Page 9 of Omega Dragon Manny
“Hey, so I have to leave now, and we’re gonna have to figure out how to make everything work with the Stanson meeting.” Two days ago, if you told me I was going to walk out and leave everything in the hands of Leroy, I’d have thought you lost your mind. Now? Now it was the only choice I could make. That one message changed something in me.
“Uh…yeah, I guess,” he stammered. “There’s a lot to do.”
“Do I just randomly leave because I want to go get ice cream or pick up the latest new release at the bookstore?”
“No, Clark.” The words were so quiet, I second-guessed I was hearing them.
“I’m needed at home. And the truth is, I’m going to need to be home a lot. I’ll tell Victoria my plans, but I needed you to know first so you could be prepared for when she calls you into her office.”
Leroy didn’t handle surprises well.
“I’m going to be doing half days in the office, and then I’ll be working from home for the second half.”
“Next week? That’s the meeting.”
I braced myself for the freakout that was to come with what I said next. “At least for the next month.”
He choked, which was better than the scream I had anticipated.
“Then we’ll revisit my schedule. But the truth is, I’m needed there.”
“Oh, I thought you meant for the day when you called, and maybe a week. Are you like…serious? You plan to do that?”
“Yeah. I plan to do that. This is what I need to do. It’s not like I’m going on a cruise.”
He let out a deep breath and told me he’d do his best, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to do it as well as me. And maybe that was true, but at this moment, it wasn’t on the top of my list of things to care about.
Then I went to see Victoria, the president and the person who’d hired me.
“You got a minute?” I stood in her doorway.
“Sure, come in. Everything ready for next week?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” She indicated the chair in front of her desk, and I told her about everything I was going through and how I either needed to take leave or do hybrid remote work for a while. I wasn’t sure which option I washoping she took, but wasn’t surprised when she said hybrid was acceptable—ish.
“You understand this takes you off track for your goals,” she said, leaning back in her chair.
There had been a time when that would have been devastating to me. Not making partner, not climbing the ladder and gaining more power and status each year would’ve crushed me.
But when she said it, I felt none of that.
“I understand,” was my only reply.
My priorities had shifted. It was no longer a race to the top or a race to retire. It was a race to be present for the people in my life who needed me.
And for the first time, I felt like I was heading in the right direction.
9
BEAU
This week had been rough. Really rough, not only on me, but also on my dragon. It wasn’t even that the kids were a handful. I mean they were, but that was par for the course for triplets.
The kids and I had gotten into a great routine. If I only looked at that part of my life, everything was amazing. The weather had been gorgeous, and we’d spent a lot of the morning at the park with Sally and Noah and their charges. The coffee house was currently featuring one of my favorite roasts, and the weekend was nearly here.
But there was one thing missing, and that was Clark.
I didn’t know him before I worked for him, but if this was what his life used to look like, then I felt sorry for him. He was all work. And even when he was home, his mind was at work, not that I saw him much. Three of the days, he came home after I was already in bed and was gone when I woke up. The only reason I knew that he had been there at all was because he ate the food I left. He’d leave a little thank-you sticky note, and that was it.
