Halfway through the meal, one of them smiled at me.
“Your wife must have been thrilled when you negotiated Fridays.”
I turned toward Ben.
“Fridays?”
His face changed.
Outside the restaurant, I stopped.
“What did you negotiate?”
“One Friday off every month.”
“For Olive?”
He nodded.
“She said I always work on fun days.”
I looked at him.
“You remembered.”
“Of course.”
“Then remember something else.”
He waited.
“Next time you hear something like that from our daughter, tell me.”
“I will.”
“Don’t build an entire life around something I didn’t even know you were trying to fix.”
He nodded.
“I won’t.”
The next morning, I went out alone.
I toured a shared workspace.
I spoke to local vendors.
I looked at event spaces.
I called several of my clients.
I even handled a delivery problem from a sidewalk in a city I’d been prepared to hate.
And slowly, something happened.
