Stiffening, I was completely aware of what a douche it made me that my wife would even suggest such a thing. I was also slightly annoyed because fuck… not my fault Cannon’s financial division was falling apart this morning. I was half serious, half joking when I turned to her and said, “Might just have to do that, babe.”
She didn’t laugh, so the half-joke part certainly fell flat.
And just now, Lila asking to schedule time with me brought all of that back, along with the epic fail that encompasses Zacharias Easton and his poor attempts to be a good husband.
I don’t hesitant another moment; I just suck it up and dial.
She answers on the third ring, out of breath, sounding completely harried. However, her warm greeting reminds me how lucky I am.
“Hey stud, what’s up?” she says.
I can hear Jaime in the background yelling, “Boom, boom, boom.”
“I wanted to beg your forgiveness for rushing out this morning without being able talk,” I tell her truthfully, hoping I get bonus points for that. Then I throw on the piece de resistance. “Up for a romantic dinner out tonight? I can get Randall to come over and stay with the kids. I’ll leave work early; we’ll dress up, have some wine, and talk all night. I’ll even throw some dancing in if you’re—”
“Oh, honey… I’m sorry,” Moira butts in, and then her sound is muffled as she pulls away from the phone to yell, “Cannon… don’t you dare stick that in Jaime’s nose.”
But because my wife is the multi-tasker from hell, she immediately speaks directly back into the phone, picking up where she just left off. “I can’t… I was going to text you, but I got a call yesterday from Jeff—”
“Jeff?” I ask, completely confused.
“Yes, Jeff Parton… my new boss?” she says in exasperation, and I know I must have been given this information at some point, but I’ve forgotten it.
More guilt.
“Anyway,” she continues. “Senpace just got contracted for a huge research project on ancient Persia that they want me to handle, and they are assigning me an intern to help manage it. I’m going to head over to Emory this afternoon for interviews with some doctoral students. I’ve already texted Randall, and he’s going to come over to the house this afternoon to stay with the kids.”
I blink several times, trying to process what Moira is saying.
What I’m feeling.
Which is neglected. I mentally kick myself in the ass, because I have no fucking business feeling that way. I’m smart enough and man enough to admit that Moira is the only one that gets to feel that way right now.
So I man the fuck up.
“That’s great, honey,” I truthfully tell her. “I’m glad you’re going to have some help, particularly since this is part time.”
“I know, right?” she says with glee. “I was so relieved to hear that. If I can get someone really bright and focused, this should be a piece of cake to handle along with mommy duties.”
“You’re amazing,” I murmur. “You’re like Wonder Woman.”
If you thought I’d get a gushing reply of “aww shucks” and “self-deprecation” over my compliments, you don’t know Moira. Instead, she’s telling me, “I gotta go. Jaime just took the spoon away from Cannon and is trying to stick it in his nose right now. Love you, babe.”
Then she’s gone.
And I’m still feeling guilty as hell that I didn’t give my wife the time she needs, and I’m slightly unsettled that she has apparently moved on without me giving her what she deserves.
For once, I’m at home in the evening with the kids and Moira is not. She had texted Randall and me around five PM and said that interviews were still ongoing for the internship as there were several well-qualified candidates that wanted a shot at this. Apparently, Senpace is a hot-ticket company, and there were many potentials chomping at the bit to get their foot in the door.
So I stop for pizza and bring it home, where Randall and I eat it with the kids and discuss what a fuckwad Charlie Lascola is for leaving Cannon’s high and dry. Well, I’m the one that puts him in the fuckwad category, but Randall’s a bit more circumspect. While he acknowledges that it’s totally unprofessional at that level not to give some type of significant notice, pilfering of high-ranked people from other companies happens all the time. They’ll wave big dough at the prospect, lure them over, and hope to gain insight and intelligence that’s not protected by confidentiality agreements and non-competes.
After the kids go down, Randall and I sit in the living room and watch a re-run of the Pebble Beach Classic on the Golf Channel. Randall is the one who first introduced me to the sport when we’d come to visit him on holidays before we moved here. I really took to it, which was amazing seeing as how the only sport I had ever engaged in before was trying to shoot a howler monkey out of a jungle tree, and that wasn’t really sport… that was survival.