He Melts My Heart

When I started to make plans for this blog, my original idea was to document the last year my son would be home, turn 18, and graduate high school. I knew there would be a lot of memories I would want to preserve, and a  journey of endless reflections and emotions. I decided to go broader knowing I could encompass all of that and more. But, this micro memoir is just the type of thing I had in mind.
     Another summer day, I made my way downstairs leaving my teenage son behind, sleeping. I made a mental note to call him an hour before he needed to be at swim practice, as I heard him up late playing online games with his friends. Then I was out the door to work. An hour and a half later, I made the reminder phone call and woke him up. He insisted he had his alarm set and he'd make it to practice. I crossed my fingers and believed him. Then I went about my business at work. After finishing up a meeting, I meandered back to my office and checked my email and phone messages. It was almost noon and I had missed two calls from my son. Normally two failed attempts of him trying to reach me would make me nervous. But I quickly recalled having left him a text to call me later. I needed his help with something tech-related, and he is my in-house tech support. Nobody better, and he's not a dick about it. I called him back. "Hey mom, how are you?"
     "Hey! Good, how was practice?"
     "It was good, and I just left the other pool too." He had been hired with the city to be a lifeguard. Earlier in the week he completed the orientation and today he had to go by the pool to find out what his work schedule will be. "I'm going to have a full forty hour workweek!" He was excited because this job pays three dollars more per hour than his other job. Now he will have the benefit of both.
     "That's terrific! Working outside in the sun all day sure will affect your sleep schedule." He knew that was a lighthearted jab, and laughed as he told me he probably won't be able stay up late anymore.
     "Are you busy? I'm close to you and I was thinking of getting lunch. Do you want me to pick you up something?" I don't think he could ever know how delighted I was by his offer. I explained I had a salad with me and he could grab himself some lunch and come eat with me at my office if he wanted to.
     "You can park around back and come in the door by my office, so you don't have to walk through on parade." He's a chick magnet at my school. All the girls ogle him and sneak out to come by my office and check him out when he's in the building. His visits are usually followed by an afternoon of the girls telling me how cute he is and asking me all kinds of questions about him. Admittedly, I like it. I'm very proud of him and of course I think he's gorgeous. Not biased at all. But he gets embarrassed by the attention, so I sneak him in the back.
     And he came. He didn't bring lunch so I didn't eat mine. We just talked for almost an hour. about random stuff. Lucky for me, it was quiet and no one called for me or pulled me away for anything. He ate a couple of candies out of the bowl on my desk, talked about how comfortable the wheely chair in my office was, and we chatted. It was the absolute highlight of my day. And when I walked him out back to his truck he said,
     "See you tonight. Love you."
     "I love you too kiddo. See you when I get home." He drove off and I went back to work.  And for the rest of the afternoon I felt wonderful. Late in the afternoon I texted him. "Thanks for coming to visit me today." And he responded,
     "It was my pleasure." And my heart melted, because the pleasure was all mine.