The soft swish of the glass doors marked Leonard’s entrance into the office building. But this ti, he wasn’t alone.
A smaller figure trotted beside him, struggling to match his pace with determined little steps. Julio, dressed in a blue t-shirt with a roaring cartoon dinosaur and khaki shorts, held his mini backpack by the strap and wore an eager smile on his face. His dark eyes sparkled with excitent as he looked around the luxurious hallway of glass walls, marble floors, and tall indoor plants.
The mont the staff noticed them, the energy in the hallway shifted. Laughter and murmurs traveled ahead of them like a welcoming breeze.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Ford! And hello, Julio!" a young assistant called out, grinning from behind her tablet.
"Julio’s back!" soone else said with a laugh, waving from inside one of the corner offices.
Several people paused just to wave or bend down and say hi. One older man walking by glanced over with a grin and joked, "Is our junior CEO here to inspect the operations today?"
Julio, thrilled at the attention, grinned and gave a mock salute. "Yes, I am! Everyone must work hard today!"
Leonard raised a brow but couldn’t help the smirk that curved his lips. "I see soone’s getting too comfortable with power."
Julio chuckled and leaned closer to him. "They like ."
Leonard nodded solemnly. "Clearly. I’m starting to think they like you more than ."
Julio tugged at his hand. "That’s because I’m cuter."
Leonard laughed under his breath. "Can’t argue with that."
As Leonard and Julio walked past them, Leonard’s staff watched them fondly. There was sothing endearing about seeing the usually cool and controlled executive with a bubbly child at his side—sothing that softened the entire floor.
Finally reaching his office, Leonard pushed the heavy glass door open and gestured Julio inside. "Make yourself at ho."
Julio didn’t need to be told twice. He scampered toward the soft leather couch placed in the corner of the room near the wide windows, dropped his little backpack with a thud, and climbed onto the couch with the confidence of soone who had done this many tis before.
Leonard shrugged off his blazer and draped it over the back of his chair. He sat down behind his large desk, briefly glancing at the open laptop and the neatly stacked docunts. But before focusing on his work, he glanced back at Julio.
"You sure it’s okay to hang out here a bit?" Leonard asked, adjusting his wristwatch.
It hadn’t exactly been part of the plan.
After picking Julio up from school, Leonard had taken him out for lunch. When the plates were cleared and the check was paid, Leonard had tapped his keys on the table and said casually, "Alright, champ. Let’s get you ho."
But Julio had looked up, his mouth already forming a protest before Leonard had even finished the sentence. "Can I co with you to your office instead?"
Was it that he didn’t want to lose his status as Julio’s favorite uncle? Maybe.
Truth be told, the office had been feeling a little too quiet lately. Having soone around who wasn’t there to ask for reports or decisions or signatures... well, it sounded kind of nice.
And now, here they were.
Julio nodded enthusiastically, already pulling out a colorful book from his backpack. "Yep! Even if I go ho now, there’s no one there. Mommy’s not ho. Daddy’s still working."
Leonard leaned back in his chair, watching his nephew flip to a page filled with drawings of animals. "Guess that ans you’re stuck with ."
Julio grinned. "That’s good. I like being with you."
Leonard pretended to sigh in relief. "Phew. Thought I was gonna have to bribe you with cookies."
Julio giggled and wiggled into a more comfortable position on the couch, his small legs dangling off the edge. As the boy started quietly mumbling the story he was reading to himself, Leonard finally opened his laptop and began typing.
But it didn’t last long.
After barely fifteen minutes, Leonard found his thoughts wandering. His fingers hovered above the keyboard before dropping slowly onto the desk surface. He turned his gaze to the boy on the couch, who was now lying on his stomach, feet kicking lazily in the air.
"Hey, Julio."
"Hmm?" Julio didn’t look up.
"You said those kids you played with today were Maya and Nathan, right?"
Julio lifted his chin and blinked. "Yep! Maya’s in my class. Nathan’s her brother. They’re twins."
Leonard tapped his pen against his notepad. "Are they nice to you?"
Julio grinned. "Yeah! We play swings and draw stuff. Maya laughs at my jokes even when they’re not funny."
Leonard smiled at that. "Sounds like a good friend."
Julio nodded. "Nathan doesn’t talk a lot, but he’s super smart. He helped fix my robot drawing when I made the arm too short."
Leonard tilted his head. "That so?"
"Uh-huh." Julio flipped a page. "And he watches over Maya like a superhero."
Leonard leaned back in his chair, the image of the twins returning to him clearly now—the solemn boy with steady eyes and the little girl with sparkles in her hair and a bright smile. There had been sothing about the way Nathan had looked at him. Not fear. Not even awe. But curiosity. Caution.
"Do you like them?" Leonard asked.
Julio nodded again, without hesitation. "They’re my friends."
Leonard smiled gently. "Good. Then that’s all that matters."
A few monts passed in silence, only the faint sound of rustling paper and soft tapping on Leonard’s keyboard filling the air. Yet Leonard couldn’t ignore the persistent thought in the back of his mind—the image of two small children sitting alone at a swing set waiting for soone to co. One cheerful. One serious.
He didn’t know why, but the scene replayed itself again and again.
His thoughts wandered again—not to etings, not to reports—but to those twins.
There was sothing there. Sothing familiar that tugged at the edges of his mind and chest.
He closed his eyes for a second and exhaled.
He wanted to see them again.
Maybe he needed to.
And if fate was aligning its pieces like this... then he had a feeling he just might.
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