Page 12 of Five Years

“Don’t answer that.”

“How is baby Ez?” Leah asked.

“He said his first word yesterday,” Grace squealed.

“He’s eight months old,” Leah replied, sceptically.

“Yes, but he’s a clever boy. He said orrery.”

“He said what?” Leah laughed.

“Orrery,” Grace repeated.

“That’s not a word,” Leah challenged.

“It is.”

“What does it mean, then?”

“It’s an apparatus that shows the positions of the planets in the solar system.”

“Do you think he’s going to be an astronomer?” Leah tried to keep a straight face.

“You’re being sarcastic, and Ezra doesn’t need his Auntie Leah being sarcastic if he has big dreams of being the next Galileo.”

“Galileo? Really? The man who discovered that the sun was the centre of the universe and not the Earth? Poor Ez has a lot to live up to,” Leah chuckled.

Leah was officially named Auntie Leah, and that would’ve been okay under normal circumstances. If your best friend has a child, honorary auntie is often the go-to title. However, when his real auntie was the woman who cut out Leah’s heart, purified it in a blender on the highest setting, and then put it back all emotionally puréed and utterly heartbroken, it took on a different meaning.

“How’s work?” Grace asked. “The women still giving you a hard time?”

“It’s okay. My dad seems impressed with what I’m doing so far. The women, not so much. I tried Free Doughnut Fridays. It didn’t work.”

“They didn’t eat the doughnuts?” Grace questioned.

“Nope.”

“What kind of skinny bitch shit is that?”

“I don’t know. They were fresh too, and I got the expensive ones with the fancy decorations.” Leah took a sip of her wine, contemplating what she did wrong.

“I’m sorry they’re not accepting you the way you hoped they would,” Grace sympathised.

“Don’t get me wrong, I understand it—but I am trying. I’m not walking around the office in Prada shoes and a Vacheron watch like some socialite with more air in my head than brains.”

“I know that. Just give it time, they’ll come around.”

“I hope so,” Leah sighed. “What about you? Are you prepared for your trip next week?”

The Harrison family trip took place every year, normally a week or two before Thanksgiving. Originally, the tradition started in the late ’80s because Grace and Ariana’s father refused to travel on Thanksgiving. He was tired of entertaining and wanted to watch the NFL games in peace, so the tradition of a pre-Thanksgiving vacation was born.

“Barely. This is the first vacation since I had Ezra, and quite honestly, I am unprepared for the amount of items required to keep a child alive.”

“I wish I could help,” Leah said.

“Me too! Johnathan is trying his best, but you know men—they don’t understand that a baby can’t live off a diet of beef jerky, and the football top he bought him can’t be worn for a full five-day trip,” she sighed.

“I have faith in Johnathan,” Leah countered.