Page 73 of Think Outside the Boss

It takes a moment, but then his face lights up as he gets the joke. We’ve been working on sarcasm and irony.

“Do you have any clever ideas for what Linda might want?” I ask him. “You were there just last night.”

His godmother had been my sister’s best friend, and after Jenny died, she’s stepped in as often as she can. Despite having two kids of her own, she’d helped me navigate the first few years of parenthood in a way that made her more god than godmother in my eyes.

Joshua takes a moment to think. “She complained about the dishwasher.”

“You want us to give Linda a new dishwasher? She’d love that.” As often as I can, I’ve tried to let Linda and her husband know I’m here to help just as much as they are with me.

I reach out and tug Joshua’s jacket back in place. It’s cold out. He lets me, despite hating how snugly it fits around his neck. “You’ll be in charge of what we buy her kids,” I tell him. “I’m delegating that to you.”

His smile is back. “Really?”

“Absolutely.” Well, within reason. But he knows better than me what they’d like, not to mention this Christmas shopping expedition should be fun. Another notch in my grand scheme of creating more holiday memories.

Jenny and I used to bake gingerbread cookies with Mom the night before Christmas. We’d race down the steps the next morning to the Christmas tree, one side of it decorated with our ornaments and the other side with Mom’s collectibles.

A pang of familiar guilt hits me. Joshua looks just as he always does, walking next to me with a bounce in his step. But he’s never known what it’s like to have a sibling or two parents. All he’ll remember of his childhood is me, and I’m not Jenny and Michael.

“Look!” Joshua says. “It’s the elephant lady!”

I’m so focused on him that I don’t notice who’s walking towards us until he points her out. Freddie’s coat is bundled tight around her body, a hat pulled low over her dark hair. Her feet are in giant boots, unlike anything I’ve seen her wear in the office. Gone are the sleek skirts and heels.

It’s a Saturday, and we live in the same neighborhood.

Her gaze drifts from mine to Joshua’s, and then a smile spreads on her face. “Hi there!”

“Hi,” he says back. “We’re out doing our Christmas shopping.”

Freddie makes a show of looking between the two of us. “But where are the bags?”

“We just left home,” I reply. Freddie’s eyes dance, not quite meeting mine. Redness starts to tinge her olive-toned cheeks. “How’re you doing?”

“Good. Great, I mean. I’ve spent the morning doing laundry.” Her gaze flicks from me to Joshua. “I was at the same conference as your dad this week.”

“In Boston?”

“Yes,” she says. “He spoke in front of several hundred people.”

Joshua turns to look up at me. “Really, Dad?”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“That’s pretty cool,” he says, with the air of someone who can make such judgements. “Did you do it too?”

Freddie shakes her head. “No, I don’t think I’d dare.”

“You would,” I interject. “I have no doubt you would.”

Her eyes return to mine, and there’s a question in them I can’t decipher. Not when she’d been the one to rush out of my hotel room in Boston as if we’d committed a sin. We haven’t spoken in the days since.

“We’re going to Tahiti for Christmas break,” Joshua tells her. “Dad’s taking me to swim with whales.”

“Really? That’s so exciting!”

“Yes, we’ve done a lot of research,” I say.

Joshua nods. “There should be humpback whales there this time of year, migrating from Antarctica. They stop in French…”

---