He set the photograph down.
He put his face in his hands.
He was not crying but he was close to it and he was deciding whether to be close to it or to pull back, the specific negotiation of a fourteen-year-old boy with his emotions in front of his mother.
I let him negotiate it without helping him.
“I think,” he said finally, “I need to apologize to him.”
“To Sam,” I said.
“Yes,” he said. “Is that possible? Can I go back?”
I thought about this.
“I think that’s possible,” I said. “I’ll call the restaurant tomorrow and explain the situation and see if Sam would be willing to receive an apology.”
“You’d do that with me?” he said.
“We’d do it together,” I said.
He nodded.
“What if he doesn’t want to see me?” Leo said.
“Then we respect that,” I said. “An apology is for the person being apologized to, not for the person apologizing. If Sam doesn’t want to receive it, that’s his right and we honor it.”
