He went still.
“What schedule?”
“The one for Emma.”
Adam pulled out his phone.
I watched his face as he searched through old messages.
Then he found something.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What?”
He handed me the phone.
Three months earlier, Cheryl had sent him a photograph of a calendar.
Several weekends were highlighted.
Her message said, “Would something like this work over summer? Maybe longer weekends sometimes?”
Adam had replied, “Looks fine to me.”
I looked at him.
“You agreed to this without asking me?”
“No. I agreed to longer weekends.”
“Which you also didn’t mention.”
“I know.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“I should have. But Emma already stays here most weekends. Mom asked if she could sometimes stay Sunday night during summer. I thought that’s what we were talking about.”
Cheryl crossed her arms.
“You knew I wanted more time with her.”
“More time isn’t alternating weeks!”
I looked at the calendar on the wall again.
Then something occurred to me.
“Wait. What do ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ mean?”
Nobody answered.
I looked at Cheryl.
“Cheryl?”
She hesitated.
“‘Dad’ means Adam’s house.”
I stared at her.
“Adam’s house?”
“Our house,” I corrected.
She looked uncomfortable.
“And ‘Mom’?”
Cheryl’s silence answered before she did.
Adam’s voice dropped.
“Mom.”
She finally said, “Me.”
For a second, I couldn’t speak.
“You’ve labeled yourself Mom on my daughter’s custody calendar?”
“It’s not a custody calendar.”
“What would you call it?”
“A schedule.”
“For my child to alternate between my home and yours.”
Cheryl’s voice rose.
“She practically lives here on weekends anyway!”
A voice came from the hallway.
“I don’t want to.”
We all turned.
Emma stood in the doorway.
Cheryl’s face softened immediately.
“Emma, sweetheart, this wasn’t supposed to upset you.”
Emma came straight to me.
“I told you I didn’t want to live here.”
Nobody moved.
Adam looked at his daughter.
“What?”
Emma’s eyes filled.
“I told Grandma.”
“When?”
“Last weekend.”
Cheryl stepped forward.
“Emma, we talked about this.”
“No. You talked.”
That stopped her.
Adam crouched in front of Emma.
“What exactly did Grandma tell you?”
Emma glanced at Cheryl.
“She said when school starts, I could stay here every other week.”
Adam’s face hardened.
“Did she tell you I agreed?”
Emma nodded.
“She showed me your message.”
Adam slowly stood.
“Mom.”
“You did approve the schedule.”
“I approved a picture with weekends highlighted!”
“It was the beginning of the plan.”
