Page 47 of Leo
“I did!And she agreed that prioritizing Edward’s needs was key to healthy bonding and development!”
“And she told you that also meant not having a life of your own?Just existing as his caregiver and a business owner with nothing in between?”Mike clicked his tongue.“That’s a pretty bad therapist, man.”
“She didn’t say that.She said that I was right to prioritize Edward!”
“And that’s when you stopped listening, isn’t it?”Naomi chided.
Very conscious of Edward just feet away, likely eavesdropping as he tended to do, I lowered my voice and bit back hard on my urge to tell my best friends to fuck off.“I’m not discussing my therapy with you two, alright?I love you both, and you’re family to me and Edward, but there’s some things that aren’t your business and how I decide to handle my romantic life or lack thereof is one of them.”
Naomi recoiled, but her expression was one of pity more than offense.“Leo, I’m sorry we’re pushing but—”
“But,” Mike cut her off gently, “we’re butting out.You think this is what’s best for you?Okay.”
Naomi narrowed her eyes at him but then, reluctantly, nodded.“Right.You’re making your choices.That’s… fine.Well.Alright then.Are we still on for dinner next Thursday?I think it’s your turn to host.”
I nodded slowly.“Yeah.Uh, I was thinking chicken pot pie.”
“Yum,” Naomi said through a clench-tooth smile.“Hey, Leslie’s got her first official softball game next Saturday.”
I felt disoriented, falling down some rabbit hole between an impassioned argument with my best friends and into TV sitcom land where we all made banal conversation and thought everything wasgreat, fantastic, wow.“Oh, great!She made the team!”
Mike nodded, stepping aside to let Edward barrel through with his handful of printouts about beetle food and, no doubt, the best ways to train the damn things to do tricks.By the end of the month, he’d likely have created a tiny beetle circus in the bathroom sink.“Dad, can you ask Ambrose if I can show Bethany these cool beetle facts?I found some I didn’t know yet!And Aunt Gnome, did you find my beetles?”
Naomi’s narrow-eyed, grim-grinning expression fell like a soufflé in the oven, and she crouched down to draw Edward into a hug.“Sorry, kiddo.I guess they’re hiding from me.Maybe when you come over after school on Tuesday, you can convince them to come out and see you again.”
Edward frowned.“I guess.Don’t get scared if you see them, though.Promise?”
She nodded solemnly, accepting his pinky for the most serious of promises.“Don’t get scared of something I don’t know.Got it.”
I made a face over Edward’s head at her as he gathered his duffle bag of fidgets and toys and books.“Subtlety, thy name is Naomi.”
She winked, rising to her full height from her crouch.“I saw my moment and seized it.Which I’d absolutely tell you to do if I were giving advice but I’m not so,” she shrugged.“Make of it what you will.”
Edward shot her a frowning glance before holding up his arms for me to lift him up.“Why are you guys being so weird?”
“Grown-up stuff,” I said.“Once you hit thirty, you start getting progressively weirder.”
Edward made a thoughtful face as I moved aside to let Mike open the door for us.“I think that’s wasting a lot of time,” Edward announced.“Start being weird sooner so it’s easier.”
Naomi’s cackle followed us to my car.
CHAPTER16
AMBROSE
The videos were still goingstrong.It had been a weird few weeks since the first one went viral, leading to the rest being ‘discovered.’Now, Bethany had recorded me making several different recipes and had a plan for releasing one video every Tuesday (why Tuesday?No idea.But she was adamant it would do something with an algorithm or, I don’t know, the magical elves that made things go viral online).A few media outlets had reached out to ask me some very repetitive questions about the bakery—how I chose my recipes, why did I become a baker.After the first three eerily similar interviews in a row, Ira gingerly suggested I let him ‘improve’ the shop’s web page and spruce up the social media presence, adding in an FAQ page on the site and setting up some regular posts on Facebook and Twitter.He and Bethany had some discussion about Tumblr that made me panic for a moment but they decided the bakery’s presence on that platform was going to need to be ‘organic’ so it didn’t seem ‘try hard.’
God, I’m old.
Ira had disappeared into my office one Tuesday morning while I was doing the daily bakes, reappearing a few hours later looking rumpled, tired, but pleased with himself.“I’ve done it.”He sighed.“Nice Buns has an official online presence that doesn’t look like it’s on a Geocities site circa 2001.”
“Um…”
“That’s a good thing,” he assured me, muffling a yawn.“I even added a storefront for those shirts and mugs Bethany’s designing.”
“Oh!Thank you?”I glanced at Bethany.“I didn’t know you were going to redesign the whole thing.”
Ira yawned, giving me a wave.“No big.It was past time.I’m gonna go home and crash till it’s time for the Patterson delivery at four.”
