“Okay, let’s go.” As Dominique walked to the car, she texted one of the editors to ask about the article on being fat, fit, and fabulous. I wonder if we’ve heard back from Sean Combs’s people about buying the back page. She sent off a quick text to the advertising manager as well.

All the while Dominique clicked BlackBerry keys, her son continued to prattle. “Did you hear me, Mom? We got a new coach! And he is so cool. He’s big and tall and can run really fast, and he used to be a professional football player like for real though, Mom, like in the NFL. He played for the Oakland Raiders, Mom. The Raiders... my favorite team! Mom!”

“Justin! What?” Dominique buckled her seatbelt, put the car in drive, and headed for the fast-food-lined boulevard less than ten minutes from her comfortable San Fernando Valley home.

“We got a new coach!”

“That’s good, baby,” Dominique said, reaching to click the hands-free and answer her ringing cell phone. “Hello?”

“He hasn’t called! I waited all day, just knowing that he would have left a baby-I-made-a-big-mistake message on my home phone. And that bastard didn’t call, Miss Dom.” Reggie fairly screeched the nickname he almost always used to address his boss. “He didn’t call!”

“Reggie, you have got to calm down!” Dominique ordered in a quiet but firm voice. It was clear that her assistant, Reginald Williams, was no better now than before what she thought had been a successfully calming talk. “If a man can walk away from you, let him leave,” she’d admonished. Now, here was Reggie in a Boyz II Men moment making it so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

“You’re only upsetting yourself while the man who can’t see your value and is therefore unworthy is off playing kissy face with some new dude.” Reggie’s cries began in earnest. Okay, that probably wasn’t the best thing to say.

“Mom, you passed the McDonald’s!” Justin cried.

I don’t have time for two kids right now! Yet many times that’s how Dominique felt when it came to her and Reggie’s relationship, that she was the mother he never really had. She made a right, did a quick U-turn and headed back to the Golden Arches.