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“I believe you. But… forgive me if I’ve got a little whiplash here. We just moved back to New England—”
“A year and a half ago!”
“And I’ve just settled in at this hospital,” he continues. “If I shift gears and go somewhere else, I’ll be starting over again. With no seniority.”
“Would you have to? Go somewhere else?”
“If you’re working nine-to-five, someone’s got to get the kids after school.”
“We could hire someone.”
He shakes his head. “Uh-uh. I told you. That’s a hard no for me.”
“Sam, come on. Having a sitter pick the kids up after school is not the same as being raised by a full-time nanny.”
“They’re still so little, though. We’d basically see them for a couple hours before bed.”
“And weekends.”
“One of their parents needs to be there for them. If it’s not going to be you, it’ll have to be me.”
“I really don’t—”
Hand up, he interrupts me. “If you’re going back to Big Law, that’s how it’s going to have to be.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” I shift to sit cross-legged, facing him. “I wouldn’t trade time with them for that, no matter how much money I could make. This is different. I got a call from a friend who was a couple years ahead of me in school. Apparently, the Boston office of the ACLU is hiring.”
“The ACLU? What would you do there?”
“It’d probably be scut work at first, but I’ve been reading about these laws restricting access to abortion that are spreading like tribbles. So many there’s an acronym, TRAP, for Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers. They’re dressed up as protecting women’s health, but they just make it even harder for marginalized populations to get abortions.”
He finally turns to face me, his brow furrowed. “Not here in Massachusetts. I haven’t heard about that.”
“No, but it’s not just in the super-conservative states. North Carolina passed two this year, and there’s another in the works. There are fewer than thirty abortion clinics in the state now.”
He crosses his arms over his chest. “Would it be full-time?”
“I’m not sure, but I can’t just sit by and watch while rights get chipped away.”
He tips his head back and sends a heavy sigh at the ceiling.
I take his hand and squeeze it. “How about if I just go in and talk to them? It might not even happen. If they make me an offer, I promise I won’t take it if we can’t figure out a schedule that works for all of us.”
When he doesn’t say yea or nay, I ease in next to him, slide an arm under his back, and squeeze his barrel of a chest as hard as I can.
“All right, all right.” He sighs again. “Happy New Year.”
“Happy Anniversary, sweetheart. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
6
December 31,2015
“I resolve to put my family first.”
SAM
