My throat tightens.
My heart slamming.
This is what the universe wants.
It wants me to react.
Don’t fucking move, Allison.
Don’t even blink—swear to God.
I’ve never stood so straight in my life.
Then tiny sneakers squeal past me,
one wrong move,
and the toddler could take us both down.
The mom?—
without glancing up from self-checkout?—
yells,
“Get your ass back here, Andrew.
“You little shit.”
My eyes stop moving.
My pulse skips once.
Twice.
Then I throw my head back and laugh.
Candy bar in my mouth, drooling,
staring up at the ceiling, laughing.
A goddamn insane person.
A woman on the edge.
Aerosmith all around me.
Alright, Universe. That’s enough.
You can calm down now.
I get it. He’s mine.
I don’t get two feet out the door,
when a pigeon dive-bombs from a lamppost,
swooping down, landing right in front of me,
