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She went back to work while she listened to the buzzing of the car and the sounds of it smashing into her desk and other chairs.
Her phone rang and she snapped her fingers to get her son’s attention. “Turn it off while I take this call, please.”
Eli did as asked. She answered her call and dealt with the tenant on the fifth floor with a toilet that wouldn’t stop running. Maintenance in the building could at least take care of that with any luck without having to call Royce. Worst case, she’d go find one of Royce’s men on another floor to see if they could fix it before a plumber was called.
While she’d been on the phone, Eli was moving the chairs around to form a racecourse. There was no reason to tell him no. If it occupied him, it was better than watching him pout.
She looked at her watch and saw it was barely ten and she still had two and a half hours before her mother would be here.
She should have just taken the morning off, she realized. Or worked from home. They’d given her that option too.
But nope, she couldn’t bring herself to do that. She didn’t want anyone to think she was taking advantage of anything.
Another hour went by. “I’ve got to pee, Mom.”
“I’ll take you,” she said.
“I know where the bathroom is,” Eli said. “It's just around the corner. I’ll be fine.”
She wanted to say no, but saw the look in his eyes and told herself that he’d be okay. There were enough people around and cameras too. There was a hallway ten feet away from her office door and the bathrooms were down that way.
“If you’re not back in three minutes I’m going to come get you,” she said, grinning and holding her watch up.
Eli loved that game and took off running out the door. She cringed when she saw him skirt around someone by her office, but they only laughed.
Two minutes went by and Eli wasn’t back, so she stood up thinking she’d go into the hallway and keep an eye out for him.
As she opened the door, Trent was coming into the building. Damn it, so much for keeping this a secret. Though she wasn’t sure why she was. It’s not like she was embarrassed to have a child or anything.
“Morning, Roni,” Trent said.
“Morning, Trent.” She wasn’t going to say much more and hoped he’d go about his trek to his office.
Eli chose that moment to come running around the corner and ran right into Trent because her son wasn’t paying attention.
“I’m sorry,” Eli said fast.
“It’s fine,” Trent said. “Dude, you’ve got some speed to you. Are you training for an obstacle course? A marathon? Nah, you’re a sprinter. With the way you tried to dodge me, parkour?”
“Par what?” Eli asked, his nose wrinkling.
“Parkour. It’s where people run and jump over things. Maybe run up walls and do flips to get out of the way.”
“That sounds coooool,” her son said. “Mom, can I learn parkour?”
Trent turned his head and made eye contact with her. Then he looked down at Eli and back to her. “He looks like you.”
“He does,” she said. “Eli, what do you say?”
“I said I was sorry, Mom. But I was trying to get back in three minutes. I was close, wasn’t I? And now I went over, but you’re here and it’s fine so I made it.”
Trent started to laugh. Until her son gave that lengthy explanation she hadn’t realized that Eli had the trait of talking a lot like Trent. Though Eli didn’t often do it with strangers.
“Three minutes?” he asked.
“Yes,” Eli said. “Mom thinks I’m still a baby and can’t go to the bathroom alone. But she shouldn’t have to go into the men’s room and it’s just around the corner. I said I’d be fine, but I had three minutes or she sends in the search party. She normally says the hounds, but we don’t have a dog even though I want one. See, Mom, if I had a dog, they could go to the bathroom with me and keep me safe.”
“Take a breath, Eli,” she said gently but rolled her eyes just the same.
