Chapter Text
Taking his phone out of his pocket, Tom suppressed a sigh as he saw the name of who was calling him.
Shiv.
They rarely spoke to one and other these days, both aware that it would in all likelihood lead to bitter stinging words, if not an outright argument between them.
The only topic they properly discussed together with any frequency was that of their eleven-month-old daughter, Madeline. And that was only through the necessity. Their marriage had left the pair of them deeply wounded. Perhaps one day they would be able to be cordial with one and other again; even laugh and take pleasure in the happier moments they shared together before everything turned to shit.
But Tom knew that Shiv resented him, both for believing he had taken her final months with her father away from her, and even more so for stealing her father’s company despite her having cast the final vote in his favour.
Although closer to power than Kendall and Roman, in the end, Shiv couldn’t come to terms with Tom being CEO. It didn’t help matters either that any passion that Tom held for Shiv had evaporated long before that.
A small part of Tom believed that he still loved her. Just not in the way he once had. The same couldn’t be said for Shiv, however. Considering that she had once told him she didn’t love him during the course of their marriage, even if it was apparently roleplay, it didn’t come as any sort of shock to him.
They divorced shortly before Madeline was born.
Their divorce was widely publicised. The reason for the dissolution of their marriage was reported merely as ‘irreconcilable differences.’ While not necessarily untrue, it was a massive understatement if there ever was one.
Although Tom had the best lawyers in the city at his disposal, Tom conceded on a lot of things in their divorce agreement, purely because he wanted to get it over with.
One thing that Tom wasn’t willing to yield on however, was getting joint custody of Madeline. Tom wanted to be a part of his daughter’s life as much as he possibly could, and for that, he would make no compromise. And so, they decided on an equal split.
Tom suspected that Shiv would have preferred full custody, but perhaps fearing that he might try to do the same in retaliation and with his gaggle of lawyers on retainer, had made the decision not to take the risk. Tom believed it was for the best. As awkward as it made things still having Shiv in his life, he wanted Madeline to grow up with both a father and a mother. He just wished it was altogether as a family like he had always believed it would be. How his own upbringing had been. Two parents occupying the same space and deeply in love with one and other.
Tom was sure that his younger self would be devastated by such a turn of events – not that his younger, more naïve, optimistic self could have possibly predicted any of this. But the present Tom was older and jaded and resigned to things not going the way he wanted them to. It made it easier to accept.
Of course, not being together as family as he envisioned in no way impacted the love he held for his daughter. Tom absolutely adored her. He loved being a dad, and he found it almost impossible to imagine his life without Madeline in it. If he had to choose one good thing to come out of his disaster of a marriage to Shiv, then it was Maddie without a doubt.
Tom just wished he got to spend more time with her. While he had Maddie for half of the week and Shiv the next half, with them alternating on who got her for that pesky extra day in the week, Tom still spent the vast majority of his time in the office.
Even during the weekend when he wasn’t there, he would still receive numerous phone calls and e-mails. As such, it was difficult to view them as true days off.
Unsurprisingly, CEO was a far more demanding than his previous position at ATN.
To Tom’s dismay, often he wouldn’t arrive home until Maddie had already been put down to sleep for the evening. His heart would break in those moments as he gazed down at Maddie, lamenting the time he didn’t get to spend with her. When he went to bed for the night and even though he was bone tired, Tom found himself willing the baby monitor on the nightstand to transmit her crying so he could rush to her room and swoop in and save his daughter from whatever discomfort she was experiencing just like any good dad should.
Maddie’s nanny, Gabriela was great, but at the same time, Tom couldn’t help resenting her for all the time she got to spend with his daughter that he couldn’t; was frightened that Maddie would become more attached to her then him. It was silly and unreasonable as Gabriela was simply doing her job, but he worried, nonetheless that he wasn’t there for her enough.
Paradoxically, Tom was less concerned about Maddie bonding more with Shiv than him. Not that he believed that Shiv didn’t love their daughter. But he was also aware of how hyper focused Shiv became whenever she was pursuing something and how it often left little room for anything or anybody else.
With everything that had gone down with Eavis and Shiv having decided to return to politics, she was currently doing her best to regain her previous footing in D.C. It was no easy feat, but she appeared to be succeeding as far as Tom could tell. While a lot of it would be due to her tenaciousness and ability to sweettalk people, even with Logan gone, the Roy name still carried a great deal of weight. Between that and the massive fortune she had accumulated in the merger with Gojo – Well, both would certainly work in Shiv’s favour.
With this in mind, Tom suspected that Madeline probably spent a great deal of time with the nannies that Shiv had hired.
He’d had a sitter for a few years himself as a kid when he was too young yet to stay in the house alone. It tended only to be for a few hours at a time when his parents work schedules overlapped, however. Tom knew that Shiv and her brothers all had full-time nannies growing up. That with Logan far too busy at work to pay them much mind and Caroline being – well, Caroline, it was their nannies that primarily reared them. Considering how they had all turned out, it was safe to say Tom didn’t want that for his own daughter. And so, he tried his hardest to be around as much as he could, often going home for lunch when there was a big enough gap in his schedule to allow it, or occasionally having Gabriela bring Maddie to the office so they could spend even a small amount of time together.
After he and Shiv and her various nannies, the next person Maddie saw the most would be none other than Greg.
Outside of work-related events, which admittedly, still did took up a great deal of his time, Tom’s social life was more or less non-existent. Whenever Tom had Maddie staying, he wanted to dedicate as much time to her as possible, and when he didn’t, more often than not he just wanted to veg out on the couch and not think and do nothing other than mindlessly watch TV. It would have sounded far lonelier and perhaps even pathetic if not for Greg essentially being his constant companion during such times.
He would call Greg up and demand that he come over and keep him company, occasionally under the guise of something work related. Greg was a bit resistant initially whenever Tom did so, frequently claiming he had a date with whatever women of the week he happened to be infatuated with. However, as soon as Tom reminded him that he had fought to keep Greg in the company after he went off and tattled to Kendall about Shiv no longer being in the running for CEO, it would normally be enough to make Greg shut up and head over. Eventually, over time, Greg stopped complaining, even coming over of his own accord.
One of the things that had taken Tom by surprise was Greg’s fondness for Maddie. While Greg claimed to be happy for Tom, he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about him becoming a father at first.
“I don’t know. I guess I’m not really a kid person? I mean as concept they’re fine, but around them, I’m not –”
“As a concept, Greg?” Tom scoffed. “Is that what my precious child will be to you? A being that is essentially an extension of me, is nothing more than a mere concept?”
“I didn’t mean it like that – But won’t it be like an extension of Shiv as well since you’re both their parents?”
Tom folded his arms. “And your point being?”
Greg shrugged. “Nothing. I just kind of think they’re their own people at the end of the day.”
“I don’t need you to tell me that, Greg!” Tom snapped.
Tom was frustrated that Greg could be so blasé about something so important to him. Greg had simply replied with ‘Oh, that’s cool, man,’ when he had shown him the last ultrasound. Perhaps, it was unreasonable of him, but Tom wanted Greg to be just as excited about the arrival of his child as he was.
Despite his clear lack of excitement, Greg remained with Tom at the hospital throughout the entirety of Shiv’s labour, comforting him after Shiv kicked him out the room, which had resulted in him becoming a panicked mess, having wanted to be present for the birth of his child. Tom felt a bit like a pre-1960’s father banned from the delivery room and reduced to doing nothing else other than pacing up and down the waiting room. Like so many things, it was not what he had envisioned for himself when finally going to become a dad.
As for the rest of the Roy clan, Kendall, who hadn’t spoken with either Shiv or Roman since the merger vote, had gone M.I.A somewhere and Connor was currently abroad but was currently on a ten-hour flight back to New York. Meanwhile, Caroline thought it made more sense to arrive after all the messy business with the birth was over with and so would try and fly out the next day if possible. This left only Roman as the readily available immediate family member. In this rare instance, Tom was considered the better option and allowed back into the room after Shiv lost her temper over some of colour-joke Roman made. Not surprisingly really.
Madeline was born at four-forty-two am from caesarean section. Tom burst into tears the second he saw her. While he would have been happy regardless of the sex as long as his child was healthy, it was only when she was born that Tom realised just how much he had wanted a baby girl.
Connor arrived a couple of hours after the birth, and to everyone’s shock, Kendall actually showed face. Tom decided to give them some privacy, it more than clear, that he wasn’t welcome; that just because he sired a Roy, didn’t mean that he was considered part of the family anymore. As such, Greg had to wait a while before he got the opportunity to finally meet Maddie.
“She’s so cute!” Greg declared when Tom introduced her. “Wow, she even has your nose!” Tom wasn’t sure if Greg was just saying that to appease him, but Tom liked to think there was some resemblance there even though it was obvious she was going to take after her mother in the looks department.
“Hey Madeline. I’m your cousin Greg. Although, I guess, Uncle Greg would maybe be more appropriate?”
“I doubt it’ll make any difference,” Tom replied, feeling bizarrely elated at getting to show off the perfect creature in his arms to Greg of all people.
“Oh, I got her something!” Greg announced suddenly.
Greg hurried back into the waiting room, returning with a large stuffed green dinosaur plushie.
“Here!” Greg exclaimed, holding it out for Tom to see.
Tom cocked an eyebrow. “Really, Greg?” While it didn’t look badly made, it was nothing compared to some of the costly and intricately detailed toys they had received for Madeline already. “This is what you got for my precious little angel to celebrate her birth? They didn’t have any stuffed unicorns or puppies at the store you went to?” questioned Tom, slightly baffled by Greg’s choice.
“Well, I didn’t know what the sex Maddie was going to be so I figured that a unicorn might be – Not that I prescribe to the belief that kids should only play with toy’s associated with their assigned sex at birth, of course! But I also thought what kid doesn’t love dinosaurs? You know like, Barney? Or Godzilla? Although Godzilla isn’t ‘technically’ a dinosaur per se. He’s actually a kaiju who –”
Tom held up his hand. “I’m pretty sure that Barney hasn’t been on the air for over a decade, Greg. And I think Maddie is a little too young to be seeing a movie about a giant monster wreaking havoc through a densely populated city,” said Tom shooting Greg an unimpressed look. It didn’t last long however, and with an amused chuckle, he smiled. “But thank you. I’m sure if she was capable right now, she would appreciate it.”
“I, uh, got her this one as well,” Greg replied, handing him another stuffed dinosaur, this one yellow and smaller than the first. “I know that one’s a bit big, so I was thinking, if you wanted to, you could maybe put this one in her crib or whatever?”
“Greg, do you know how many expensive and elegant stuffed animals she’s received already? Do you really expect me to put this cheap thing in her crib with her out of all those other options?”
Greg pouted. “It wasn’t cheap.”
Tom rolled his eyes. “Fine. Whatever. It can go in the pile. That or Mondale can have it.”
It didn’t end up in Maddie’s crib nor with Mondale, Tom instead placing it right next to the big one which rested on one of the shelves directly across from her crib. Greg smiled when he spotted it when Tom gave him a tour of the recently completed nursery.
“Ooh, you put them both together,” said Greg pleased. “That’s what I was thinking. It’s like a daddy dinosaur and baby one, right? In which, case it’s makes sense that they don’t get separated.”
“I wasn’t thinking about it that deeply, Greg.” It was a lie. It was exactly what he had been thinking when he was deciding where to place them. Everything in Madeline’s nursery had to be perfect. And well, it was a good spot.
While Greg didn’t have his own room – although sometimes when the time got away from them, he would crash in one of the guestrooms – in a way, he almost had as much a presence at Tom’s apartment as Madeline did.
Gazing down at his phone which continued to vibrate in his hand, Tom was tempted to let it go to voicemail were depending on what Shiv wanted and how crucial it was, he could either text or call her back. However, with it quickly dawning on him that Shiv rarely called him these days and thus it had to be important to warrant an actual verbal conversation between the two of them – Madeline’s respective nannies would usually pick her up and drop her off at each other’s places meaning they didn’t see each other face to face very often either –suddenly panicking that something may have happened to Madeline, Tom quickly answered.
“Shiv. Hey. Is everything okay? Is Madeline alright?” Tom blurted out waiting for a response.
“Hello to you too, Tom,” Shiv answered, her voice amused but distant.
“Sorry. Hey. How – How’s everything? How’s Maddie doing?”
“’How is Maddie?’ She’s fine. She did say her first word yesterday.”
Tom’s eyes widened as he took a seat behind his desk. “She – She spoke?”
“She did.” While Shiv said it casually, Tom thought he could detect an undercurrent of something else in her tone.
Tom was ecstatic and disappointed in equal measure. Not that she had spoken of course. God no. He had just wanted so much to be present whenever it was that Madeline uttered her very first word. Between work and the fact that he only had her for half the week at a time, he knew that there was a very good chance that he wouldn’t be there for it. She babbled quite a bit but until now had said nothing that could be considered properly discernible in English. Tom had spent a lot of time with her, encouraging her to speak, even when he she was far too young to realistically do so. Nevertheless, he had wanted to get a jump on it. Whenever he had a free moment at work, Tom would pour over parenting books. Unfortunately, it looked like Tom being there for her first word was not meant to be. His heart sank over missing such an important milestone in her young life, and while there would be plenty more still to come, he had been particularly looking forward to this one.
“That’s great! That – That’s wonderful!” he exclaimed with false cheer, putting on that fake smile he had perfected for whenever he was around the Roy’s despite Shiv not able to see him. “Were you there with her when she –”
“Yeah. I was.”
Tom grimaced, knowing that Shiv would likely lord this over him for God knows how long. He really didn’t want to be one of those divorcee parents who competed with their ex, but the lingering resentment made it difficult for the both of them.
“Well, that’s wonderful,” he replied, continuing with the false enthusiasm. “I’m just glad that of us was around to hear it. I know my mom missed my first word and she was –”
“Uh-huh. So, do you want to know what our daughter’s first word was?”
“Of course I do. And look, I may be misinterpreting here, but you don’t sound particularly enthused about it,” said Tom, now heavily concerned that his sweet angel’s first word might have been something horrendously offensive. He did his best never to swear around her. And he had never once heard Gabriela curse. One of the few times that he had in front of Maddie, back when she was only a few weeks old, he remembered being on the receiving end of a death glare from Gabriela, so he was more than positive that Maddie hadn’t gotten it from her. As he continued to dwell on what said word might be. Oh God, what if it was something like ‘fuck’ of even worse – ‘cunt’.
“’Greg’,” said Shiv, awakening him from his thoughts.
Tom immediately stood up. “What? Are you saying Maddie heard Greg swear and she repeated it?” If that were really the case, he was going to murder that little shit. Anything Greg had pulled over the years was nothing compared to –
“What? No. Maddie’s first word was his fucking name.”
Tom blinked, lost as his brain tried to process this information. “Oh? Oh.”
“Yes, fucking oh. And I can only presume she’s unknowingly referring specifically to my cousin who I haven’t seen in almost a year and who in no way factors into my life; a person who also conveniently happens to work as your assistant. So, thanks so much for that, Tom. Thanks for taking her first word away from me.”
“No. There has to be some kind of mistake. Are you really sure that’s what she said? It wasn’t ‘egg’, was it?” He winced as he suggested it, knowing that he was reaching there.
“Yes, Tom. I know what I fucking heard. She’s repeated it to me at least thirty times. Amy heard it too.”
“I…I see.”
“Jesus, just how much time is Greg spending with Madeline?”
Tom frowned. “Is that really relevant?”
“If you’re fobbing our daughter off to your assistant so much that his name is her first word then yes, Tom, I would say that it’s relevant. Do you really trust someone like that with Madeline?”
“Okay, for starters, I do trust Greg. He wouldn’t be my assistant if I didn’t. And more importantly, I do not fob our daughter off on him. I spend as much time with Maddie as I can. I devote all my free time to her.”
“Must not be a lot otherwise she would have said ‘dada’ or ‘daddy’ or whatever you’re calling yourself around her,” Shiv retorted.
“Well, she didn’t say ‘mama’ either or are you just expecting her to call you ‘Shiv’?” Tom shot back.
“Oh, fuck you, Tom.”
Again, Tom was reminded of why they rarely spoke.
“You know I haven’t been on an actual date since Maddie was born, which is more than what I can say for you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Page Six a few weeks ago. You were seen on a date with Mencken’s chief-of-staff.”
“Are you keeping tabs on me?” Shiv asked, incredulous. “And screw you, it wasn’t a date. It was just dinner. And even if not, it’s not a crime to go out on a date with someone. I know, you see yourself as high and mighty as you sucked up to Matsson like you did with my father and managed to steal the company from under us, but just because for whatever reason you’ve chosen to be celibate, that doesn’t mean it should apply to the rest of the world.”
Tom chose to ignore Shiv’s comment about his apparent celibacy. “Well, Shiv, you’re the one who voted for me over your brother because you couldn’t stand him being in charge. And if I recall correctly, it’s been quite a few dinners. Wasn’t it when you had Maddie as well? Should I be questioning how much time you actually spend with her?”
They spent the next ten minutes arguing, Tom doing his best to stop his voice from rising, less he draw attention to himself. Eventually, he relented, resenting that like always, he was always the first to concede.
“I don’t know how that happened, I swear. But Maddie will be talking in full sentences before you know it. When that does, the name ‘Greg’ won’t even factor into her vocabulary.” If Tom killed Greg now, at this age, there was no way she would remember him.
“That’s not the point, Tom.”
Tom sighed. “It happened. We should just be happy that she’s talking at all.”
“You know, I always thought it was strange how much you and Greg –
Tom tensed. “How much we what?”
“Maybe you should get out more rather than spending all your time with your assistant. People might get the wrong idea about the two of you.”
Before Tom could say anything in reply, Shiv hung up.
Shiv always had to get the last word in. It was nothing new and yet it took a lot of restraint not to throw his phone across the room.
But he was a mature, rational, adult whose employees looked up to him and he wasn’t going to jeopardise that by throwing a temper tantrum. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to have words with the person responsible for this fucking mess. And so, Tom immediately called Greg to his office. Considering Greg’s own was only a few doors down from his – Tom rationalised that it made sense to have his assistant close by – it wasn’t long before he popped his head in.
“Hey man, you called?” Greg greeted, unaware of the shitstorm that was about to befall him.
“Close the door,” Tom ordered.
Greg quickly did so, and as the person most easily able to discern Tom’s moods, immediately asked, “Is everything alright?”
Leaning against his desk, Tom folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”
Tom could see Greg’s brain, pitiful thing that it was, working overtime trying to figure out how he had fucked up precisely.
“I, um sent all those reports out yesterday like you asked. I had Phil double check them. Triple check them even! So, if something was amiss then –”
Tom rolled his eyes, knowing how like it was for Greg to try push the blame onto somebody else.
“So, I just got off the phone with Shiv.”
Greg suddenly looked nervous. “Oh?”
“Uh-huh. Maddie said her first word.”
“Fuck. Really? Tom, that’s great! Congratulations!” It was frustrating and yet satisfying that Greg sounded genuinely happy about this. In other circumstances, Tom would be excitedly celebrating with him. Tom, however, chose to embrace the former emotion.
“It really sucks that you weren’t there when she…” Greg momentarily trailed off, undoubtably aware of how much he had been looking forward to Maddie finally talking.
“So, um, what was the word? What did Maddie say? Was it –”
“Greg.”
“Yeah?”
“No. Greg.”
The younger man continued to stare at him confused.
“Her first word was your fucking name!” Tom snapped.
“What Really?” Greg asked incredulously, just a surprised as Tom was when Shiv told him.
“Yes, really.”
Greg was grinning ever so slightly, the little prick having the gall to look pleased about it.
“So, what did you do exactly? Have you been secretly coaxing her to say ‘Greg’ every time I’ve not been in the room with you?” Tom accused, stomping towards him.
“What? No. Of course not. Well, maybe I occasionally ask her if she can say, ‘Greg’ from time to time, but –”
“You fucking admit it then?” Tom hissed, shoving his finger into Greg’s chest. Considering that last time he had touched Greg in an aggressive manner, it had ended up with Greg retaliating and them fighting in their recently deceased boss’ bathroom, perhaps Tom shouldn’t have. Greg, however, merely took a step back.
“No! I mean, I’m just as likely to try get Maddie to say ‘dada’ or ‘Mondale,’ or ‘doggy’, or like ‘food’ or whatever. It’s not solely my name. I swear.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s the truth, Tom! I promise.” As Greg held up his hands, it occurred to Tom that it had been a while since he had last snapped at Greg like this. Despite all the extra responsibility that came with being CEO, Tom discovered that no longer being under the thumb of the Roy family and not in a loveless marriage which he’d found himself obsessively ruminating over meant his stress levels were much more manageable these days. As such, he was less likely to take his poor moods out on Greg. In this instance however, Tom felt that Greg deserved it.
“Then why the hell would ‘Greg’ be her first word instead of – well, literally anything else?”
“I dunno, maybe –”
“Maybe what?”
“Um, well, you kind of, perhaps, maybe, say my name a fair bit?”
“What?”
“It seems to be a common part of your everyday vernacular? And I guess, it could be, as I’m over at your place quite a bit, or on the phone with you discussing work or whatever, that she picked it up from hearing you say?” Greg suggested, doing that irritating thing in which he managed to make every sentence sound like it was a question. Like Tom blowing up at him, Greg was less likely to do it these days; more confident in himself. That wasn’t the case now.
“Are you implying that this is my fault, Greg?” Tom groaned internally at the slipup of Greg’s name.
“No. It’s just like a possible reason for it?”
“That’s ridiculous! I say your name as much as I do anyone else. Less even!”
“Right. Yeah,” said Greg, unconvincingly which only served to piss Tom off even more. “And who knows, my name could have just stuck with her randomly, you know? She might not even realise the word’s related to me. Kids pick up all sort of things when they’re that age, right?”
Tom scoffed. “And what exactly would you possibly know about childhood development, Greg?”
“I mean, you did make me go through all those parenting books before Maddie was born? You know, had me highlight and bookmark any points that I thought were important.”
Tom had done that. While he had read quite a few himself, on the off chance that he somehow missed a pivotal piece of information about raising his daughter, he assigned Greg the task of going through some other highly praised books. “What? Skimming through some pages makes you an expert now, is that it?”
“Not an expert per se, but I do know a lot more about kids, or at least babies than I did a year ago. That and you know, actually getting to watch Maddie grow up has helped a lot too.”
Tom swallowed. It was true that Greg had witnessed Maddie growing up, having been present in her life from the very beginning. And while not as closely related, he did see her more than her uncles in any case, that much Tom knew. Tom was also aware that Maddie was fond of Greg, but Tom had merely assumed this was because Madeline tended to be on the shy side and Greg was simply a familiar face who she had unconsciously latched onto much like Gabriela.
“Yeah, well, I’m tempted to restrict your time with to her,” said Tom as he made his way back around his desk and took a seat, “Clearly, you’re a negative influence, and who knows what other crucial developmental moment you’ll end up stealing away from me.”
“Tom, it’s not that big of a deal, man. I bet she’ll be saying her next word before you know it,” Greg replied, using the exact same argument he had with Shiv, much to Tom’s annoyance. “It’ll probably be ‘dada’. I’m pretty sure she was on the cusp of saying it the other week.”
“It’s not the same, Greg! Don’t you get that?” Tom snapped.
“Right, well, I am sorry. It wasn’t intentional or anything.”
Tom opened up his laptop. “Uh-huh,” he said without looking up.
After several long moments, he heard Greg let out an exasperated sigh before leaving. As the door shut behind Greg, leaning back in his chair, Tom let out his own.
Tom spent the rest of the day in a markedly foul mood. Even if Greg deserved it, he felt guilty for berating him. He also couldn’t help resenting Shiv for essentially pushing him towards it. He was disappointed too of course that he had missed Maddie’s first word even if it was ‘Greg’ of all things. He kept thinking of Greg’s implication that he was responsible for this; that she had picked it up from Tom because he apparently said it so often. If that were really the case, wouldn’t her first word be something along the lines of ‘the’ or ‘I’ or something else generic that people used in their speech every day? Either way, it was ridiculous. A clear-cut example of Greg trying to divert the blame away from himself.
Tom considered asking Gerri when she came into his office later that day if she noticed a frequent use of Greg’s name on his part. However, unlike with Logan, Gerri didn’t pander to him, not afraid to say what she really thought. Considering how much he had offered her to come back to Waystar, she was well aware of her value to the company. As such, Tom feared how she might respond. Tom wasn’t sure what would be more humiliating for him; Gerri saying yes, or Gerri looking at him like he was utterly deranged for asking her in the first place.
To make things worse, Tom found himself ruminating over Shiv’s words and her insinuation that he spent too much time with Greg. That he should spend more time with other people and get out more. While he believed Shiv’s suggestion that people might get the wrong idea between him and Greg was insane, she was right when she claimed it wasn’t wrong of her to go out on dates. Hell, she had done it behind his back before they got married so it made even more sense to do it now that they were no longer together. Shiv highlighting that he didn’t do the same struck a nerve, however.
After the dissolution of his marriage and being made American CEO of Waystar Gojo, it had propelled Tom into becoming one of New York City’s most eligible bachelors, and yet here he hadn’t gotten laid once, let alone been on a single date since Maddie was born.
The more he thought about it, the more Tom reasoned that he needed to fix this. He didn’t want the questioning and ever so desperate for a juicy story public to believe his lack of dates or significant other in his life was because he was fixated on his ex-wife, and he just couldn’t bear to move on. It wasn’t like there was any shortage of people interested in him. Or his title at least. It was enough to attract the most gorgeous of women. Just like how he had been drawn to Shiv at first by her name before falling for everything else about her.
Initially, anyway.
Maybe he could engineer a similar situation. Just without all the betrayal and backstabbing and general heartache.
At the end of the day, Tom still desired a family in the traditional sense. He wanted to be married to someone he loved and who loved him just as much in return. They would live together, happily occupying the same space while raising kids. Maddie was too young at the moment, but he was sure she would love to have sibling eventually. And while Tom certainly wasn’t old – it hadn’t affected, or at the very least stopped Logan from trying to have another kid in his eighties – Tom was also aware that he wasn’t getting any younger either. He supposed he should be thankful that he didn’t have to wait two and a half Olympics to become a father, even if it didn’t come about in the manner he’d imagined it.
As Tom reflected on someone who had really stood out to him, he suddenly recalled one woman he had spoken to at a fundraiser about a month ago. Gillian was her name, and while she might work for PGN, she had come across as smart, savvy and overall pleasant. She was also incredibly attractive which helped. A further bonus was that when he had taken out his cell phone to show off pictures of Maddie – he could never resist showing her off to anyone willing – her eyes didn’t glaze over like so many peoples eventually did. They had exchanged numbers, and while Tom tended to delete most of them right away – with his resources it was easy enough to get in contact with someone if really needed to – he was sure that he still had hers logged in there.
And so, after a brief period of debating with himself, he texted Gillian asking her if she wanted to go for dinner sometime this week. While sounding eager – at least through her responses – tonight was apparently the only day she could make. After that she would be out of the country for work until the end of the month.
Tom had Maddie that day but reasoning that she would be staying with him for the rest of the week including the weekend – if Shiv could go out, then why shouldn’t he? – Tom figured that it would be okay.
Or it would have been had he not forgotten that Gabriela had a prior commitment that she’d told him about a couple of weeks ago with her own family and to which no amount of niceties could convince her to rearrange.
Although, it would be easy enough for him to find a sitter for a few hours, Tom didn’t like the thought of leaving Maddie with a random stranger. She would probably be fine. More often than not, she slept through most of the night, but the thought of her waking up only to be greeted by someone she had zero familiarity with made Tom uneasy.
Not wanting to cancel, having finally worked up the courage, Tom was left with only one option.
“Wow, Tom. Are you sure it’s really alright for you to leave Maddie all alone with me, what with me being a negative influence and all?” Greg’s voice said down the phone line.
While once Tom might have threatened to demote Greg for taking that sort of tone with him, he was more willing to tolerate Greg’s petulant little outbursts these days, as scarce as they were. Today aside, things were a lot more relaxed between them now that the threat of losing their jobs wasn’t hanging over them.
“Don’t be cute, Greg. I can easily ask someone else.” A lie. “Now can you babysit Maddie or not?”
Greg let out a small sigh. “Sure. I don’t mind. I don’t have anything on tonight.”
“You having no plans with your bustling social life? I’m shocked, Gregory.” Tom winced slightly, realising he was being a bit of a prick which when Greg was doing him a favour, was unfair of him.
“Thank you, Greg. I appreciate it. I do,” Tom added a moment later.
“No problem. What is it you’ve got planned?”
Instead of calling Greg out for prying, Tom found himself slightly flustered.
“Oh. Just seeing an old friend of mine from my Cornell days. He only found out he’s going to be in Manhattan last minute and asked if I wanted to grab dinner.” It was another lie obviously, but for some reason, Tom didn’t want to reveal to Greg that he would be going on some random date. He couldn’t exactly claim it was a business dinner either. With Greg being his assistant as well as the nosy creature that he was, he would certainly want to know the details.
“That’ll be nice,” said Greg, innocent and oblivious.
“Yeah, I’m sure it will.”
“Man, I haven’t seen anyone from my old college days in years,” said Greg, which really wasn’t that long ago. Not compared to Tom anyway. It was enough to make Tom momentarily lament his age. “Did I meet them at the wedding?”
Tom startled. “What?” Jesus, what the hell was wrong with him?
“Your old college buddy. Like I’ve met the Fly Guys before, but –”
“Ah, no. They, uh, couldn’t make it, unfortunately.”
“Oh. Cool. Well, have a good time!”
Tom was left with a lingering feeling of guilt after hanging up the phone.
He emailed Greg half an hour later, giving him the rest of the afternoon off so he could go home first before heading to Tom’s apartment where Gabriella would hand over Maddie before she left herself for the night. Tom, meanwhile, would head straight to the restaurant where he would meet Gillian. His date. He just had to rid himself of the strange regret he felt lying to Greg and the unease that came over him whenever he thought about it.
God. It was ridiculous. He worked hard. He deserved to have a night out sans Greg once and a while.
Oh well. He was sure he would forget all about it soon enough.
But when the time for him to head off rolled around, Tom found that it hadn’t.