta go. I’m needed back on set. Do me a favor and call me tonight, will you? Say, around ten? We can talk more then.”
I nodded. “I can do that, sure.”
“Great
. We’ll talk this evening. And Trey?”
I licked my lips. “Yeah?”
“Don’t overthink it. Kids are easier than we give them credit for. They want love, they want to feel safe, and they want to feel accepted for who they are, even if who they are is always morphing.”
“Easy enough to remember. Just treat her like a person.”
I heard someone call for Gavin in the background, so I straightened my back. “Thanks for taking my call. You get back on set, and we’ll speak this evening.”
The smile was prevalent in his voice. “Wonderful. We’ll talk soon. And hey! Maybe we can get together for a drink soon, too. I miss our Wednesday whiskeys.”
I grinned. “Same.”
“Okay, I gotta go now. Talk soon!”
“Talk soon.”
I hung up the phone and immediately got myself a third cup of coffee. If I were going to come up with a foolproof plan on how to woo both Aurora and Leslie to my side of life, I had to make sure I was at peak capacity. After all, the two best women I’d ever met in my life deserved the best version of me they could get.
I simply hoped my plan worked.
I murmured to myself. “Leslie, before I ask you something, I want to make sure you know that you can turn me down at any point in time. I just thought this would be a fun thing for Aurora and myself to go do, and of course, you can come if you’d like.”
I rehearsed my lunchtime speech in the mirror before I shook my head.
“That still sounds like she doesn’t have a choice. Come on, Trey, you’ve talked to several women before. You can do this.”
I drew in a deep breath as my watch counted down the minutes until my lunch break. Leslie and I had plans to share a sub from the deli up the road and talk about some things that were on my mind. Specifically, I wanted to ask her if I could whisk Aurora away for an evening and take her to an art gallery upstate for its grand opening.
I thought it would be a good way for the two of us to bond so I could show Aurora that she wasn’t only safe with me but that we could also create good memories together.
I cleared my throat. “Leslie, I want to ask you something, but just know that you always have the power to turn it down at any point in time. Okay?”