James opened his door to find Sora standing outside. He looked at his watch to check if he thought it was the right date and then back at his daughter.
Weekday schedules were routine. For the past 6 months of James living with Nadine and Sora, it was simple: Nadine brings Sora to school and James picks Sora up. By the time James gets to the kitchen for breakfast, Nadine would have already made Sora breakfast but would be upstairs getting ready for work so she has as little interaction with James as possible. So to see Sora outside his room, in her pajamas, and not eating was out of the ordinary.
"Is there a problem, baby?"
"Mommy didn't wake me up this morning," she said, looking up at him with a pout on her face.
James picked her up and walked upstairs to Nadine's room.
"Are you sure you have daycare today?"
Sora nodded excessively, "I'm supposed to make glitter slime with Tiana today. And Ms. Jenkins said she wants us to write our names on the wall since it's almost the end of the year."
When they reached Nadine's door, James knocked and looked at Sora waiting for it to open. But when no one did, James turned the knob. In the past 6 months, he's never seen Nadine's room, so he felt like he was intruding a little when he opened the door.
Sora moved her body forward so they would walk in, but James already saw the reason why Nadine wasn't out of bed and set Sora down.
"Baby, I think Mommy's not going to work today," closing the door, blocking Sora from going inside. "Why don't we get you changed and I'll bring you to school today, okay?"
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"Tina, can you send me a copy of all the resumes for the clerical assistant position on PDF? I'll look over them at home," James said to one of his lowerheads.
Right after college, James had gotten a job at one of the biggest architectural firms in Sydney. In just a couple of years, he was able to prove his worth and climb the ranks to project manager. It was easy for the senior partners to have him take over the senior manager/ junior partner position in their new Belmont location.
After being a junior partner for 3 years now, a promotion was being rumored for James to become senior partner of the Belmont firm. Everyone in the office knew it had to be James, so they were all wondering why it was taking the CEOs and board of directors so long to process it.
But right now, that wasn't his main concern. He was taking the rest of the day off to take care of bed-ridden-with-a-cold Nadine. She wasn't going to ask him to take care of her, but he figured he might be useful to her, even if it's just making soup.
The past 6 months were great because James really feels like he's getting the hang of the whole parenting thing with Sora. He's strict when he needs to be, but Sora's such a good child that he rarely needs to be. He always reads a story to her before Nadine tucks her into bed and he's slept in her room a couple times when the "boogeyman" is hiding under her bed.
Loving Sora was easy and he really does feel like he's done a good job that Sora loves him as her father, but Nadine was obviously the harder one to crack out of the two women in the house. She took every opportunity she could to avoid him, whether it's getting ready for the day when he's eating breakfast with Sora or coming home just before Sora's bedtime. James actually felt that Nadine notices the walls at home than she does him.
"Going home early?" his assistant asked.
"Nadine's sick... and..." he hesitated.
Tina was his assistant back in Sydney that got transferred over to Belmont with him. Although she never got a degree and said she's okay with being the assistant, James knew there was more potential in her. Over the years, Tina's been his confidant in all the work and non-work related issues, so she knew more than enough about his situation with Nadine.
