Page 40 of Fortuity

“I’m happy for you, Faith. You’ve faced so much adversity, and yet you still managed to come so far from the girl I met all those years ago.” Her eyes filled with tears and she sniffled. “In three months, you’re going to be a college graduate.” Another sniffle. “With a promising career in social work ahead of you.” One lone tear slid down her cheek. “Where you’re going to continue the amazing work you’ve already started doing, with whatever job you take.” She reached for a tissue to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. “And you’ve got a serious boyfriend! Someone you’ve clearly let inside your heart, judging by the dreamy look on your face any time you mention his name. I’m so, so proudofyou.”

“Why do I feel like me having a boyfriend is the part you’re proudestabout?”

A startled laugh burst from her throat. “Becauseitis?”

“Sarah!” I couldn’t believe she’dsaidthat.

“Stop! You know I didn’t mean it that way.” Her expression turned serious. “It’s just that I didn’t have any worries about you when it came to college or a career. Not since the day you agreed to apply. Once the decision was made, I knew you’d succeed because you’re smart anddriven.”

“Sarah.” I was so moved by what she’d said I could barely speak. Her name was just a whisper of sound that time. I’d felt like she’d believed in me, but to hear her put it that way was just…wow. “Thankyou.”

“You’re welcome.” She gave me a watery smile. “Thank you for letting me remain a part of your journey these past few years. Watching what you’ve accomplished with your second chance has been anhonor.”

“You’re the one who set me on this path,” I reminded her. “I would’ve been working a dead-end job with only a high school diploma if it hadn’t have beenforyou.”

Sarah shook her head. “I might’ve given you the nudge you needed, but you took it and more than ran with it all on your own. You’re on course to graduate with honors, and you’ve got all those other foster kids coming up behind you and following in your footsteps. Because you inspire them, like you inspire me, to be a better person each andeveryday.”

Shit.Now I was the one crying. Sarah was one of the best people I knew. To know she found me inspiring was almost more than my heart could handle. “That inspiration runs both ways, Sarah. You’re the reason I picked social work for my major. Because I wanted to follow in yourfootsteps.”

“Oh my God, Faith. I can’t even tell you what it means to me, to hear you say that,” she cried, reaching across her desk to squeezemyhand.

“It’s the truth,” Isniffled.

We sat there like that for a couple of minutes before she yanked a few tissues from the box and passed them to me before grabbing some forherself.

“You know what I wish?” sheasked.

“What?”

“That I could thank your kidney donor and their family for giving you the second chance you needed. To be able to tell them about the difference you’ve made in so manylives.”

My eyes filled with tears again and they spilled out, trailing down my cheeks. Thinking about my donor and what their family had lost sent me back to that time when I’d thought I was going to die. I hadn’t even really known what I would’ve missed out on back then. Not until I met Dillon and opened myself up to love. Because that’s what it was with him...love. Neither of us had used that particular four-letter word yet, but it didn’t make the feelings any less real or true. Just unspoken. And the only reason I got to experience love was because someone gave me the gift of life in the depths of their owndespair.

“Hey.” Sarah tapped on my hand, and it pulled me out of the past and back into the present. “Youokay?”

“Yeah, I am.” I nodded and offered her a watery smile. “Or Iwillbe.”

Once we pulled ourselves together, the conversation turned to graduation and my plans for the future—which I hadn’t figured out yet. I was focused on finishing up my classes and making it to graduation...and my relationship with Dillon. But the future was barreling towards me, and I was going to have to decide what I wanted todosoon.

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