I’m not pulling away from you, I am not changing my mind about you. I just need a little time to get my head straight.
Me:
Okay, I can give you time.
Everett:
Thank you.
And for the record, I still really like you. In case my most recent behaviour made you second guess my feelings.
Me:
Well that's good to hear because I still really like you.
I set my phone down, because if there is one thing I am determined to do differently this time, it is this.
Trust.
I am confident enough in us to know this was something he had to come to terms with first. He will tell me when he is ready.
I want to be the calming place for him that he’s already been for me.
Not someone who adds pressure. Not someone who demands answers before he understands them himself.
I trust that what we have built so far, even though it is new, is honest and safe.
Whatever Everett is facing right now, at least he knows one thing. He doesn’t have to go through it alone because he has me in his corner.
Always.
If he’ll have me.
23
Everett
The theater smells like fresh paint. It has become a smell I associate with progress.
One week. That’s how long it had been since Sydney told me that I have a daughter. One week since the phone call that shifted the ground under my feet.
The stage lights are half-installed above me as I stand in the center of the theater, tightening the final screws on one of the aisle railings.
The grand opening is in one week.
After months of work, planning, fundraising, and more late nights than I can count, the place finally looks like the vision I had in my head when I bought the building.
Rows of polished seats. Fresh paint on the walls. The old marquee out front is glowing again for the first time in years.
Lavender Creek is excited. People stop me almost daily to ask when the first movie is. Normally, that excitement would have been the only thing on my mind, instead, my thoughts keep oscillating between the same two things.
Violet and Emily.
One week of carrying the weight of knowing I might have a daughter.
Every time I think about it my brain tries to fill in the blanks.
What does she look like?
