Libby could tell I was serious. “Well, that is an interesting idea. Do you ever sleep?”
“Yes, I sleep like a baby,” I said. “But I do have a lot of ideas running around in my noggin. Like I said, I get bored. So I’m always looking for something fresh, new, and exciting to sink my teeth into.”
“I wish I had that,” Libby said. “I wish I was more of a self-starter, someone who had a lot of things that they want to accomplish.”
“Aren’t you? I think so,” I said. “You have put a lot into that wonderful school of yours. And I think every kid who you guide, help, and teach is a different project. Because we aren’t all the same; I don’t know why so much of our education system is geared towards a systematic method of learning, and it leaves so many kids behind. Where you are now, you can have almost a one on one relationship with your kids and guide them to reach their potential. I think that’s fantastic. Later on, so many will get lost in the shuffle, but right now because of you those kids will have a big step up.”
Libby wiped a tear from her eye. She smiled and said, “Wow. I never thought of it that way.”
“You should definitely start,” I said. “What you do is very important.”
It felt good to give Libby the boost she needed, and every single word I told her was true. That’s how I felt about the wonderful work she did and I wanted her to know how special she was.
I just wished I could have told her how much she meant to me on a personal level and how I felt about her. But it just never seemed to be the right time. The vibe never seemed to be there, but the attraction—at least on my end—was only growing stronger.
There just had to be a way to make sure she saw it.
A few moments later Toby arrived. Gina’s parents dropped him off at the door, spoke a few words to me, and then left. That was the relationship (if you could call it that) I had with them. They had never approved of me. They believed I was a crooked businessman who treated their daughter as some kind of a trophy and that I should have been with her more instead of working so much so that she hadn’t felt the need to use again. They even blamed me for introducing her to the wrong kind of entertainment people who contributed to her drug use.
All of this was wrong. Gina’s friends who gave her the drugs the night of her death she’d known long before she even met me. And I had never done anything unscrupulous in the world of business; it was no fun if you had to cheat. I admit that I can be an arrogant ass from time to time, and that the temptation to cut corners in business or become some ruthless cutthroat who spent half my time stepping on people so I could become the best was there, but if I ever would have done any of that it would have made me feel like a loser. All of my success was because I deserved it. And I’d never apologize for it.
“Miss Norris!” Toby exclaimed as he bounded into the kitchen.
“Hey, Toby,” Libby greeted him with a big hug.
“Miss Norris is going to be staying with us for a while,” I said. “How would you like that?”
“OH BOY!” Toby cheered jumping up and down with pure joy.
I smiled at Libby. She hugged him again and hoisted him onto her lap where he snuggled up with her. Wow, she was good with him. He hardly ever took to anyone that way, besides me. It was a warm, beautiful sight.
“Toby, did you eat, yet?” I asked.
“A while ago,” he replied.
“Ok, well when you guys get hungry let me know. I’m going to call the pizza guy…”
“Pizza! Yes!” Toby squealed.
The kid loved his pizza. As did I. It was the world’s most perfect food and no one would ever tell me otherwise.
“Libby, you do like pizza?”
“Oh, for sure,” she said.
Toby immediately suggested that we all play some kind of fun game. I knew this meant we had to go into the theater and play some PlayStation on the big screen.
Libby seemed almost as excited to play as Toby was. We spent the next hour and a half playing some sports games and then we finally ordered the food.
When I put Toby to bed shortly before nine, I realized that this was the first time my house had felt at all like the home we used to have. It was silly of me to have fantasies that way, and it wasn’t something that I was consciously even trying to do, but as I closed Toby’s door and walked down the stairs to rejoin Libby in the living room, I was given the warmest, most beautiful moment of déjà vu.