Today is my first day back at work. After our emotional Sunday, the girls and I stayed home Monday and Tuesday. My little empaths absorbed my sadness and energy, so we all needed time to just love on each other and heal.
Xai, although extremely busy with preparing for his grand opening, stayed with us until late Monday afternoon. He wouldn’t leave until he saw smiles on all three of our faces and I love him for that. I love him for all that he is for me and my babies. Never have I been treasured and loved by a man this unselfishly and it feels amazing. This weekend he’s going with us to Splash Mountain. Thanks to my mom, we have annual passes to the waterpark.
“You know you could have taken the whole week off.” Dr. Denim’s smooth tenor tears me from my thoughts.
“I’ve taken enough time off already,” I counter.
“You’ve been with me for seven years; you’ve earned all the time you need. Just don’t feel like you have to be here when you can’t,” he says sincerely. I have the best boss. He’s been so understanding, he and his wife Jamila. When I first found out about my mom, she volunteered to keep the girls. I had Kandi and Celeste but I really appreciated the offer.
“Thank you, Doctor. I appreciate that but I should be here until my annual week off in August.” Averi and Romi’s birthdays are three days apart, the eighteenth and twenty-first. I always take that week off to celebrate them, and now that they are both in school, it’s usually their last week of summer break. Little Einsteins is year-round with a week off in the spring, three weeks in summer, two weeks in the fall, and three weeks in winter .
“The week of the seventeenth. I remember,” he says. “You’re heading out?”
“In fifteen. I’m charting patient notes then I’m out.”I owe my girls cinnamon toast for dinner.
“If I don’t see you, good night.”
“Good night.”
Dr. Denim walks to his corner office and I finish my notes from this afternoon’s orthognathic surgery. This surgery requires a two-day hospital stay, and since we are outpatient, I assisted Dr. Denim at the hospital for this procedure. Tomorrow morning, I’ll report to Mount Sinai with him to check on the patient.
When I finish, I grab my lunch kit and tote then head out. Because I want a flawless and successful breakfast for dinner attempt tonight, I call Kandi’s grandma, MeeMee, hoping she knows my mother’s cinnamon toast secret. I’m praying she does.
“This is Mattie,” she answers in her sweet, New Orleans accent.
“Hey, MeeMee.”
“Oh hey, cher,” she says when she recognizes my voice. “How are you and the girls? I enjoyed their visit a few weeks ago. Averi is getting tall.”
“She is. I think she’s going to be as tall as me.”
“Or taller,” she says. “But you’re okay? You’re taking care of yourself? And drinking that juice?” she asks, laughing.
I’m going to kill Kandi.
“Your granddaughter talks too much,” I say, laughing too.
“She does but that’s not the point. Drink the juice. You got a man now and Celeste says he’s cute too.”
“He is,” I confirm while blushing a little. “But I have a question.”
“What is it, cher?”
“The girls want cinnamon toast. I’ve tried making it but they keep telling me it’s not like their nana’s. It’s something so simple but I’m messing it up. I don’t know how she made it and I’m hoping you do.”
“It’s simple, cher. It’s just unsalted butter, not margarine, equal parts white and brown sugar, cinnamon, and just a pinch of salt.”
“I used margarine and just white sugar. I would have never guessed that. Thank you so much,” I say, truly appreciative. Nailing this toast for my babies may seem small but it’s huge for me, for all of us. They loved their nana’s toast and making it correctly for them will help heal my heart.
“You’re more than welcome. The little things matter.”
“Yes, they do. Thanks again, MeeMee.”
“Any time,” she says before ending the call.
After starting my ride, I head to Little Einsteins and grab Averi and Romi. From the school, we run to The Marketplace. I have everything but the unsalted butter so we grab it and I let them choose their snacks for the waterpark this weekend.
Once we make it to the house, our nightly routine begins, starting with our baths. After everyone’s braids are under our bonnets and we are all in our pjs, we head to the kitchen. We clean their lunch boxes and add the lunch kits I grabbed from The Marketplace, then we start dinner.
