Page 25 of Absolute Certainty
Sahar did a small bow over the video call. “Did you lot have fun today?”
“It was great, yeah. Your uncles and I all decided we’re getting Man City season passes again.”
Sahar and Amina looked at each other, bursting into a fit of laughter.
“We knew you couldn’t stay away! Sahar said it. ‘The man can’t go a season without games.’ Cheers, Dad. You deserve it,” Amina declared.
“First thing I’m doing is visiting when my contract is over, and you’re taking me to a game,” Sahar added.
“One hundred percent, my girl.”
“You really win the best of both worlds. You get one engineer daughter just like you and another football fan.”
Their father reddened with pride over the camera. “Luckiest dad in all of England. In the entire world, if you ask me.”
“As are we,” Amina said.
They talked for a bit, a little about the awards and how manyMidnights at Pemberleytook home. How exciting the ceremony was for the two of them to experience together.
Sahar counted all her lucky stars that night. How truly fortunate she was to have parents as loving as Iman and Andrew Peck, a sister as brilliant as Amina, and friends as amazing as theMidnightscast. She wouldn’t trade it for the world.
7
JAY
“Dad!” Eloise called out. “Can you please braid my hair?”
Closing the door to the washer and dryer, Jay stepped back out into the living room and walked toward the bathroom, where Eloise was standing on a pastel pink step stool. He let out a low laugh at the sight of his newly showered daughter wearing her Spider-Gwen costume from last Halloween.
“Did you not have anything else in your closet, kiddo?”
The same brown eyes that he saw in the mirror every day looked back at him—the same glint of mischief his mom had told him he also possessed when he was young. “I wanted to make sure it still fits,” she exclaimed, handing him her hairbrush. She’d already detangled her slightly wavy, brown hair.
Standing behind her, Jay gently smoothed her hair back, careful to leave her bangs intact. She’d gotten them earlier this year, and Maya had shown her how to blow-dry them into shape.
As he divided her hair into three sections, Eloise said, “It’s sohard to make braids at the back of my head. I can only do it when I want pigtails, but I only want one right now.”
Jay gave her a smile through the mirror while he crossed one chunk of hair over the other. “It’s okay, baby. You’ll get the hang of it in no time.”
A small part of him hoped it wouldn’t be too soon, that she’d need him and Maya for as long as possible. He never understood parents mentioning the passage of time as much as they did until Eloise was born. He had blinked, and the newborn baby he was terrified of crushing when he first held her was now eight. He would blink again, and she’d be nine. Finishing up the braid, he reached for the small yellow hair tie in her hand. Jay took it from her, secured the pigtail, and dropped a kiss to the top of her head.
She thanked him with a giggle, then hopped down and out of the bathroom.
Switching the light off, he stepped out and strode over to the kitchen. The drawing she’d given him for Father’s Day was neatly placed atop the island. Jay picked it up, turned on his heel, and magnetized it onto the fridge, tracing his finger over the detailed video camera she’d sketched.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing there, looking at her old drawings, when she popped up beside him. “Dad, you should take down some of my old drawings. They’re not nice!” She’d changed out of the Spider-Gwen costume and into a pair of gray sweatpants and a white T-shirt to match him.
It was so damn adorable.
He pointed to one of the earlier pieces she’d ever drawn for him: the two of them as stick figures, holding ice cream cones in their hands.Daddy and me,written in her handwriting, spelling confirmed by Maya. It’d been the first artwork she’d given him for Father’s Day. “Nah, they’re all perfect to me. This one’s my all-time favorite.”
Laughing, she squealed with disgust. “It’s ugly! I can draw better than stick figures now.”
Jay gave her a sincere smile. “It’s not about its imperfections; it’s because that’s the first Father’s Day drawing you gave me. It’s special. And progress is important. It’s part of the journey. You think I like my first movie?”
“You don’t?” she asked.
He shook his head. “When I first released it, I was proud of it. Then, I learned new techniques and refined my process, so I started to dislike it. Now that a few years have passed, I see that it was meaningful in its own right to show myself how I can improve. It was important to understand what my strengths and weaknesses were. Plus, some people have said that it’s one of their favorites, even if I don’t exactly get why. That’s how art works, baby. You never know what people will connect with.”
