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By the time the afternoon rolled around, I’d already been to the bookstore and printed out several articles with suggestions on how to help a child of trauma and loss acclimate to a new situation.
I texted Adam ahead of time, figuring that Wolfie didn’t need any surprises, even if it was just me dropping by. Adam informed me that he’d taken Wolfie to his practice. So, I headed to Brooklyn, materials in hand and an odd tugging of excitement blooming in my chest.
“It’s just Adam,” I muttered to myself as I fished out my compact and examined my face. It’d been a tough couple of days, and I could see that reflected in my facial features. I rooted around in my back for some mascara.
“You got a hot date or something?” the cab driver asked in a conversational tone.
“What?” I asked, distracted. “No, I’m just taking care of some business,” I replied, glancing toward the rearview mirror and briefly meeting the eyes of the driver. The skin around her eyes crinkled in a smile, and I felt my cheeks redden once I realized what I was doing. Hastily, I tossed my tube of mascara back into my bag and smiled sheepishly at the driver.
“It’s not like that,” I told her. “I mean, not at the moment, anyway. There was that one night we slept together, but that was just a one-time thing,” I explained. The driver didn’t say anything, just raised her eyebrows in clear interest. “I know what you’re thinking, but we’re not well suited for one another at all. I mean, the man is insufferable, we always argue when we’re together—”
“Apparently, not always…” she trailed off.
My shoulders slumped as my mind raced through all the moments that Adam and I hadn’t been arguing. “Well, yeah, I guess,” I admitted quietly. “But we’re two progressive adults, we can just have fun for one night without that meaning anything.”
“Of course you can, it’s not like you still think about him or anything like that,” the driver said suggestively.
"I mean, it was hands down the best sex I've ever had, and he does pop up in my head way more often than I'm comfortable with, but that's only because of the orgasms."
At that, the driver's eyebrows shot straight up into her hairline. I grimaced at the rearview mirror. "And that was way too much information. I'll shut up now," I said yanking my eyes back to the thick folder in my hands.
I opened up the front cover to once again eyeball the copious number of notes I'd put together for Adam. He'd probably bitch, but I didn't graduate at the top of my law school class by skating by. I'd fostered the ability to conduct large amounts of research quickly, and I had a talent for culling through the bullshit quickly. It made me very effective at my job. I just wasn't so sure how effective it would make me in helping Adam with taking care of a child.
Whatever doubts I had were calmed by Amy's advice on kids: "One day at a time, and lots of love and patience."
Wolfgang was certainly going to take a lot of both of those things, especially after hearing about the nightmares from Adam.
With a twist to my gut, I remembered why I was doing what I was doing—it wasn't to see Adam again. It wasn't just some excuse to pick a fight with this man that for whatever reason I couldn't stop thinking about. It was to make sure that both came Adam and Wolfgang came out of this okay.
When I arrived in front of Adam's practice, I marveled again at the state of it. It wasn't run down by any means, but it was definitely not what one expected from a Rollins.
I'd only been there once before to drop something off for Brian when we were still together. The building had been standing since the forties, and it certainly looked like it. I appreciated its old charm, and I was glad that Adam hadn't decided to modernize it too much, other than the medical equipment, of course. It would've stuck out like a sore thumb in this neighborhood.
When I exited the taxi, my cab driver yelled after me, "Good luck with the guy who doesn't mean a thing, but definitely means something," she yelled out in her singsong voice.
I gritted my teeth at the comment. How dare this woman state the obvious to me? I didn't need that kind of heckling during this time. Besides, I was really only doing this because I was soft-hearted. That's all it was, I told myself. Adam had needed a favor, and I was coming through. And it was definitely more so for Wolfgang than for Adam.
I smoothed my hand over my hair, hoping the springtime humidity hadn't made it frizz too much. When I was younger, I used to rejoice in being able to let all the wild waves go untended during my summers in California. But I hadn't been able to make that vacation with my dad in a couple of years, and I realized that meant there had not been a day that my hair had not been yanked back into a no-nonsense bun in the last couple of years.
I walked inside to see a handful of patients in the waiting room. Adam had told me yesterday that he had one of his doctor friends take over his more serious cases for the day and that he would try to extend that out for at least the rest of the week, so I had been surprised when he told me he was at his office. I figured there'd been an emergency, but as I told the secretary manning the front that I was there to see Dr. Rollins, the older woman— Nancy, judging by the name of her desk placard— looked slightly panicky as I started to move my way towards the hall where I knew Adam's office was. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but Dr. Rollins is in with a very important patient right now."
From my vantage point, I could hear the laughter of a small child and instantly felt the corners of my mouth lift with a smile. The sound of that laughter did my heart good. I leaned towards the secretary and informed her in a quiet voice, " I know. I am that important patient's lawyer."
"Oh, you must be Ms. Miles. He told me you might be here today. You got your materials, I see," she said, not unkindly, nodding toward the folder in my hand.
I looked down sheepishly at the folder and nodded. "Yeah, I don't know how much Adam will use, but I want to help—you wouldn't happen to have any children?"
She scoffed. "Oh, God, no, that's part of the reason I love working here. All of Adam's patients are mostly elderly. Don't get me wrong, I love being the favorite aunt, but kids were never in my wheelhouse. Sorry, I'm probably not much help."
"That's all right. I am assuming it's okay if I head back there…?" I asked her, wanting to be sure.
She nodded and reminded me which door was Adam's office. I headed down the small hallway and tried to convince myself that the nerves I was feeling were for Wolfgang. I was worried about the kid, but I didn't want him to see my concern. He needed to have confidence in the adults around him.
I sucked in a steadying breath as I faced Adam's door, then knocked softly. "Come in," Adam's deep voice called out, and a shiver of excitement raced through me.
I swung open the door to find Adam sitting behind his desk while Wolfgang sat up on the examination table, batting around a latex glove that had been blown up like a balloon. He was in the middle of lobbing it across the small office to Adam when it flew past Adam's head and hit the floor. Wolfgang announced, "My point. I'm leading by three now, Uncle Adam."
"I'm not so sure the point before this one counted," Adam argued playfully. "I think you might've been using some sort of illegal substance—some sort of spitball action," he teased a laughing Wolfgang.
