Page 91 of See Me After Class

It was rough weather there for a while, but she helped Sally navigate the worst of it in ways I never could.

She regarded me from behind her owl-rimmed glasses, her smile kind. “I got this, Mr. Taylor. Go on, now. You don’t want to be late on your first day!”

I chuckled. I missed Sally already. She cooed from Sophia’s arms. “Daddy, can we go to the park later?”

Taking her from Sophia for just a wee minute, I cradled Sally in my arms so I could smell the coconut-jasmine scent of her baby curls and feel her warmth in my arms.

She gave me so much hope. Children did that. They took the old strings of our frayed hearts and tied them and made them stronger.

“We’ll do anything you like, baby.” I kissed her nose once more before setting her down. “But make sure you get all your studying done, okay?”

She nodded obediently.

I checked the time. I had to get going. “Okay, Sophia. Over to you.”

My bag already packed, I made my way to the front door and turned at the threshold to wave to Sally.

I touched the tip of my nose, and she did the same. A tiny ritual.

“I’ll be good,” we both said in unison.

Inside the car, I finally called Benjamin.

“Hey.” His voice rumbled from the other end. “Are you at school yet?”

“On my way. Tell me about last night.”

“She was a beauty. All green-blue eyes and deer-like.”

“And fate brought her to you, is it?”

Good old-fashioned Benjamin. He was someone you read about in a Charles Dickens novel. He had his little quirks, and all of them pointed to findingThe One.

I did get where it came from, though. With June, I’d never felt any sparks.

Later, I realized this was because I’d seen her in a different light—and it was one of comfort. There were no butterflies in my stomach because those butterflies to me were synonymous with anxiety.

June was like butter on toast, jam on a PBJ. In other words, she completed me in the most ordinary of ways, and that was why I loved her so damn much.

Benjamin was the astronomy professor at East Harbor, and true to his profession, he believed fate was responsible for everything.

We were a very unconventional trio.

The third being Noah, East Harbor’s one and only psychology heartthrob.

The man could win over his students like it was nothing more than a game of Snakes and Ladders, and he’d mastered it.

After I lost June, these men helped me keep my head above water.

I was a young father, and I did not know how to survive. All I knew was that I had to make it because of Sally. She needed me, and I’d be there for her.

No matter how my heart split open.

It took me a whole year to find stable ground, and a lot of tearful conversations too.

There were days when things felt better, and then, the tiniest of things—a rubber band, for Christ’s sake, or a bottle of shampoo that smelled of her—would send me rolling into a pit of depression.

They were more than makeshift fathers to Sally at that time. They came over every day, cooked for us, read her stories, and gave her hope.

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