The next morning, when Brent arrived at the office, he was surprised to see Gabriel’s red Tesla Model X parked on the street outside the office. Gabriel had been in the office yesterday, which meant today was a work-from-home day. Brent pushed through the doors and went to his desk and dropped off his bag  and then walked over towards Gabriel’s office.

“Is he with someone, Linda?”

“Nope. Go stick your head in.”

Brent went to the office door and knocked before opening it. “Hey! What brings you in– oh, hey! Look who’s here! Angel baby! Hi Lailah!” he said to her in the inevitable gentle sing-song voice everyone saved just for babies of all species.

Sitting on a play mat in the middle of the floor, gnawing drool-fully on a rubber giraffe, was Lailah, Gabriel and Alex’s daughter. She looked up and gave him a charming and very gummy smile, her two bottom teeth, her only teeth, doing the absolute most to win him over. As a result of coaching the Quirls, Brent had developed a soft spot for gummy smiles, so Lailah’s efforts weren’t wasted. So cute.

Brent dropped to the floor to sit cross-legged in front of her. Immediately Lailah went forward onto her hands and knees and started rocking slightly in the hopes that the momentum would carry her the three feet to her goal.

“She’s crawling already?” he asked, surprised.

“Nope. See? She’s gotten as far as twerking, but that’s it. She hasn’t figured out the moving your hands and knees part. If she’s really gotta get somewhere, she rolls. Two days ago, I almost had a heart attack– I went to the kitchen to get something to drink and when I came back, she’d disappeared. I frantically looked for the longest minute of my life before I saw the skirt of the sofa moving around. Turns out she’d rolled under the couch to commune with the dust bunnies. I didn’t even know she could fit under there.”

“Lailah, you’re a ninja!” said Brent, giving her nose a boop. Lailah’s eyes crossed watching his finger and then she grinned again post-boop. “She’s such a people person.”

“Yeah, she’s a real geese goose,” Gabriel confirmed.

Frustrated with her inertia, Lailah pushed herself back onto her rump, and gave Brent a very pitiful look and a whimper. 

“Lailah, do you want to be picked up?” he reached over and put his hands around her little middle and waited to see if she leaned into them for a lift-off. She leaned. Brent lifted. Then lifted some more until she was way above his head and Lailah was giggling happily and paddling the air with her feet.

Gabriel snorted. “Shameless. My child is shameless. Also, she’s going to drool on you.”

“She already did,” said Brent placidly, zooming her around gently as she happily kicked her little legs in their little hedgehog-print onesie with little hedgehog foot puppets. “She is such a blend of you and Alex.”

“Yeah, I wanted her to look like Alex. Alex wanted her to look like me. Instead, she’s like a fifty-fifty mixture. My eye color, his hair color, even blend of facial features. Both sides of the family are convinced she looks like them. Either we both won or we both lost that negotiation.”

Brent studied the little black curls above her ears and scattered around the back of her head, the big green eyes with their impossible eyelashes, the round pink cheeks (albeit glazed with drool), the little rosebud mouth, and the dimpled chin. “I’d say you both won. She’s such a doll. So what brings you both in today?” Brent asked as he brought Lailah’s hedgehog feet down to the ground so she could push off the floor and he could help her blast off, which made her feel very impressed with herself, judging by the snorty giggles and joyful kicks.

Gabriel coughed self-consciously. “Uh, nothing much. Just forgot a few documents on my desk that I needed for something.”

“Jem or Linda couldn’t scan them in for you?” asked Brent, lifting an eyebrow.

Gabriel surrendered without a fight. “Alright, fine. The jig is up. You know why I’m here. So what happened?”

“Lailah,” said Brent, looking above at Lailah zooming overhead, “your Maddy is the shameless one, and don’t let him tell you any differently.”

“Brent, come on. What happened? I’m dying.”

“I went to the bar. Did you know Will can sing?”

“I did not.”

“Like really sing.”

“Huh. Good to know. And then?”

“The whole bar was cheering for him.”

“Brent.”

“And then we left together.”

“Yesssss!!!!”

“And I got his number!”

“YASSSSS!!!! Congratulations! Can I tell Alex? Can I tell the Diamond Dogs?”

Getting into the spirit of the thing, Brent put Lailah in front of his face, “Yes, Lailah, your Maddy can spill my tea. And then Lailah, and then do you know what I found out?” He jiggled Lailah gently and she chortled. “Is that Lail-ese for oh, please tell me more, Brent? Ok, since it’s you and you’ve already heard all about this situation, I’ll tell you. Will said– are you ready for this, Lailah?-- he said he’d spent the whole month being annoyed that he hadn’t noticed what color my eyes are. And I think that’s a good sign.”

Gabriel oooooh’d. “I think that’s a good sign, too, Lailah.”

Brent looked at Lailah seriously. “Lailah, drool if you think it’s a good sign.” Obligingly, Lailah drooled right onto the charcoal-dyed merino wool of Brent’s custom-tailored pants.

“Yes! It’s unanimous,” said Brent cheerfully.

He gave Lailah one final zoom-around and then stood up and brought her to Gabriel. “Go work your magic on Maddy, Lailah. I have a funny feeling that now that he’s found his documents, he’ll be ready to head home and spend the day hanging out with you and answering emails and putting out fires, and I have to go file boring digital paperwork today.” 

Immediately Lailah fussed and reached for Brent again, because he was exotic and engaging and seemed just the right amount of dangerous and therefore was a very entertaining playmate. “Unbelievable,” said Gabriel with an eyeroll, giving Lailah a little bounce. “Do not tell Alex our child likes you better than us.”

“What can I say? I have a way with the ladies, whether I need it or not.”

“Get out of my office, you vile seducer. And please hand me that giraffe before you go. As for you, sugar beet, let’s pack up and go home before you break your poor father’s heart. Brent?”

“Hmm?”

“I really do think that sounds very promising. I’m happy for you. Fingers very crossed.”

“Thanks. Thanks for your help yesterday. Thank Victoria for me, too, please.”

“Sure. And to paraphrase what Jem once said to me when I was dating Alex, I’d have done it for the Brill tea alone. The Went tea? Whichever. Point is, I’d have done it just for the tea.”

“I’ll bet. Bye Lailah! See you at the next Poker Night!”