Stella’s fingers shift lightly against the stem of her water glass.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
My mother’s smile deepens.
“You should.”
“You’ve had an eventful year, I gather.” It’s my father’s turn again.
Stella goes still for half a beat. I’m already prepared to cut in if she wants me to. She doesn’t need me to.
“Yes,” she says simply.
My mother leans back slightly.
My father nods once like that answer told him everything he wanted to know.
“And how are you finding him?”
“Complicated,” she says. “But sincere.”
My mother’s expression changes at that. “The sincere men are always the most inconvenient,” she says.
I nearly choke on my water. My father makes a noise into his glass that might be agreement. Stella laughs. And just like that, I know she’s over the hardest part. Because she’s no longer braced for impact. She’s just in it. Holding her own. Drinks turn to a quick, early dinner. By the time coffee is offered and declined and the sky beyond the windows has gone fully dark, the room feels easier.
My mother asks Stella about an ESPN profile she read and mentions a line about “weaponized calm under pressure.” My father wants to know how often the selection committee gets things wrong. Stella, to my deep satisfaction, has opinions about both.
At one point my father says, “You have almost no digital footprint outside athletics.”
Stella blinks.
“I wasn’t aware that was unusual.”
“It is,” my mother says. “And refreshing.”
Stella glances at me.
I grin into my glass.
“Told you they researched you.”
“That’s mildly terrifying.”
“Only mildly?” my mother says. “You’re adapting quickly.”
I watch Stella smile at that, and something low and deep in me settles.
This is what I wanted without quite knowing how to name it.
Not approval as permission.
Never that.
But the worlds in my life looking at each other and not immediately reaching for knives.
When the drinks break up, my mother kisses Stella’s cheek again and says, “Do come see us when things are less rushed.”
My father adds, “And good luck in playoffs. I expect Stanford to be ruthless.”
