Finny/Finnegan:
I'm sad to leave but I know we have to. Daddy says it's time so I say bye to Rhys and he gives me a big hug. "I'm really glad I got to meet them" I tell Daddy as we head to the car.
"Me too, grasshopper." He opens the backseat door and I think he's gonna put his bag in but instead he says "Can you ride back here and see if you like it?"
"To the house?"
"Yep, just to the house. You can ride up front when we go back to Baltimore if you want but I think you should try it."
I mean, sure. It's a nice seat. "Okay." I climb in and he puts his bag up front where I usually sit. "Daddy?"
"Yeah?"
"We get to see Marten tonight." I miss playing with him even though we've had lots of fun.
"We sure do. He's gonna go crazy tonight when he sees us. You can play with him while I make dinner." It's weird being in the back seat but I kinda like it too. I put my head back and soon he's shaking me. "Sorry darling, we're here and you've gotta get out of the car."
"I fell 'sleep?"
"Yeah. You're tuckered. You can curl up on the couch for a few more minutes after you change."
I'm sleepy and a nap sounds good. "Kay." We take a quick shower to rinse and he puts me in comfy shorts and a t-shirt for the ride, then leads me to the couch.
"You hungry, darling?"
"Nope." I lie down and I know maybe I should kinda be helping but I'm sleepy.
"I'll pack you something for the road then" he says, kissing my forehead. "I'll wake you up when it's time to leave; get some rest sleepyhead."
It feels like no time at all before he's waking me up and putting me in the back seat. He's brought a blanket and pillow and I have a bag with some snacks, my adult stuff and a few toys. I think I'm just gonna sleep and I do for about an hour. When I wake up I ask but luckily I haven't missed it; we're not over the bridge yet. My phone rings and it's Megan, I have to get it. "Finn."
"Mr. Walker" she says, and I want to correct her for the eighty second time and tell her to call me Finn but her voice sounds strained and I shut up and listen. "Jerrod, um, Jerrod..."
"White." My construction foreman. Interesting that she knows his first, but not last, name.
"Yes, Mr. White was just here and shut the whole place down. Says there's a problem with the financing?"
"We're less than a week in, how can we be out of money?" We can't be and I know that. I don't usually speak without thinking. "Get me somebody from accounting on the line. Hell, get me all of accounting. Is Jerrod still there?"
"No, he left a few minutes ago. I told him you would be in tomorrow morning and I thought that would calm him down but I guess he took it to mean that he didn't need to work until then. I'm sorry."
"Not your fault. Accounting please. And send me some more resumes, I need a department head yesterday."
"You've got it, just a second please." This was a very harsh wake-up call. I sort of feel like I'm still half-asleep and being pulled between two worlds and I guess I sort of am. We cross the Bay Bridge while I'm still on hold so I get to admire the view.
I spent the next 10 minutes talking to Denise in accounting. It's sad but I'm not sure which one she is, I think she's the brunette with the bob but maybe that's Susan? Apparently the purchase order from the government didn't go through because they put the wrong year on it. No one on my side caught it either. It's so stupid that it would be funny if it didn't mean that I am now bouncing checks to contractors, suppliers and who knows who else.
It's another twenty minute phone call to find out that the purchase order has been re-issued and I can pick it up in person or they will mail it. Government bureaucracy is a world of its own. I've heard stories, of course, but somehow had myself convinced it couldn't really be that bad. It's not. It's worse.
"Em?"
"Yeah darling? Sounds serious back there."
"Any way we can stop by DC on our way home, is that totally out of the way?" I'm trying to see it in my head but I don't know where on the coast Rehoboth is.
"If you need to go, we'll go."
That means it's in completely the wrong direction. "I can go tomorrow morning."
"Before your 9 am inspection? No you can't, Finn. No worries, just need to turn the other way at Annapolis."
He already has us turned around back on the highway, this time heading south. I pull a rather illegal maneuver and climb into the passenger seat and toss his bag behind me. My legs are squished because he moved it so I'd have more legroom in the back seat; he really is ridiculously thoughtful. I push my seat back and put my hand on his arm. "Thank you."
"Don't worry about it darling. Hopefully doing this now improves our chances of getting back to the beach."
"It does." It's a happy thought to hang on to but my head is swirling and most of the thoughts going through it aren't good ones. It's nothing to do with Emmett, he's amazing; it's everything else. I'm just not in the mood for hard. Don't laugh, this is serious. I'm only in the mood for Emmett's hard and that's not happening right now.
I love my job, I do. It challenges me and makes me think and I learn new things constantly. It pays me way more than enough to live on and it gives me a great sense of accomplishment. What more can I ask? Nothing. I just didn't want to be working today. I've kinda been ignoring tomorrow and pretending like it's not a big deal. I had myself convinced that I would be fine because I'd be waking up at Emmett's which I've been doing for weeks, getting dressed just like usual and I know how that goes, you know?
But this I didn't plan on. I want to scream or cry but instead I look through my bag and get a snack. Time to be a big boy.