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“Great, now that I’m talking to you.” Hearing his voice really did feel wonderful.
“Same here. Oh—I wanted to let you know I gave my friend Romy a pair of tickets to the fundraiser, so you’ll get to meet him and his fiancé on Friday. I’m going to give a pair to Daniel, too. The rest of my housemates already bought tickets.”
Nana had given me twelve pairs of tickets, but I didn’t know that many people, so Timothy was helping me distribute them. “You’ll get to meet my assistant Maureen and her wife, too,” I said, “and possibly their daughters.”
This event was going to be the first time Timothy’s world and mine really came together. I was glad I’d gotten to meet some of his friends the night before to sort of ease into it, and everyone had been wonderfully kind and accepting. But I was still a little nervous, because I really wanted this to go well.
We chatted for a few more minutes, until I said, “I have a conference call with a client on the hour, so I’d better go. I’ll see you tonight.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me, too. Thanks, Tima.”
“For what?”
“For making my day brighter.” It probably sounded corny, but I didn’t care. It was the truth.
A few hours later, I was engrossed in a report when Maureen appeared in my doorway and told me, “Your son is here to see you.”
“Lenny’s here? Are you serious?”
She nodded. “I told him you were on a call and asked him to wait in the lobby, because I thought you might need a minute.” I got up, then sat back down again, and she asked, “When was the last time you saw him?”
“It’s been well over two years. His mother told me he’d gone to the UK about a year ago, but even before that, we were leading very separate lives.”
“Damn, that’s a really long time.”
“Could you go get him, please? I don’t want him to change his mind and leave.”
Maureen hurried away, and I took a deep breath and circled around to the front of my desk. The last time we’d seen each other, we’d had a huge fight. I had no idea why he was here, but I was determined not to let things deteriorate like that this time around.
When Lenny appeared in the doorway, he looked as nervous as I felt. We both just stood there for a moment and studied each other. He had my height and big build, but he was far more muscular than I was. Other than that, he looked just like his mother with his dark eyes and sandy blond hair. He also looked stunningly grown up.
Finally, I found my voice and said, “Hi, Lenny.”
“It’s Lee now. Actually, it’s been that for a while. I had it legally changed.”
“Why did you do that?” I didn’t mean for it to sound like an accusation. It just surprised me.
“Because I like it a lot better than Leonardo, and because changing it to my stage name simplified things in terms of paychecks and tax forms, stuff like that. So, now I’m just Lee Lipton.”
My ex-wife hadn’t taken my name when we got married, and she’d also insisted on giving our child her surname. She’d said it would help her father accept the baby, since he was furious about the pregnancy. It really hadn’t bothered me, and later, it seemed oddly fitting. Those two had a bond I would never be a part of, so it only made sense that he had her name, not mine. She liked to say they were two peas in a pod, Laura and Lenny Lipton. Meanwhile, I was an outsider in my own family.
The trade-off for agreeing to give the baby her surname was that she let me pick his first name. I’d loved my choice and couldn’t help but feel a little hurt now that he’d gotten rid of it. I muttered, “It was a good name.”
“Yeah, if you’re a ninja turtle. It never made sense to me, either. Why would you give me an Italian name, when I’m English and Russian?”
“I named you after Leonardo da Vinci. I know I told you that.”
“You did,” he said, “but you never really explained why.”
“It’s because he was brilliant and creative, and I was fascinated by him. I even used to dream of studying the Italian renaissance and working in a museum.”
His expression fell. “But then, Mom got pregnant when you were both in college, and I crushed your dream.”
“What? No! My dream changed when I became a dad, and that’s not a bad thing. All I wanted was to give you the best of everything, a life free from poverty and struggle.”
When he didn’t say anything, I continued, “There was more to the name, too. From the moment I saw you, I just knew you were destined for greatness. I felt it in my gut. That’s why I gave you the name of the greatest man I could think of. Anything less wouldn’t have been good enough for you.”
