She grinned at me from behind the wheel and began to back us out.

“I adjusted the seat for you once we arrived at the airport.”

“I see,” I told her.

Briana said, “Are we gonna show him all of our favorite places, Mommy?”

Man, just hearing that little girl’s voice was sending chills up my spine.

“So, you hang out with your mother a lot, huh?” I turned from my seat and asked her.

“Yup. We go everywhere.”

She’s three years old! I kept telling myself. I hadn’t been around kids like that in years. My professional life was totally with adults. I didn’t even deal with a lot of women who had kids.

I looked at Michelle and placed my hand over hers on her wooden, Jaguar stick shift. And I nodded to her.

She looked me in my eyes again. She was surely a fine woman, but she had more business savvy than most women I knew. She had that don’t-bother-me-with-me-no-bullshit look that scared most of the men who liked her. Her eyes had calculation written all over them. The bank was a perfect place for her. And she looked very comfortable over the wheel of her Jaguar, too.

She kept a calm tone and said, “Let’s wait to make sure.”

She got what I was telling her. Briana was our daughter. I accepted it. But she was right, I couldn’t allow my emotions to get in the way of the process.

Figure It All Out

ONCE I GOT PAST the daughter part, I had to focus on dealing with the mother.

It was after ten o’clock Friday night when Michelle drove me back to the Sheraton Hotel downtown to drop me off. I had checked in earlier, and she had secured a nice suite for me. She was really treating me well. We enjoyed ourselves all over the city, with more to come on Saturday and Sunday.

“So, what time do we get started tomorrow?” I asked her. We sat in the car at the hotel’s entrance. Briana was sound asleep in her car seat after enjoying a late restaurant dinner with ice cream for dessert.

“We can do breakfast by nine, and then get over to the zoo early before it gets hot and crowded,” Michelle answered.

I had agreed to do everything they wanted once the day went well. If the day hadn’t gone well, I had the option to do fewer things. That was how Michelle had worked the plans out with me.

When it was time to climb out of the car, I just went ahead and did it. Any hesitation would have made things awkward. But I still wanted to talk to her about everything.

I reached my right hand up to my ear and said, “Call me in the room when you get in.”

She nodded. “Okay. And thanks again for agreeing to do this.”

She made it sound like it was a privilege. On one hand, the old me would have liked that. Michelle was acknowledging that my time was valuable. But on the other hand, it made it seem as if my time was too valuable to spend a fun weekend with my daughter. I had to deal with that, but it was too long of a conversation to have while standing outside of the car.