With that, he walked out to the elevators with Melissa as I stood there stunned. I knew I was in over my head with this whole situation. This could cost me my job, or worse, could cost the agency a once in a lifetime donation. I should have been worried.
I should have come clean to Melissa.
Instead, I power walked down to my office and my calendar, so I could email Tom with a time and place to see him again.
Tom
“Daddy!” I opened my arms and smiled as my daughter, Libertad, ran down the steps of her preschool toward me.
“Hola, mi amor.” I said, crouching down to meet her. “Did you have a nice time with Papa Maxwell?” She bobbed her little head, making her brown curls bounce around. She turned to point at a group of kids on the playground behind the school. “Can I keep playing with Bella and Anouk?”
I grinned as I saw the two little girls waving her over. “Sure, baby, but then I want to hear about your weekend.” She screamed an “okay, Daddy” as she ran back to her friends on chubby legs. My ex, Maxwell, and I shared custody of Libe, and she’d been with him since Friday after school.
Maxwell and I had been married for a year and not in a great place in our relationship when we started the surrogacy process to have Libertad. I was reluctant about the timing, especially since I’d wanted to adopt, but Maxwell pushed so hard for it I eventually relented. In hindsight I could see the baby was his attempt at saving our relationship, doing something that forced us to be together.
To make me pay attention.
I’d been working and travelling nonstop back then, first running my company which was expanding at break-neck speed, and then preparing to go public with it. I agreed because I wanted a child, too, but I didn’t stop my work pace at all. Eventually Maxwell’s loneliness turned into an affair that broke our marriage. We divorced a month after Libe was born.
As I looked at her now, talking to her friends, so carefree, it was hard to imagine my life without her. Things with Maxwell and I were much better now, but they’d been rocky for a while. He went into a bit of a tailspin after we split up, and it was almost a year before he was in a place where he could be a parent to Libe. I blamed myself for his state of mind at the time, so I took care of the baby until he could be more present.
It was a hard year for all of us. If it hadn’t been for the help of my mom, Priya, and Maxwell’s mom, I don’t know what I would have done. Having Libertad was worth it though; she was the greatest joy in my life. I bit back a smile as I saw her twirling around and laughing with her friends.
I checked the time and waved Libe over. “Come on, sweetheart.”
She begrudgingly started walking to me as I checked in with her teacher. I grabbed Libe’s little hand, and we started the walk towards our house just a few blocks away right in the heart of East Harlem.
I loved my neighborhood; there was so much energy everywhere. Three years ago, after my two business partners and I sold our company for more money than we knew what to do with, I bought a renovated brownstone here. Sanjay and Priya bought the house next door to mine, which had been on the market at the same time. Heni, the third one in our trio from grad school, got a penthouse just a few blocks away.
I fell in love with Harlem and its history as a Columbia college student, and when I had the chance to settle anywhere in New York City I wanted, Harlem was the spot I picked. My friends and I were all committed to the neighborhood and being part of the revitalization happening here. We were also invested in preserving the culture and helping the people who already had roots in Harlem stay in their homes. To not let gentrification erode the heritage of this part of New York City, which had given this country, this world, so much brilliance.
We were getting close to our street when Libe finally let me know my attention needed to be on her. “Daddy, you didn’t even ask me how my day was at school.” She scrunched up her face to drive home the point that I was very much on her shit list.
“Sorry, baby, I got distracted. How was your day?” I asked as I picked her up and hoisted her on my hip.
“It was good, except for the boys being so mean to us.” I tried not to laugh at how aggravated she looked. There was a full-on turf war going on at that preschool. Every day it was like the Bloods and the Crips over there.
“What happened?”
Libe scrunched her face as she shook her head in disgust at whatever the boys had done.
“Well Mauro was pushing Bella and me on the playground. We told him to stop, but he just got meaner and told us we were dumb.” At this she rolled her eyes, and she could have been my mother in that moment. She had very fair skin and Maxwell’s green eyes, but her hair was a mass of tight curls. My mom always said, “Esa cabecita es Dominicana.”
Her personality was definitely from the Dominican side of the family too. “I told him he was the dumb one. Everyone knows girls are smarter than boys.” Priya and my mother had indoctrinated Libe in girl power and feminism since birth. She was not about to let any boy call her anything.
“Mi amor, you know the rule about name calling.” I tried hard to keep a straight face, but her outraged expression made it very hard. “Just because he said it to you doesn’t make it okay for you to do it to him.”
Her dramatic slump was almost too much.
“But, Daddy, he doesn’t even know how to write his name yet!”
“It’s still not okay to call him names, honey; people learn in different ways.”
“Okay, but I don’t like him.” She pouted and again I almost burst out laughing.
“You don’t have to like him, but youdohave to be kind.”
“Can I have a cookie when we get home?” She could have a future in politics with those pivoting skills.
