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“Mom!”
Somehow I must have accidentally FaceTimed my mom, probably since that was how we spoke last. Her face filled the screen, her warm almond eyes magnified under the new glasses she had bought and had been so excited to show me. She said they made her feel like a sexy librarian and that’s all she’s ever wanted, and then she’d added that that was all dad had ever wanted, too, and I had promptly hung up with her.
“Sorry, Ma, it was a butt dial.”
Her eyes drooped in concern. “Honey, why do you look like you were just chased by an alligator and made it out with only one testicle intact?”
“Mom, that is… that is very specific. And weird. And no, I wasn’t chased by an alligator nor did I lose any of my… anything. I didn’t lose anything.”
I could practically feel Fox looking at me, like lasers were shooting through his pupils and stabbing into the side of my head.
I peeked to the side just to make sure. Yup, he was staring.
And he was also smiling. Wide.
“Okay, Mom. I’ve got to —”
“Wait! I forgot to ask you how your job interview went yesterday, honey. How’d it go?”
“Great, I’m actually on the job. Right now.”
“Right now?”
“Like… right now.”
Fox chuckled. I looked at him, and his face said “I couldn’t hold it.”
“Who’s that? Who are you with? A new coworker? Can I say hi, honey?” She was peering around as if she could see over the corner of my phone. I couldn’t help the smile that took over my face. I loved my mom with my entire heart. She was definitely my hero, and every day she never failed to get me smiling one way or another. There were some excruciatingly difficult days after the accident, and some of those days I had honestly wished my eyes didn’t open the next morning. But then I’d think of my mom, and all of that would change. I knew giving up would never be an option. And then I would wake up to her by my hospital bedside, a fragile hope in her eyes that I never wanted to see shattered, nor be the one who shattered it.
I turned the phone to Fox, and I heard a “Holy shi—Oh shoot, I’m so sorry. I forgot you can see my face. Hi! I’m Emma, Jonah’s mom.”
Fox laughed, his charm at maximum capacity. He waved. “Pleasure to meet you, Emma.”
“No, no. Pleasure is truly all min—”
“All right, Mom.” I knew where this was going. I quickly turned the camera back to me. “I’ll call you later.” And then another face popped up on my screen, over my mom’s shoulder.
“Jojo!”
It was my little brother. “Oliver, I didn’t know you were home. On a break?”
“If you can call it that. I’ve got a week off, but big exams on the day I get back. One’s in large-animal surgery and the other is in radiology, which I hate with the burning, fiery passion reserved for a hemorrhoid diagnosis.”
“You’ll be fine,” I said, laughing. Oliver always was. He was another one of my inspirations, even though he often said it was the other way around.
“Tell your brother to show you the handsome gentleman to his left. Go, go.”
“Mom, everyone can hear you.” I could feel embers burning underneath my cheeks. “Including the handsome gentleman.”
“Well, now you’re gonna have to show me,” my brother said, brow arched.
I sighed. Fox already seemed way too ready, sitting there and finding his light and angle as I turned the camera.
“Holy shit.”
“I know, right!” my mom chimed in.
I turned the phone back to me before they could even have introductions. “There, all right? It’s been fun, you guys—talk to you all in a few years!” I pressed the red button and ended the call, cutting off the protests coming from them.
“I am… so sorry.” I put the phone back in my pocket, feeling sufficiently embarrassed.
And then I heard a laugh, “Are you kidding me?” Fox said, his voice filling the small space of his car. “I want to meet them now. Like in real life, not through the phone.”
“Oh.” That was a surprise. I adjusted in the leather seat, looked out the window, and hid the massive smile on my face. I didn’t know why I couldn’t control it, or why I was feeling shy about it. “All right, I’m sure they’d like to meet you, too.”
“They seem like fun people.”
“They are. My dad, too. He works more, so he’s not around as often, but he’s as kooky as these two.”
“What does he do?”
“My dad? He’s a cardiothoracic surgeon.”
“Wow, a heart surgeon?”
I nodded, looking back to Fox. My eyes dropped down to his lips, pink and still a little shiny from the kiss we had shared only minutes earlier. “That’s probably where my brother got his love for science. He wants to be a vet, so slightly different than what our dad does, but still really awesome. I’m proud of him, we all are.”
