Page 56 of Something Good
“You don’t want to know how I really feel.” She finished off the rest of her wine and stood. “Time to get the roast out of the oven. Why don’t you set the table?”
I rose to do as she asked, smiling at the mundane request. Just like that, everything—well, maybe not quite everything, but at least one thing—felt right again. “I love you, Mom.”
With one hand on the oven door, she turned back and looked at me, her eyes soft. “I love you too, honey. I’m so glad you’re home.”
31
WILL
The first coupleweeks of my new job flew by in a whirlwind of change orders, submittals, and arguments with subcontractors as I hit the ground running, taking over as project manager for a new oncology center for the Children’s Hospital in Omaha.
The job had been badly mismanaged from the start by a project manager who had, quite frankly, been unsuited for the job. Just a couple of weeks before I’d interviewed for the position, he’d announced that he and his wife were moving to Montana to be closer to her family. My new company had been relieved that he’d removed himself from the project before they’d been forced to, but it had left them scrambling for about a month while they interviewed candidates, offered me the job, and waited for me to relocate. In the meantime, the project had been overseen by a couple of other managers in the company, but that had only been temporary, and those folks had other projects to oversee.
Thankfully, I’d been a part of the healthcare division at my previous company. I had the experience to identify areas that needed attention and could start turning everything to rightsrelatively quickly, despite the fact we were smack dab in the middle of the project.
Still, I’d worked sixty hours my first week and was already near that many hours in my second, and it was only the end of the day on Thursday. I was exhausted, but the upside of that exhaustion was that I slept like the dead at night and was distracted enough during the day to keep thoughts of Sammy at bay.
It was odd how just being back in Nebraska could have my mind wandering down memory lane. I’d mostly been able to successfully keep thoughts of him buried for years, but here in Omaha, it was like the floodgates had been opened and there was no containing them.
In an effort to reconnect with Mom, we’d decided to try to make Sunday dinner a weekly event. After I’d gone out for the second time this past Sunday, I’d found myself aimlessly cruising the streets of Astaire on a whim. It was a bit like poking at an old bruise that had long since lost its color, but you could still feel just under the surface. I should have been heading back to the city to prepare for my second week of work, but instead, I’d driven toward Sammy’s house without consciously deciding to do so.
I’d turned onto his street but had pulled up short at the sight of a row of duplexes in place of the houses that had once stood there. An odd mix of sadness and satisfaction had passed over me at the sight. That dilapidated house had held so many painful memories for Sammy, and I was glad to see something newer and sturdier in its place. But it had also been the only place I’d ever known him to live, and while I hadn’t expected him to still be living there, it was irrationally odd to think of him living anywhere else.
Since that moment, I’d found myself thinking back on other memories and wondering where Sammy was now. I’dcontemplated asking Jason about him when we’d texted earlier in the week, but I’d held back, afraid that… Well, I didn’t actually know what I was afraid of. I just knew I wasn’t ready to know yet, one way or the other.
At the polite clearing of a throat, I looked up from my cubicle to find Drew, one of the other project managers I’d become friendly with, smiling at me in amusement with a coffee mug in hand. “Am I interrupting?”
“Oh, uh, no. I was just thinking about the conversation I had with the electrical contractor earlier.” My screen had gone into sleep mode while I’d been lost in thought, so I wiggled my mouse to wake it up. “What’s up?”
“I was going to ask you if you had a date to the Children’s Hospital Benefit tomorrow night. My wife suggested we could carpool, maybe grab a cocktail beforehand. These things can be so boring.”
“Date? Benefit? What are you talking about?” I wracked my brain, trying to recall if someone had mentioned anything about a benefit, but I was coming up empty.
“Shit, Ken didn’t tell you? There’s a charity event tomorrow night for the Children’s Hospital. The company bought a table. You and your date were our last seats to fill.”
“He never mentioned it to me.”
“Do you think you can go? It’d be a bad look for Rogers if the PM on this project didn’t attend the fundraiser for the hospital it’s tied to…”
“It’s not a problem. I can definitely go. I just, uh, don’t have a date.”
“Maybe a friend? The food is usually decent at these things, and there will be an open bar.”
“Yeah, maybe. I’ll see what I can do.”
At the soundof the doorbell, Goldie made a beeline for the door, spinning in circles and whining as if to saymove faster.I grabbed her collar with one hand while pulling the door open with the other. Goldie vibrated with excitement, dying for the opportunity to smother our visitor with love, mostly in the form of covering his suit pants in her fur.
Jason stepped through the door, bending automatically to allow Goldie to give him a sniff, then scratched her behind the ears while her tail thumped in appreciation. He rose to his full height and offered me a wide smile. I held out my hand to shake, but he shook his head and pulled me into a bear hug instead.
I wasn’t a small guy, standing at just over six foot, but Jason had always been bigger. And while I kept in shape, running or lifting several days a week, Jason had retained his linebacker’s physique, though these days, he stayed fit because he was a firefighter rather than a high school athlete.
“It’s so good to see you,” he said when he pulled back. And the best part was that I knew he genuinely meant it. We’d kept in touch over the years, though after meeting him in person, Dmitri had made it clear Jason wasn’t welcome in our Chicago condo, so our relationship had been relegated to texting or keeping up on social media. Still, he’d always been that type of friend who, no matter how much time or distance between us, always made me feel like we could pick up right where we’d left off.
Much like it had been with my mom, I’d unintentionally distanced myself from Jason. But he hadn’t given up on our friendship. I vowed to do whatever I could to repair the damage I’d caused and make damn sure it didn’t happen again.
“Thanks for agreeing to this at the last minute. You clean up nice.” His dark hair was neatly trimmed and he carried just a hint of scruff along his jawline. His suit stretched perfectly across his broad shoulders and was fitted to his body like a glove. Not for the first time, I thought it was too bad I wasn’t attracted to him.
“You don’t look bad yourself. I like the longer length of your hair. And that beard, man.” He rubbed his hand along his own jawline as he stared at mine. “I wouldn’t have anticipated you turning out to be a beard guy.”
