Chapter 26

Thursday passed relatively uneventfully as everyone settled into their new routine.

Friday morning, Tasha got a minute alone with Megan. “Hey, today’s the first day of December, and, uh, is Sophia going to be worried about…” her voice dropped to a whisper, “Santa finding y’all?”

“Oh, good thought, but we’re in the clear on that. She figured out the whole Santa thing last year.”

“Okay, good. What about a tree? Should we get one?”

“I thought you said that you were an atheist.”

“So? I still like Christmas.”

“Let’s talk later, alright?”

“Oh, can you get groceries today? I can send you a list later. I want to teach Sophia how to make samosas.”

“Oh, I’d like to learn that too. Send me the list.”

With that, they were off to face the day. Megan was soon out the door. Tasha and Sophia left a little later to walk to school. Once she got to work, Tasha put on her headphones and let LL Cool J help make work go faster.

During lunchtime, Tasha sent Megan a shopping list. Near the end of lunch, she received the all-staff invite to the company holiday party next Friday, followed almost immediately by an over-enthusiastic missive from Kevin telling everyone how showing up was a sign of being a “team player.” Looking at the invite, Tasha hatched a plan for a fun girl’s night. Once she decided, she called Maria.

“Maria, hi!”

“Tasha, dear! How are you?”

“I’m good. This is a bit weird, but maybe you know someone who knows someone. Um, I need a babysitter.”

“Really? You weren’t even showing last week.”

“Ha. Ha. You’re hilarious. Actually, it’s for Sophia. My company’s holiday party is next Friday, and I want to bring Megan.”

“Oh, like a date?”

“No, no. We’re friends. Um, I haven’t even asked her yet, actually.”

“When does your party start, and where is it?”

“It starts at six, and it’s at a local lounge near work. Why?”

“Hmm. Sophia is a darling girl. I have a proposition for you, my dear.”

“What?”

“I will babysit Sophia next Friday night if Megan can bring her over immediately after school.”

“That would work. I’ll ask Megan, but I’m sure she’ll agree.”

“Excellent. I have one other condition.”

“Uh, sure. What is it?”

“You must wear that red minidress that you wore at Friendsgiving.”

“What? Really? Why?”

“Because you looked stunning in that dress, that’s why.”

“I did look good. Fine, I can do that.”

“Lovely! I’ll have a grand time with Sophia and you must send me selfies from your party.”

“I will! Thank you, Maria!”

“You’re very welcome, Tasha. Have a wonderful day!”

“You, too! Bye!”

Once her lunch was over, Tasha tuned into some Diana Ross. At three, Kevin scheduled a team meeting to, as he said, “Get everyone pumped up to finish this year strong.” The meeting was as depressing and demotivating as Tasha imagined it would be, yet somehow Kevin seemed to think it was an immense success. She sometimes wondered how anyone could be that detached from reality.

After the meeting was finally over, she let Gloria Gaynor remind her that she would survive. After the message of hope, she got into some early Madonna, followed by Blondie. Then, as the clock ticked interminably toward five thirty, she put on Loverboy’s “Working For the Weekend” to help her endure those last few minutes.

She got lucky with the bus, having a minimal wait time and a short commute. Once home, she gave Sophia a big hug, gave Nocturne some uncomfortable (for a cat’s dignity) cuddles, and then gave Megan a quick hug too.

“Ugh, I am so glad it’s Friday!”

“Me too!”

“How was your day?”

“Really good. The kids were relatively well behaved. I got a new assignment—I’ll be over at Grant next week. How was your day?”

“Eh, it was okay. Kevin gave us a motivational speech,” she said with a shudder.

“Oh, I bet you feel truly motivated now!” The sarcasm in Megan’s tone ran very deep.

“Let me guess, You’ve been motivated like this before?”

“Yes, I have. Please tell me that there was a presentation, with lots of pictures and motivational quotes!”

“Ugh, thankfully no. Please don’t give Kevin any ideas. Speaking of… my company’s holiday party is next Friday night. Would you be my plus one?”

“I’d love to, but I’d have to?—”

“Already ahead of you. Maria said that she would watch Sophia.”

“Really? Divorce lawyer and babysitter? That’s interesting.”

“Yeah, about that. She said that she needs you to bring Sophia over right after you both get out of school.”

“Huh, that’s weird. That’s fine, I guess. Did she say why?”

“No, but Maria can be—” Tasha paused, searching for the right words. “Not crazy. When you’re rich, it’s eccentric.”

“Oh, shit, I never asked her what her fees were.”

“Seriously?”

“I was focused on other things. I don’t think she brought it up.” Megan was looking panicked.

Tasha said soothingly, “Well, hopefully she gives you the ‘friends and family’ discount. It’s not like she needs the money. She did a few divorces for the ex-wives of tech billionaires, so I’m pretty sure that she’s already set for life.”

“I’ll ask about fees when I see her next. She had the papers delivered today.”

“Oh, good. You and Sophia don’t have issues with shrimp, right?”

“Yeah, I would have said something once I saw it on your list.”

“Cool. I’m gonna make us shrimp scampi for dinner tonight.”

“That sounds great, can I do anything?”

“Nah, it’s simple. Just hang out and chat, unless you need to tend to Sophia.”

Megan turned her head to observe her daughter. “Nope, she looks happy. She’s reading and Nocturne looks to be settling in for a nap.”

“Good. It’s nice to talk with you. Feels domestic. In a good way.”

“Yeah. Oh, about Christmas. Do you celebrate?”

“Sort of. I may not believe anymore, but the important parts, you know, family, friends, being good to other people—that stuff is universal. Plus, it’s so commercialized these days, I’m happy to focus on people instead.”

“Has it been lonely for you, because of your family?”

“It has. But once I became friends with Maria I got to hang out with her and her friends, and that helped a lot.”

“She’s really nice. Um. This might be too personal, but, um… You said that I was the third person besides your tattoo artist to see where your cat paw tattoo ended. Is Maria one of those three?”

“That is personal, but it’s fine. Yes, she is one of the three. We, um, haven’t dated in a long time, but, um, we have done the occasional friends with benefits thing.”

“Wow. Um, okay. I’m not sure why I asked that. Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

“It’s okay, Megan. So anyway, when do you want to get a tree?”

“Maybe in a couple of weeks? I don’t want to get it too early and have it all dry by Christmas, but not too late before all of the good ones are gone. Will it be okay with Nocturne?”

“I’m not sure, actually. She’s never experienced a Christmas tree before. We’ll at least do lights on the tree and maybe some wooden ornaments. Definitely no glass or tinsel. None of us want her pooping tinsel…”

“That makes sense. Um, about presents. Uh, I want to make sure that Sophia has a nice Christmas, but I’m not sure how much I’ll have left over, especially after paying rent. We never discussed that before. How much should I contribute?”

“That’s a lot. Maybe let’s not worry about rent yet. You’ve been getting the groceries, so let’s call it even for now.”

“That doesn’t sound fair to you.”

“Megan, I can decide what’s fair for me. Tell you what. Once you get settled down with PPS, let’s sit down and figure out some kind of cost sharing. For right now, though, why don’t you handle groceries and I’ll handle rent, and we’ll call it good, okay?”

“Alright, but only if you’re sure.”

“I’m sure. And don’t worry about presents. Not between us, alright? You and Sophia being in my life, plus you getting me to talk with Momma again… You couldn’t give me better presents than that. Plus, the holidays are stressful enough. We don’t need to add to it by searching for gifts that neither of us needs.”

“I like that, I like that a lot. Maybe we can find something to do, just us, or us and Sophia, as a gift to ourselves.”

“The gift of an experience. That’s perfect! Good idea, Megan! Since we’re on the subject of gifts, though, I do want Sophia to get a nice gift from her Aunt Tasha. Do you have any thoughts about that?”

They discussed possible gifts for Sophia until dinner was ready. Then, after dinner, Sophia fed Nocturne, and they all spent time together as a family until it was time for Sophia to go to bed. Megan and Tasha did some late night yoga to clear out the kinks and stress of the week before getting ready for bed themselves.