“Mom, are you going to stay home with me again?” Jayce asked his mother sweetly two days after Jake blurted out that he loved her.
“Yes, baby,” Stacy said, putting a plate of pancakes in front of him. ”
She decided to make breakfast for her son and husband this morning, not wanting to just lay down in bed.
“Mama is staying home with you. Do you like that?”
“Yes,” Jayce nodded, smiling. “Will Dada stay too?”
“No, honey. Dada has to go to work.”
“I heard some people talking about Dada,” Blake walked into the kitchen smiling, already dressed for work.
“Good morning Dada,” the little boy’s face lit up as he greeted his father.
“Good morning sunshine,” Blake bent down and kissed the top of Jayce’s head. “Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, dada!”
“That’s good,” he moved to Stacy, who was setting a place for him at the top of the table. “Good morning dear,” he pecked her on the cheek.
“Good morning,” she tried to force herself to smile.
“Don’t tell me you are not going into the office again today,” he pushed out a chair and sat down.
“No, I am not,” she replied to him curtly, setting his plate of food in front of him. “I want to take some time off.”
“But you said you are going to work throughout the summer.” He poured himself some coffee. “What changed?”
“Nothing Blake,” she walked back to the stove and turned off the oven, bringing out the tray of cookies she was baking. “I don’t want to be in the office for now.”
Her phone rang on the table. Seeing it was her father, she didn’t pick it up.
“I’ll be in a meeting with your dad today,” he added cream to his coffee. “What should I say if he asks about you?”
“Nothing.”
“Did you have a fight with your father?” A confused Blake asked because she was always having issues with her parents.
“Blake, what is with all these questions?” she shouted at him. “I need some rest. Is that too much to ask?”
Blake said nothing again. He turned back to his breakfast while Stacy left him and Jayce in the kitchen.
She went into their bathroom to have a bath, then she crawled under the sheets.
Stacy was still very mad at Jake, so she wasn’t ready to face him. She knew there was no way she would go into the office and not have interaction with him.
*******
“Alright, everyone. Let’s call it a day.” Blake said to his staff in one of the conference rooms as he gathered up the pieces of paper in front of him and stuffed them into a plastic folder. “It’s after four already, and I still have another meeting before I go home. I think we should continue on Monday.”
He looked around the faces of his top managers in his unit who had been in a meeting with him for over one hour.
They all nodded their agreement.
He looked through his schedules on his phone. “Okay, let’s meet on Monday at eleven am.” He stood up and pushed his chair back. “Enjoy the rest of your day, guys.”
“You too,” his staff members said back to him before he left and went back to his office. He was looking over some important documents on his computer when his door clicked open after a quick knock. His close friend, Marcus, Connie’s older brother, walked in.
“Hey, man.” Blake looked away from the document he was trying to open on the computer. “It’s been a while. How have you been?”
“Hey you too,” Marcus sat across from his friend. “What is going on? You don’t pick up my calls anymore. You don’t want to help my sister.”
“Marcus, I have been so busy with work,” he rolled his exercise ball on his desk. “I rarely have time for anything apart from work stuff these days. It’s summer, the workload is much around here.”
“At least you could have helped Connie push her proposal.” He shifted forward in his seat.
“I asked her to tidy up her proposal.”
He looked back at his computer screen. “But she thinks it’s unnecessary. I can’t help her with such an attitude.”
Marcus was about to say something when someone knocked on the door. Blake called out, asking the person to come in.
His executive secretary walked in.
“Mr. Carter, your five o’clock appointment will soon be here. It’s after four already.”
“Yeah, Vanessa, I know. Just buzz me whenever they arrive and settle in the conference room.”
“Okay, Mr. Carter, I will do just that.”
“Yeah, thank you, Venessa,” he looked up at the fifty-eight-year-old woman with a professional smile.
Venessa nodded and left the two men.
“Did you listen to that, Marcus?” he swirled his chair. “It’s almost closing time and I still have a meeting.”
“You can try to cover up all you want,” Marcus said. “You and I know you can help her if you want to.”
Blake laughed, “You can’t be serious, Marcus. You, of all people, should know that things have changed over here. I am not the only VP here.”
“Anyway, I’m here to invite you to my wife’s thirty-fifth birthday next week Friday.” Marcus got all serious. “We are having a party at the Platinum Lounge, starting at seven pm.”
“Next week Friday?” A bit of silence passed between them. “Some of our business partners from Singapore are coming in. Friday next week is going to be a long day for me.”
“It’s your business partners now.” Marcus’s voice was as sarcastic as ever.
The phone on his table rang, making Blake thrilled. He picked up the receiver. It was Venessa, telling me it’s time for his meeting.
“That’s Venessa,” he replaced the mouthpiece. “She just told me that my appointment is around.”
“It’s okay.” Marcus stood up and put his hands in his pockets. “I guess you can still stop by on your way home any time you are through with your meetings.”
“Maybe I will do that,” Blake held out his hand to shake his friend. “My greetings to the kids.”
“Yeah.” he shook hands with Blake and left.