But that night… she was lonely because I was working late. A friends of hers stopped by and they talked her into just having a bump or two. This turned into several. She’d been clean so long that her tolerance was not what it once was and she overdosed.
She died shortly after I arrived at the hospital.
Toby didn’t remember his mother. He was only one and a half old years when she passed. He sometimes asked questions about her and I did my best to answer my son as truthfully as I could. Of course, Toby was too young to know the details of his mother’s demons. I told him that his mommy had gotten sick and died. It was true…in a sense. She suffered from a terrible disease and eventually she did succumb to it.
That was how I preferred to think of it. She was an amazing woman and I would always love her and miss her.
I’d waited almost a year and a half before I even considered dating again. And then I’d felt so guilty that the first couple of dates had been totally disastrous.
But now things were a bit different. I’d arrived at a new place in my work and Toby was older now. It was probably time to find that perfect lady to complete my life.
I knew who that woman was, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak to her.
When I got to the job site, Ted greeted me with a warm smile and a hearty handshake.
“How are you, you old bastard?” I asked affectionately. “Old Bastard” was the nickname I’d been using to refer to Ted for years. Ted was about twenty-years older than me. He was as fit as a fiddle though. The older man kept himself in shape with daily ten mile jogs, and he was also an avid martial artist. In fact, he’d gotten me interested in the martial arts and it had become something of an addiction.
“I’m good,” Ted replied. “Well, of course I could complain about a lot of stuff, but what good would that do?”
“I hope you are talking about yourself and not the project,” I joked.
Ted laughed and slapped me hard on the back. “Of course I am. I’m a mess, but the project is doing great. You didn’t bring me any Starbucks did you?”
I paused, a bit confused. “Why would I bring you Starbucks?”
“It’s just this new thing I’m trying where I tell the universe I want things by thinking about it really hard and then seeing if the universe delivers it to me.”
I laughed. “Well, I did that once. And it totally worked.”
“Really?”
“Yes, sir. I said I wanted to be a billionaire. And then I worked my soul out night and day and eventually the universe rewarded me with it.”
“Ah, see I knew I was missing a step or two.”
Ted was quite the character. The two of us went back a long time since Ted had become one of the earliest guys I had decided to work with when I was a fledgling entrepreneur real estate developer. All of the odds were stacked against me, but I knew I could make it work. That was one of the gifts I had always been blessed with; I embraced failure and expected it to happen most of the time. This was why it left me unfazed and I instantly pushed through to the next thing.
Ted showed me the progress that the construction was making and I was very pleased. We were actually about two weeks ahead of schedule. This was going to save me a bundle in construction costs. Of course I would pay the full price and then some to Ted, because that was how I did business. But overall it was still probably going to shave a bit off the bottom line. I was always happy to make that happen.
“Great work, my friend,” I said.
“So, how about a round of golf this weekend?”
“Business?”
Ted laughed. “Wow, don’t you ever think of anything else?”
I pondered the question. At times I could be a bit too involved in business. I loved what I did and there was a good portion of the time that I found myself thinking of how everything tied into the business. It was something I had to consciously work on to make sure I was a great father to Toby.
“I guess,” I said. “But if you want to play a game of golf just for fun, we can definitely do that. I’m sure Toby wouldn’t mind getting out in the sun and doing some caddy work.”
Ted smiled. “I just got the image of him trying to carry one of these golf bags. That’s adorable. How old is he now?”
“He is four. And going on forty I think.”
“I hear that. I remember when my son was that age. I know it’s cliché but they do grow up crazy fast, so you should enjoy it as much as you can.”