Now? I’m already at the house.
Of course he was.
I changed into something comfortable, loose oatmeal-colored sweater, soft black leggings that didn’t press too tightly against my stomach. My hair went into a messy bun that would absolutely fall out in twenty minutes, but I didn’t care enough to redo it.
When I walked downstairs, Kei was already in the living room.
Boxes covered the coffee table, floor, even part of the couch. Black-and-white prints scattered beside faded Polaroids. Torn notebook pages filled with cramped handwriting sat in uneven stacks, some stained with coffee rings or smeared ink.
He looked up when he heard me.
Smiled.
Small. Tired. Familiar.
“Thanks for coming.”
“I live here,” I said, lowering myself carefully onto the floor across from him. “But also… you’re welcome. What are we sorting?”
“Everything,” he said, nudging a stack toward me. “Anniversary box set. Label wants nostalgia. Cal keeps avoiding it, so it landed on me.”
I picked up the first photo. Young Cal on stage. Barely out of his teens. Shirtless. Sweaty. Smiling in a way I had never seen him smile now, wide and reckless and completely unguarded.
My chest tightened.
We worked in comfortable quiet at first.
The kind that felt easy, not forced.
I sorted photos by year using dates scribbled on the back. Kei flipped through lyric pages, occasionally reading lines aloud under his breath, deciding what deserved preservation and what belonged in the trash pile.
Then he froze.
I glanced up.
He was staring at a photograph.
Five of them stood in front of a beach backdrop, Mexico. Arms slung around each other’s shoulders. Their smiles were bright. Almost exaggerated. But their eyes…
Their eyes looked hollow. Like they were performing happiness instead of living it.
“You okay?” I asked gently.
He exhaled slowly and set the photo face-down.
“My sister called last night,” he said.
The subject shift felt intentional.
“Her kid, my nephew, started walking. She sent a video. He fell on his ass and laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world.”
I smiled despite myself. “That’s adorable.”
“Yeah.”
He rubbed his jaw, staring at nothing in particular.
“She’s doing good. College degree. Husband. House. Kid. All the things I made sure she got.”
