Chapter Three
Reed
I woke up the following morning wondering what on earth I was going to do without Linda. I’d called two friends that I thought might be able to help just for the day but both of them were too busy. It was only then that I realized that I didn’t have all that many friends to turn to, and my family was all spread out across the country. The only people that I could turn to for help would be my work colleagues, but they were just as busy as I was. And anyway, other than Warren, how many of them did I really know on a personal level?
When Trinity woke up, I handed her a big bowl of cereal in her favorite Nemo bowl and smiled sadly at her.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come home early last night. Work was so busy.”
“Work is always busy,” she said. “And we were supposed to write that letter to Blaire, remember? I asked Linda to help me, but she said she was too busy, too.”
I groaned. Thanks a lot, Linda.
“I’m sorry. Listen, my girl, I need to talk to you. Linda is not coming back here anymore. She has decided to move with her daughter, and she won’t be able to help us out anymore. She said I needed to tell you how much fun she had with you and how much she’s going to miss you. She said she will visit as often as she can.” That last part wasn’t true. Linda hadn’t said anything about visiting, but I was hoping to make Trinity feel a bit better.
She looked up and frowned. “She’s gone?”
“But she’ll visit. She said you were such a good girl to be around.”
“Okay.”
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes. She was nice, but she wasn’t my best friend. So, who is looking after me today? Am I going to school?”
“No, you are still on summer vacation now, remember?”
“Are you staying home with me?” she asked suddenly, her big eyes wide in excitement.
I shook my head. “No, my darling. I wish. But I have too much work to do today. But would you like to come to work with me? You can stay in my office while I do my work. But only if you promise to be very good and to do what I say.”
She jumped out of her seat and almost knocked her cereal bowl over in excitement. “Really, Dad? Really? I can come with you? I promise to be good. It will be so much fun.”
“I’m not sure how much fun it will be, but it’s the only thing that I can think of. You might have to come with me for a few days until I figure something out.”
“A few days! Can I bring Teddy with me?” she asked pointing at her stuffed teddy bear.
I smiled. “Of course you can. Will he be a good bear?”
She chuckled. “He’ll be so good. I promise you.”
“Then he can definitely come along.”
“Can we go now?”
“We can go once you’ve finished your cereal,” I said and then tried not to laugh as she basically shoveled the cereal down her throat. I had no idea why she was so excited to come with me to work. She had no idea how boring it was going to be. I wasn’t even sure how I was going to keep her occupied for an entire day. As a six-year-old girl, she wasn’t exactly known for her large attention span.
When we got to work, I took Trinity to my office and tried to find something for her to do. For the first half hour, I took her around to the nurses’ station to introduce her to some of the staff members that had heard so much about her.
“You’re so pretty,” one of the nurses said to her.
Trinity beamed. “I am?”
“Of course you are. You’re beautiful. Are you spending the day with Daddy today?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “Oh yes. I’m going to be a doctor too today.”
I forced myself to smile at Trinity and then looked at the nurse and sighed. “She’s going to be my little helper. Come on Trinity; I need to get started. Let’s set you up in the office.”
“I get an office?” she said.
“You get to stay in my office,” I corrected.
“Cool!”
I grabbed a spare table and chair and set her up in the corner of the room. But I had no idea what she was going to do all day while I dealt with my patients. I explained to her that I was going to be at my desk doing work and that she would have to keep quiet so that I could get things done.
“And when clients come in, you can’t interrupt. They pay good money to come and see me, and they won’t be happy if they don’t get all of my time and attention. You promise?”
She nodded. “I promise.”
“Okay, how about we find you a book to read, then? You like reading, don’t you?”
“I love reading,” she said. “And my teacher says I’m getting so good. The last time I didn’t even make any mistakes.”
“That’s good. Well, let’s see what we’ve got for you,” I said while I scanned my bookshelf. The only things that I could find were medical books, so I picked one that I hoped she’d find the most interesting. It had a great deal of pictures inside for her to look at. It probably wasn’t the sort of book she was used to reading, but it was all I had. Also, when I was a kid, I probably would’ve loved spending my time flipping through educational books. I’d always enjoyed learning. I handed her the book and told her to learn as much as she could.
For the most part, Trinity was very good. But I could see that she was getting restless, and she kept turning around to cast glances my way. I tried to ignore her, but it wasn’t easy.
Warren popped his head around the door a few hours into the day and beamed when he saw Trinity.
“I heard a rumor that your daughter was with you today. You must be Trinity,” Warren said and reached out his hand to her.
Trinity seemed grateful to have something to do. She shook his hand and smiled at him.
“I am. How did you know my name?”
“You father always talks about you. Good things! And I’m Warren, his work friend.”
“Hi, Warren. I’m spending the day with my daddy at work. I’m helping out.”
“That’s nice,” Warren said. Then he looked at me and raised his eyebrows. “Did you honestly give your daughter a medical book to read?”
“It’s all I had,” I said hopelessly.
Warren shook his head. “Come with me, Trinity.”
Trinity looked at me first to see if she was allowed to go. I had no idea where Warren was taking her, but it probably beat sitting at that desk all day. I nodded and told her she could go. Warren came back ten minutes later without Trinity.
“Where did you take her?”
“You do know that we have a children’s wing here, don’t you? There’s a whole library of children’s books and games. I took her to choose a book, but the nurse said she could stay for an hour to give you some time. I cannot believe you gave her a medical book. Poor child. So, what’s going on?”
I sighed. “Her nanny quit. She didn’t even give me any notice. She just told me that she couldn’t look after Trinity anymore. She had her own family stuff to take care of. I didn’t know what to do, so I just brought her into work today. I’m supposed to be making a plan, but so far all I’ve done is work and worry about whether or not she’s okay. I don’t know what I’m going to do without Linda.”
“Ah, that’s not good. Well, listen, you’re not going to come up with anything by being here. Why don’t you just take the rest of the week off? I’ll cover your appointments, and I’m sure some of the other doctors will too. You haven’t taken any leave in a long time, anyway. You’re going to burn out if you don’t take time off.”
“I don’t know, Warren,” I said.
“Let’s be honest here, Reed. You can’t work with your daughter here. You’re not going to concentrate the way you need to. You might be able to keep her busy for a few hours, but she’s going to get bored, and you’re going to be too distracted to work, anyway. Take some time off; she’s going to love having you at home for a change.”
I sighed. Warren was right. I hadn’t spent enough time with Trinity lately, and I wasn’t going to be able to work with her here.
“You sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. I know you’d do the same for me.”
“Thanks, Warren. Who knew you were actually such a good guy?”
He laughed. “Go quick, before I change my mind.”
I found Trinity sitting on the floor with a coloring book and chatting away with the nurse. The nurse smiled when she saw me and Trinity showed me what she was drawing.
“Hey, it’s Nemo,” I said.
“Yes. But I’m running out of orange,” she said and held up the orange crayon.
“Never mind, we’re actually not staying. I’ve come to get you to take you home.”
She frowned. “Why? I’ve been good. Haven’t I?”
“You’ve been so good. But I’ve decided to take a few days off to spend with you.”
She dropped the book, her Nemo coloring page all forgotten. “Really?”
“Really.”
Later that day, I tried to cook a meal for Trinity, but the only thing I could think of doing was scrambled eggs. When it came to breakfast, I was great. I’d done enough eggs, bacon, and toast to know what I was doing. But Linda had been the one to take care of the dinners each night, and I was out of practice.
“Want eggs?” I asked Trinity.
“Can we have the tomato chicken dish?” she asked.
“Uh, sure,” I said. I looked inside the fridge and realized that I had no idea what went into it. I stared at the contents of the fridge in the hope that the ingredients would pop out at me. But the longer I looked, the more uncertain I felt. I closed the door. “I have a better idea. How about we get pizza instead?”
“PIZZA! Yes!” Trinity shouted in excitement. I tried to keep her diet as healthy as possible, so any chance of something different to eat put her in a good mood. When my brother and Blaire had been here, we’d eaten hot dogs twice in the week, and she’d been delighted.
When the pizza arrived, we settled in the living room to eat together. She insisted that we eat on the floor like we were having a picnic, and even though my long legs started to hurt, I stayed there with her. I hadn’t seen Trinity this happy in a long time.
“This is fun,” I said to her.
“Yeah, this has been the best day ever!”
“Did Teddy have a good day?”
She chuckled. “He loves pizza. He had the best day.”
“Good. Well, tomorrow I’ll start looking for a new nanny. Hopefully, we can find someone amazing!”
“Tomorrow? Already?” she said. She’d gone from happy to depressed in a matter of seconds, and I felt instantly guilty. She didn’t have a mother, and now she didn’t have a nanny. Why was I being so hard on her? I needed to put her first for a change.
“Or,” I said with a smile, “maybe it can wait a little while. I’m having too much fun with you right now. And I can take a little bit of time off work.”
When she looked up at me, she had the biggest smile on her face, and I knew that I’d said the right thing.