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A car.He gave me a freakingcar!
And he bought the kids brand-new shoes. And he brought me water this morning. And he tried to wipe the sweat off my face. And he offered me the use of his penthouse whenever I wanted.
He could tell me a trillion times that he isn’t doing any of this to be kind. None of it’s personal. It’s all about optimal professionalism. Increased efficiency. Bane’s reputation, his reputation, et cetera.
But the tiny little smile playing on his lips as I walked out of his office told an entirely different story. In other words, my quest to stay emotionally detached is completely fucked.
As am I.
* * *
The call picks up. “Hey, Amelia, are the kids around?”
“Yup!” the sitter says brightly. “We’re just building Legos in the living room.”
I amsofreaking excited. I’m squiggling around in my seat. “Awesome. Can you ask them to come to the window, please?”
“Uh, sure.” The line fizzles with a little static. “Hey, kiddos! Auntie Em wants you guys to go to the window. Em, I’m putting you on speaker.”
I roll back the Mercedes’ sunroof and stick my head out. A second later, Josh’s face pops up at the apartment window. Then Caroline’s. Then Reagan’s. Through the phone, I can hear their little gasps going off like firecrackers.
“Auntie Em!” Reagan squeals, waving eagerly at me.
“Coolcar,” Caroline quips with wide eyes.
“You bought a car?” Josh gasps.
I laugh at their reactions. “I didn’t buy the car. It’s a company car, but it’s mine. So—who wants a ride?”
Again, I’m hit with a barrage of responses.
Reagan: “Me! Me!Meeee!”
Caroline: “Ido!Ido!Ido!”
Josh: “Shotgun!”
Laughing, I hold the phone away from my ear. “Amelia?”
She clearly takes me off speaker because the chaos on her side gets cut down by half. Josh steps off to the side and she takes his place at the window. There’s a huge smile on her face. “What’s up?”
“For the first time ever, I can offer you a ride back home.”
“Are you sure?”
“Hundred percent.”
“Amazing. Be down in five.”
“Five minutes?” I laugh. “Ambitious.”
Sure enough, it’s fifteen minutes later before Amelia troops towards the car like the Pied Piper with all three kids trailing. She hops in the front while the kids bunch up in the spacious back seat of the deep blue Mercedes.
I ran a quick Google search on the car when I first saw it gleaming out in front of the Bane building. It claims the country’s highest child occupant protection rating at a whopping ninety-one percent. Something tells me that wasn’t an accident.
Which is enough to make my heart melt in ways it really, really shouldn’t.
The kidsoohandaahover the car the whole way to Amelia’s place. She and I don’t manage to get a word in edgewise. After we drop her off, Josh jumps into the front seat.
