“It’s really no problem, T. I got you.” Candice reassured him. She was more than willing to help him any time he needed it. She had told him as much as after his few times in the hospital. “Yeah, cold turkey would not be so good for you. It would be a shock to your system, that I don’t think your body could handle.” she said with a shake of her head as she turned onto the street. “My body was definitely in shock when I quit years ago. I was pregnant though so it was already going through a bunch of different changes.” she chuckled lightly. “You could start with the patches or gum to ween yourself off of it though.” she offered with a slight shrug.
Candice smiled over to him for a moment before looking back at the road. “No shit, T?! That’s incredible! Congratulations!” she told him excitedly. “I know you’ll be so good at that position! You’re going to be the boss and stuff! This sounds exactly up your alley. Me and the kids will come by for sure. Hopefully we’ll get to see you or at least an exhibit you curated.” The kids loved learning about everything so they frequently visited the museums and galleries that were downtown and in the city. “You’re really getting stuff done and that’s amazing, T. Remind me about the book again. What’s it about and how much have you completed?” She took a breath and nodded as she turned down another street continuing on their way to Tereik’s house. “Well, Christmas was great. The kids got so much stuff but they deserved it because they’re great. New Year’s was pretty good too. Me and the kids ended up falling asleep in my bed as we watched movies. I completely slept through the new year. If it wasn’t for my friends, I probably would’ve slept through to the morning and would’ve thought it was just another normal day.” she laughed softly. “How were the holidays for you?”
Tereik grinned, “My body can barely handle a change in the weather, let alone a major life change, but maybe eventually I’ll get there. It’s hard to explain but...I’m almost 40, I’ve lived about 25 years past what anyone expected, I’ve got my life in as good of a place as it’s going to get and I’m not overly concerned about the long term effects. It sounds bad when you say it out loud like that, but it’s something I made my peace with a long time ago. I’m not saying it’ll never happen, but I don’t see myself getting pregnant anytime soon, so I think things will stay the way they are for a bit.”
“Oh yeah, I’ll be happy to have you guys, just let me know when you’re coming and I’ll give you a tour myself. I’m really excited about it, honestly. The dream would be to go back to Egypt and get back to digging in the Valley of the Kings, but there’s virtually no chance of that happening, this is the next best thing to that. I get to run the whole department, manage the employees, run the exhibits, including the one I just curated for them with the artifacts from the tomb I discovered and I get to do press and advertise the museum, so I’m really excited about it. The book is something I wrote after I found that tomb, the museum wants to sell it in the gift shop, but it’s only ever been released in Arabic, so they’re having me translate and update it, since it’s an autobiography, I’m struggling with the update a little since not much good has happened since then, but I’ll figure something out, right now I’m just focusing on the translation.”
He smiled, “That sounds nice, it’s quiet, you get to be with your kids, what more can you ask for? I didn’t really do anything, we don’t celebrate Christmas and since my dad passed in March and our mother went back to Egypt, we just didn’t feel like coordinating anything. I mostly just worked through the holiday, but I got a lot done and my sisters will be coming to visit with their families one at a time, because I refuse to host all six of them and their families at once, and my mother is planning on visiting soon too, so we’ll get our togetherness in at some point.”
