by Wendy Chen
I’ll go with you.
She looked at her work calendar. It would take some juggling, but there wasn’t anything she couldn’t reschedule.
Adam’s text came in:
Are you sure? You’d need to leave by 5 to catch flight.
She responded without hesitation:
As long as you can pack for me.
Kate told her assistant that she’d be leaving early and would be gone for a couple of days for a family emergency. For the rest of the afternoon, Kate was a model of efficiency, returning calls, managing meetings through phone or web. It was an odd feeling for her, to have something come up outside of work. For a moment she felt guilty, but then she told herself that it was no different than the times colleagues had to attend to a suddenly sick child. All the same, she resolved to show more sympathy to Rachel.
The only crinkle in her plan was when the boss came striding down the hall at around 4:30, telling the managers to gather in the conference room for a “brainstorming” to kick off the week. Kate was in the middle of another conference call that she was trying to jam in before 5:00, and there was no way she could pop in to the boss’s meeting for just a few minutes and then excuse herself. There wasn’t even enough time for her to be berated after telling the boss she couldn’t stay. So she did something she’d never done before. She left. When her call was over, she instructed her assistant to go to the conference room to tell the boss she had another meeting and that she would be out of town until Wednesday for a family emergency. All of it was true, Kate reminded herself, and forced herself to ignore the rising lump in her chest as she raced toward the elevator.
When Kate got to her apartment, she saw their two bags packed and ready by the front door, and Adam had already scheduled a car to pick them up to take them to LaGuardia. She’d learned her lesson from the last time she hopped on a flight at the last minute and went to her bedroom to change into a pair of skinny black pants, a grey fitted T-shirt, and some wedge heeled pumps. She knew there was no need to check her bag to make sure all her necessities were packed, so she took the few minutes she had to brush out her hair. Updos didn’t travel well, and Adam seemed to like her hair down better, anyway.
In the car, Adam filled her in on his mother’s condition. She’d fallen on the steps after tripping over the grandkids’ Matchbox cars last week. She was lucky she’d only had a minor fracture in her left leg, but apparently there had been some complications during the healing process. Adam hadn’t even known about the incident until today, on the rare occasion when he decided to call her.
“I keep telling her she runs herself ragged taking care of my brothers’ kids every day. Five boys are too much for her at her age, and they’re spoiled rotten. I offered to hire someone to help her, but she just says, ‘I raised five boys once, I can do it again.’” Adam shook his head in frustration. “I think she would take the help if not for my dad and his damn pride. This shouldn’t have happened,” Adam said angrily.
“So you’re going there to check up on things?”
“Basically, yeah. I can’t tell if things are worse than she’s letting on or what. It doesn’t sound like she can walk at all yet, and I can’t imagine my father’s too happy about that.”
“How long has it been since you’ve been there?”
“Two-and-a-half years,” he said sadly, with a deep sigh. Adam took her hand then and gave it a soft squeeze. “I’m glad you’re coming with me.”
“Me too,” Kate said. She kissed him lightly on the lips, and any hesitation she felt about leaving work was gone.
It felt a bit surreal to be driving through Ypsilanti with Kate, on their way to his house, his parents’ house. As they pulled up to the house, Adam had to take a few breaths before he could get out of the car. It hadn’t been an unhappy childhood exactly, just a misunderstood one of his father’s version of tough love. He squeezed Kate’s hand again, feeling none of the nerves he felt when he’d brought Claudia here. It had been the first and only time she’d met his family, and it had been the last time he’d been here—all at Claudia’s insistence. The house was a modest three-bedroom split-level, which was the perfect size for empty nesters, but growing up with four brothers, it never felt big enough.
Even so, Adam was amazed at how small it felt now, as he and Kate stood in the threshold of the front door while his mother kissed them hello and remarked about how gorgeous Kate was, even though she was all skin and bones. He tried to contain his anger at the fact that his mother answered the door, hobbling on a rolling walker, while his father was in the exact same position Adam remembered while growing up—slouched on the old leather couch with his feet up in front of the television. His dad did get up at least to greet them when he noticed Kate.
“Good to see you with a nice, local girl, son,” he said gruffly, looking at Kate. His father turned to him with a look that passed as warmth for John Ward. “I don’t remember you being so tall, kiddo,” he said. “Still scrawny though, eh? Not like your pop here, with the old Ward belly,” he laughed, patting his stomach that now hung over the waist of his faded corduroys. His dad pat him on the back. “It’s good to see you.” Then to his mother, he barked, “Mary, get the kids something to eat. They’ve come all this way.” Adam cringed.
“No, no, please don’t get up,” Kate said to his mother. “We’re fine actually, we grabbed something on the way.” His mother protested and his father just frowned until finally they were placated when Kate and Adam brought over some cookies and glasses of water and brought them to the kitchen table to sit with his mother while his father resumed his position on the couch.
Adam wanted to get the full story from his mother, but she was clearly too distracted, apologizing for the mess, for not having the tea kettle on. “The girls come over to help sometimes, but you know how it is, it’s not their house.” Adam looked around and noticed that there was more than just the usual comfortable clutter of knickknacks that he had grown up with. There were empty cookie and cracker wrappers lying on every surface, the sink was full of dirty dishes that looked like they’d been there for days. The trash hadn’t been taken out, and there was a small stack of pizza boxes next to it. The worst, in Adam’s view, was the slew of toys all over the floor, including those damn metal cars belonging to his nephews.
Kate, thank goodness, had noticed as well, and was quietly throwing out trash into a plastic bag that had been lying around. “The kids are old enough to pick up after themselves,” Adam said tersely.
“Oh, you know how boys are, so busy running around. They’re just like you when you were young.” She chuckled. “Well, maybe not you, but just like your brothers.”
“Let me get you someone to help out with the house, to do the dishes, vacuum …” His mother glanced at his father, who was still fixated on the television.
“Oh, you know your father doesn’t like strangers in the house.”
“Then get my brothers to help you. It’s their kids you take care of—they can at least pitch in.” Adam’s voice was louder than he meant it to be. “For God’s sake, Ma, you’ve gotta get off your feet—”
His father got up then and stood over him. “Listen here, hot shot, we all work around here. I work, your brothers work, their wives work, and we work hard. We all have our jobs to do and your ma takes care of the kids and the house, just like she did when she took care of you boys.”
“Just let me get her some help, just for a while until her leg heals.”
His mother looked away as his father turned red with anger. “You don’t come into my house and think you’re going to throw your money around. I’ve taken care of my family for a long time, in case you forget.”
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Adam said, looking at the table. He was grateful Kate had moved on to the dishes and hopefully couldn’t hear him being reduced to a teenaged boy again.
“Good,” his father said and turned to go back to the television. “Now have a nice visit and don
’t upset your mother anymore.” As if to prove a point, he said, “Mary, I need another can of pop, please.”
Heat rose into Adam’s face, and he covered his mother’s hand with his to keep her at the table. “He can get it himself,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Don’t get his back up, Addy.” Don’t get his back up, don’t press his buttons, he’s just tired, he works so hard. The myriad of his mother’s excuses came flooding back, and Adam felt his temper flare.
Then Kate was next to him, pushing a can of pop into his free hand. He looked up at her and she shook her head at him. She was right. His father was not going to change. He took a breath and took the can of soda from her. He set it none too gently on the coffee table in front of his father without a word.
“Maybe you should come and help your mother out.”
Adam felt his face flush with guilt and was glad his back was turned against his father. It really had been too long since his last visit, and the only reason he came at all was for his mother. He spent a few more minutes chatting with her, until she all but shooed them out the door, telling him his brothers would be there soon and it was more ruckus than she could handle already. She smiled when she said it, and he knew she loved “the ruckus” on a normal day. But she also knew there was no love lost between him and any of his brothers, so he didn’t even ask which ones were coming or if he should stay to see them.
He and Kate said their good-byes and stepped outside. Already he could breathe easier, feeling the tension leave his shoulders—until a minivan pulled up to park in front of their rental.
“Runt! Hey, Runt, is that you, buddy?”
Through clenched teeth, Adam responded, “Hey, Mike,” as his oldest brother got out of the driver side of the van. “Hi, Rose,” he said to his sister-in-law as she struggled to carry a large pizza box, a six-pack of soda cans, and to open the back doors to let out their kids, all boys, aged four to eight. His brother caught him in a bear hug, giving him a noogie while he was at it, even though he had to reach up a little to do it now.
“Is that Katie?” his brother said, releasing him. “You grew up all right, didn’t you?”
Kate just gave him a tight smile, and Adam excused the both of them, eager to just get back in the car and drive away.
A few minutes later, when they’d both had a chance to breathe easier, Kate said, “I’m sorry that didn’t go that well.”
Adam just shrugged. “I got what I needed. Michigan’s playing Ohio State on Saturday. The house will be empty except for Mom. That’s plenty of time to get some people in to clean the house and deliver some groceries.”
“Your dad won’t know? And your mom won’t mind keeping it from him?”
“My dad doesn’t know a lot of things. I paid off their mortgage, got the car fixed.” Adam smiled. “I was on the math team, not the swim team.”
“Really?! He never knew that?”
Adam shook his head. “Or he was in denial. My mother let me be who I wanted, she just didn’t want me to make waves. It was brilliant, really. Dad was OK with any sport I was willing to take up, but swimming’s not something he’d ever want to watch, so we didn’t have to worry that he’d turn up at a meet or anything.”
“Your mom is really something,” Kate said softly.
“Yeah, I know.”
Kate got dressed in their hotel room with a heavy heart the next morning, as she prepared for their visit with her dad. He’d been a great father growing up, packing her lunches with happy faces on the brown bag, driving her from one extracurricular activity to another, helping her with projects when she needed it. The kind of involved dad that few kids she knew had back then. But since the divorce, he’d become a shell of that man, and it had become tiresome to be his amateur life coach—tiresome until time and distance made their relationship more like distant relatives than father and daughter.
She wasn’t even sure if he knew she was “engaged,” whether or not it was something Linda would have mentioned to him. She decided she wouldn’t bring it up today, a little afraid that he would sense that something was amiss, that he would probe with his keen writer’s sense that there might be more to the story than she was willing to divulge to him.
From the way her dad grinned at her and Adam as they slid into the diner booth across from him, it was obvious that he was glad to see them both and obvious that mentioning an engagement with another man would have confused him. Kate took great pains not to touch Adam, not to twine her fingers with his or put her hand on his thigh as it seemed so natural to do. But from the way Henry Wallace kept looking from her face to Adam’s and back again, she knew this man still knew her as well as he did when she was thirteen, when she came home from a party where they played spin the bottle and experienced her first kiss. Her dad would never embarrass her by asking if they were dating, he would wait her out until she was ready to tell him for herself. But Kate wasn’t thirteen years old anymore, and she wasn’t ready yet to put this thing with Adam, whatever it was, into words for anyone.
She kept the conversation to small talk, and Dad thankfully followed her lead. “How’s your mother?” he asked then. “Are you seeing her on this trip?”
Kate shook her head. Dad just nodded and said nothing. “It was an unexpected trip and she’s just started the semester—” she trailed off, knowing the excuses sounded hollow, realizing her dad needed no explanation, that he had made those very same excuses to Kate for years. She missed him, she realized. But she didn’t miss seeing the cloud of sadness that still lingered around him, a sadness that had nothing to do with his age.
Before long, it was time for her and Adam to leave for their flight. She was surprised when her dad pulled her in for a hug as he walked them out to their car. “Adam’s always been good for you, Katie girl,” he said into her ear. Before she could respond, he’d tugged on her ponytail and said “Have a good trip back” to the both of them. She didn’t even mind that he’d mussed her hair in the process.
Chapter 22
Kate went straight to work from the airport, even though most of the day was gone. She’d brushed out her hair and put on makeup in the cab and again praised the benefits of black sheath dresses for hiding wrinkles. She walked quickly into her office and turned on the lights, as if she’d just returned from a particularly long meeting. But as she started up her computer and checked her voicemail, her assistant clung to her doorframe. “He wants to see you,” she said. Kate took a deep breath. This doesn’t mean anything. She nodded and absentmindedly listened to her voicemail as she gathered herself together.
The boss kept his office ten degrees colder than the rest, with intentionally uncomfortable chairs facing his desk. He kept Kate waiting, of course, while he stared at his computer for a few moments, playing a crossword or Sudoku, Kate mused. Fruit ninja? He was going to ask her about a client, just to see if she was still on top of things after her time away from the office. No problem, she’d been checking her email and voicemail while she was gone.
“Bed hair,” he barked.
“Excuse me?”
“Thought you might wait until after the wedding before trying for a kid, but I suppose at your age—”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“You think I haven’t noticed, Kate, how well put together, how professional you are? Or had been. I notice that you’ve been putting in the effort, all buttoned-up, here, with clients. You’ve gotten serious about your clients, serious about your life. You have a successful career ahead of you.” He sat back in his chair and waved a pencil in the air. “Or had one. I gave you some leeway, Kate. I looked the other way a few times when you headed out the door early, missed a few meetings. Your fiancé’s connections might be very important to this firm. But what you’re doing now—coming in with bed hair or not at all—I’d hate to see you go down that road all of a sudden.”
Kate felt the heat rise to her cheeks. Anger, resentment, and admittedly a to
uch of embarrassment because a few days ago, she really wouldn’t have been caught dead coming in to work with her hair down and mussed. She clenched her teeth and tried to keep her tone even. Professional. “I haven’t missed a day of work in years. Not for holidays, not for sick days, not for anything.” Her voice became steely, with barely concealed anger. “I cover for anyone else—everyone else—who needs time off—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Katie girl. Don’t get so defensive.” He gave her that smile, that I’m-on-your-side grin that the inexperienced fell for. “You’re doing a great job. I just see the warning signs, that’s all—”
“Warning signs? I had a family emergency. The only time I have ever had a family emergency.”
He put his hands up, as if to surrender, his body language still all smiles and welcome. “We’re a little family here, too, you know. I just want to see you succeed! You’re almost a senior VP, you’re so close. You’ve been so focused and now you’re distracted. I’m just giving a little one-on-one advice—don’t throw it away with this behavior.” He gave her another smile and then looked past her. “My next meeting is here, Kate. We’ll talk more later if you need to. I’m here for you, all right?”
Kate turned to leave, too much in shock over what had just happened, unable to look Rachel in the eye as she walked past, wondering how much the other woman had heard.
It was unbelievable. It was unprofessional. It was true.
Kate had turned off her iPhone. It had killed her, hearing text messages coming in and knowing they were from Adam, so she had silenced it and stuck it in her bag. She still seethed at the unfairness of getting called onto the mat for her behavior over the past few days, when she had spent years building up a reputation for reliability and hard work. She stared at her computer monitor blankly, trying to keep her breathing even, swallowing the professional humiliation she felt. It angered her even more that this jerk had this kind of power, to put a halt to everything she’d been working for. She was so focused on her anger, she almost didn’t see Rachel in her doorway.
