I steady myself and attempt to begin my descent, but Shannon is at my side, grabbing onto my elbow. She leans in. “Ma’am, I really think you need to take a water break outside.”
Jack casts a side-eye in my direction. He must think I’m a mess.
“Okay,” I say. “Good idea.”
Being called ma’am by a twentysomething Blake Lively look-alike might be the only thing as devastating as losing eleven bidding wars. The class is almost over anyway. I gulp water from a paper cup in the lobby while I wait for Jack. When he emerges, I see he has my mat.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asks, handing it to me.
“Just really regretting that third round of cocktails last night,” I say, looking sheepish.
“Ah. I’ve been there.” He laughs. I notice several women noticing him, noticing me. “Well, if you’re feeling up to it, I’d still love to talk adoption. My husband says I’m basically an evangelist for it—always trying to convert everyone.”
I smile. “I would love to be your convert.”
“We could grab coffee at the Starbucks right there. Or, if you don’t mind driving, we could go to Clover. You know it, right, since you live in the neighborhood?”
I have prepared for this.
“One of my best friends lives in the neighborhood. We wererunning together yesterday and I’d just dropped her off at her house when you found me. My husband was coming to pick me up on the corner of Mass Ave.”
“Oh, got it. Did your friend tell you about Power + Grace, too?”
“Yeah, she was supposed to meet me this morning, but her son is sick. I was already most of the way here, all the way from Shaw, when she bailed, so I figured why not?”
“Shaw! How hip. We’ve been dying to try Causa.”
“Oh! I could get you a table if you want. My firm does their PR.”
He gasps. “That is so cool.”
Maybe I do love my job.
The eleven a.m. cohort is crowding into the small lobby, so we clear out. Clover is less than five minutes away. It’s shabby-chic like the set of an Anthropologie shoot. We grab a table in the courtyard, under an arbor.
“This place is adorable,” I say, taking a sip of oat-milk cappuccino. “Does it always feel like you’re on vacation in this neighborhood?”
“It really kind of does. We’ve loved every second here. But Curt, my husband, has an opportunity at King’s College in London that he can’t pass on. They just asked him a week ago to join their economics department, and we’ve always said we’d try living abroad one day.”
“Wow! That’s so exciting. He must be brilliant.”
Jack laughs. “Penny and I try to keep him humble.”
“And what about you?” I ask. “What will you do in London?”
“That’s still TBD.” He removes the lid from his pour-over, freeing a wisp of steam. “I do commercial furniture sales here, for big office tenants, so you can imagine that business has been pretty unpredictable lately. I’m looking forward to taking some time off and just being a full-time dad for a while.”
“That’s great. Especially since I’m sure the move will be an adjustment for Penny.”
“Exactly. I want to be one hundred percent available for her. We’re doing what we can to minimize the disruption. We’re waiting till the end of the school year to go, and then she’ll have an entire summer to get acclimated before she starts first grade, or, I guess they call it year two there, don’t they?”
I shrug. “I’ve only visited a couple times.” This type of lie starts to come easily, once you’ve spent enough years in a town where it feels like everyone else was raised by diplomats who summered on Mallorca.
“Penny is extremely social—so I know she’ll be fine,” Jack continues. “But yes, of course, it’s bound to be at least something of an adjustment. My next to-do is figuring out what kind of gymnastics programs they have over there. She just loves her team here, and her coach says she shows a lot of promise.”
I’m realizing he isn’t an adoption evangelist so much as a Penny evangelist. I need to find a way in.
“So, did you adopt her as an infant?”
