14. Aziel
“Hey, baby. What’s up?”
“Aziel, I’ve been calling you for thirty minutes.”
“My bad, baby. I?—”
“It doesn’t matter. You need to come to the school.”
I looked at my watch and wondered why a trip to the school was necessary.
“The school? Why aren’t you home?”
“Because I couldn’t take Ria. Can you come now?”
“Why couldn’t you?—”
“Aziel, please! I’ll tell you the details when you get here.”
She ended the call before I could say anything else, which lowkey pissed me off. I looked up, and all eyes were on me.
“Is everything okay?” Brendan, one of the men I was meeting with, asked.
“Actually, I need to head out. That was my wife, and I need to meet her and my daughter. Can we pick this up via video conference next week?”
“Of course,” Daniel, the other man, said.
I stood and dug into my pocket for my wallet.
“Don’t worry about the bill. We got it.”
“You sure?”
“You’re good, man. Go take care of your family.”
“Thanks. I’ll be in touch.”
On the way to Little Black Pearl, I racked my brain trying to figure out why Desire wasn’t allowed to leave with Azaria. She’d been bringing her to school and home for the past few weeks. No reason came to mind by the time I arrived. When I approached the door, a woman was waiting just inside and opened it for me.
“Mayor Harris, I’m Mrs. Duncan, the school director. I’m sorry to interrupt your day, but?—”
“Where’s my wife and daughter?”
I didn’t intend to be rude, but I didn’t have time for the formalities.
“Waiting in the classroom.”
“Thank you.”
I walked past her but could feel her right behind me. When I entered the classroom, Desire was pacing while Azaria sat coloring at one of the tables.
“Baby.”
She and Azaria looked in my direction and rushed toward me.
“Daaddyy.”
“Hey, baby girl,” I greeted, swooping her into my arms. “Did you have a good day?”
“Yes, look what I colored.” She held a piece of paper up to my face.
“It looks good. Let me talk to Miss Chambries. Go finish coloring your picture for a minute.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
I put her down, and she ran back to the table. When Desire and I made eye contact, her worried eyes concerned me.
“C’mere and tell me what’s wrong.”
She stepped into my arms, and it was as if a dam had been released. I let her cry for a minute, but I was anxious to know what was wrong. Without my urging, she pulled away from me.
“Can we talk at home? I need to get out of here.”
“Whatever you want, baby. Right now, I need to know if you’ve been hurt.”
“Not physically, but we’ll talk about it. Can you help me with those bags?”
I looked in the front of the classroom and saw several bags in front of her desk.
“What are those for?”
“Those are my things, but I don’t want to talk about it now.”
I was annoyed because I wanted to know what the hell had happened, but instead of pressing her, I did as she asked. After grabbing all the bags, she took Azaria’s hand, and we exited the classroom and building.
Mrs. Duncan stopped me to apologize, but I was too pissed to receive it and didn’t know why I was pissed. I told her Azaria wouldn’t return as I exited ahead of them. Desire stopped and said a few words to her before she headed to her car.
When we arrived home, I told Desire to wait in my office while I found Azaria something to watch on TV in the family room. When I entered, she was seated in my desk chair. I took her hand and pulled her up so we could switch places, and she sat on my lap.
“Talk to me, baby, and don’t beat around the bush.”
She sighed. “I got fired.”
My gut told me it was something of that nature, especially because of the bags, but I hoped I was wrong.
“Why? What happened?”
“You.”
“Me? You got fired because of me?”
“Apparently, the school has a strict no-fraternization policy. Employees can’t date other employees or the parents of the students.”
“What? That shit sounds crazy. How the hell can they tell grown people who they can date?”
“It’s in the handbook. Mrs. Duncan said I’m the best teacher she’s ever supervised, and she fought for me, but…”
“That’s some bullshit. It’s not like we’re just messing around; we’re married. As a matter of fact, we never dated.”
“I know, but I guess there’s nothing I can do. God! I can’t believe I lost my job.”
The tears began to flow again. When she told me she quit law school to become a teacher, I knew her love for teaching ran deep. However, seeing her so upset made me realize how deep it was.
“Baby, it’s not the end of the world. There are plenty of good preschools in OC. You can get a job elsewhere. Hell, you don’t have to work at all if you don’t want to.”
“I know I can find another job, but it’s the principle of the matter, and I love Little Black Pearl.”
“Do you want me to see if I can pull some strings?”
She contemplated my question for a moment before declining.
“No, it’ll probably just make things worse. I’ll start applying to preschools on Monday.”
“Monday? Why don’t you take a week off and relax before you start applying?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t had that much free time since I’ve been an adult.”
“Ria will be here with you, so your time won’t be as free as you might think.”
“Why would Ria be here?”
“She no longer attends LBP, so until I have time to vet another school, she doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Az, you don’t have to pull her out of school because they fired me. LBP is a great preschool.”
“It’s great because of you, and you’re no longer there, so Ria won’t be either.”
“I don’t think?—”
“Baby, this ain’t up for discussion. My loyalty is to you. They let you go on some bullshit, and I refuse to pay thousands of dollars to an organization that would do what they did to you.”
“Okay, fine. I’ll make sure Azaria keeps up with her lessons until I find a job, or you find a school for her.”
“We.”
“We, what?”
“Until we find a school for her.”
“Oh, yes, until we find a school. Maybe she can attend the school that hires me.”
“The sounds perfect. Now, we have the rest of the evening and the whole weekend together. What do you want to do?”
“Daddy, can I have ice cream?” Azaria asked when she came into my office. She marched right up to us and extended her arms so Desire could lift her.
“Sure, baby girl. You?—”
“Ria, no ice cream until after dinner,” Desire interjected.
“But I want ice cream first, then dinner.”
“No, you have to eat dinner first. What do you want for dinner?” Desire asked.
“Ice cream.”
I watched as my wife and daughter debated, not adding my two cents because I wanted to see how Desire handled bratty Azaria. Ultimately, they found a resolution: the smaller of the two had to eat dinner before having ice cream.
“I want pasketti and ice cream,” Azaria declared after wiggling from Desire’s lap.
“Do you want to go out or order in?” I asked Desire.
“Did you eat at your meeting?”
“You called before I had a chance. I’m starving.”
“I have the ingredients here to make spaghetti. I’ll cook,” she offered.
“That wasn’t one of the choices, baby. Do you want to go out or order in?”
She sighed with an eye roll. “Fine, we can go out. Let me go freshen up.”
After pecking my lips, she pushed herself from my lap and left me and Azaria in my office, and she replaced Desire on my lap.
“Do you like having Miss Chambries here?”
Azaria still called Desire Miss Chambries, or Miss Chammies, as she would say. I would continue to do the same when talking to my daughter until I was led in another direction.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“’Cause I not have a mommy and her like a mommy.”
Her words hit me in my gut. Azaria was extremely smart for her age and understood things most soon-to-be four-year-olds didn’t. About a month after she started preschool, she asked me if she could have a mommy. I didn’t know how to answer her then, so I changed the subject, and she hadn’t brought it up again.
“You think she’s like a mommy?” She nodded. “Why? What does she do that you think mommies do?”
“Her hug me and tell me I smart and pretty.”
“She’s right. You are smart and pretty. What else does she do?”
“Her help me get ready for bed and make my food.”
“That’s really nice of her. Does it make you happy when she does those things for you?”
“Yes,” she replied with a nod. “And her take me to school and bring me home.”
“Hey, you don’t miss Daddy taking you to school?”
“Miss Chammies say I can hear Gacie’s Corner.”
“Oh, she lets you listen to Gracie, so you don’t like riding with Daddy anymore?”
She giggled and put her little arms around my body as much as she could, hugging me. “Daddy, I love you.”
“Good, because Daddy loves you.”
I already appreciated Desire’s presence in our lives more than I could express. I”d been busy since I announced I would run for the mayoral seat again. The first month of our marriage was probably nothing like she’d imagined. Based on our conversation this morning, my absence was felt, and I needed to make sure she didn’t start to regret taking a chance with me.
“You two ready to go?” Desire asked.
“Let’s roll.”