Page 72 of Ten Years and Then…
She flipped through the notebook, letting him see the dozens of previous versions. “Yes. Like I said, for someone special. Someone who’s always going to be in my heart. So it has to be perfect.”
Now she heard a couple of gasps from her classmates. They had to know who she was talking about.
“And you think this is the best use of your time here in class, Miss Langley?”
She laughed; what else could she do? “No. But also yes. He’s graduating in May, and it’ll take my Uncle a few weeks to make it. He’s a jeweler, he makes custom designs all the time. See?” She pointed to her latest sketch. “Two stones. Sapphire for me, aquamarine for him. Together, always. If it wasn’t so important, I wouldn’t be doing it during class.”
Her professor looked almost impressed despite himself. Almost. “I think I understand. And I must say, you do have some artistic talent. That’s quite a sketch. And—your honesty is refreshing, if perhaps a bit misplaced.” He paused for a moment. “But perhaps we can all return to the finer points of libel law for the remaining ten minutes?”
Nora nodded and went back to her seat. She was sure she’d be the talk of the class for the next few days, but that didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered—well, after the next ten minutes, anyway—was making sure the necklace was absolutely, positively perfect.
Daniel, March 10
“So tell us about the job already,” Dad said. “We’ve been waiting two weeks to hear the details, Daniel.”
He was sitting at the kitchen table, Mom and Dad both looking at him expectantly. Daniel had only gotten the final, renegotiated offer on Friday and faxed back his acceptance. He hadn’t wanted to tell his parents over the phone. Really great news—not just bad news—should be delivered in person.
“Valerie helped me—she told me what to counteroffer, and exactly how to say it. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been nearly as good. But they’re going to pay me $41,000 a year, plus a $2,000 bonus with my first paycheck. And they’re paying $2,500 for moving costs—I’ll get that first week in May.”
His father looked like he was about to cry; he opened his mouth but couldn’t seem to think of any words to say. Mom, though, focused on one word. “Valerie?”
Daniel hadn’t mentioned her at all—he wasn’t sure why. Mom, at least, would have been supportive. “She’s a law student—she’s in the computer lab a lot, and we got to be friends. So she offered to help me negotiate. She got them up from $34,000, and there wasn’t any starting bonus at first. Oh, and she got them up to three weeks of vacation instead of two.”
“Is she single? That’s the kind of girl you should be going for, Daniel,” Dad said, finally finding his voice. Daniel thought—hoped—he heard teasing in there somewhere.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen, Dad,” he said. “But I definitely want to get her a thank-you gift. If it wasn’t for her, I would have taken the first offer on the spot.”
Later, after he’d answered every question his father had about the job—or tried to answer; Dad had asked about some important details Daniel hadn’t even considered—he went up to his room to unpack. He was just about done when there was a knock at the bedroom door, and his mother walked in.
“Daniel, if you want to talk about her, it’ll be between us. I won’t say anything to your father.”
She sat down on his bed, and he joined her. “There’s not that much to tell. She started coming into the computer lab in the fall, and she needed help …”
It took him an hour to tell Mom “not much to tell.” When he was done, she hugged him, and kissed his forehead.
“You know something, Daniel? Now I know for sure we did a good job raising you. I’m so proud of you. You’ve grown into such an amazing man.”
“Because I can’t get over Nora?”
Mom sighed. “Well, I guess we still need to work on a couple of things. I’m proud of you because you put yourself out there for Valerie even though you weren’t sure. And then when you knew you weren’t ready to be more serious with her, you told her honestly. And kindly. You didn’t lead her on, and you didn’t hurt her. That’s how a good man behaves.”
It hadn’t felt good or kind in the moment—but he and Valerie were still friends, weren’t they?
“I guess.”
Mom signed again, this time with full dramatic flair. “You guess. I’ll take that for now.” She hugged him again. “And it goes without saying, but I am so proud of you about the job, too. I’ll miss you—you’ll have to come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can afford it with the extra money your law student negotiated for you, right?”
“Right, Mom. I promise.”
As if she needed to ask.
Nora, March 13
“This is beautiful, Nora. If the journalism thing doesn’t pan out, you can come work for me.”
Nora sat with Uncle Bruce in the workshop in the back of his store. “It took, I don’t even know, a hundred tries to get it right? Or two hundred. I lost count.”
He patted her on the back. “That’s how it works, honey.” He laughed. “Well, I’ve got it down to ten or fifteen versions for a custom piece before I’m ready to show a customer. But I’ve been at it a long time.”
