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Suspicious, I lift my niece and set her on my lap. “Why did you take it off? Didn’t we promise to always wear these watches?”
I balked at the idea at first, but now I don’t even blink an eyelash when business associates catch sight of the gaudy pink thing wrapped around my wrist. It’s turned into a conversation starter and the traditional, family-men who run businesses respect me even more for it.
“Yeah, we did,” she says cagily.
“So where’s your watch? Is it really in class?”
Talia pulls her bottom lip into her mouth and chews nervously. I think about all the times that watch has been flashing red and my suspicions surge.
What if none of those signals were from my niece?
“Tals,” my heart starts beating fast, “did you give your watch away to someone?” My throat gets scratchy. “Was it… Yaya?”
Suddenly, Talia bounces off my lap and lands on the ground.
“Uncle Dare, I need to get back to class. I’ll call you!”
I let out a breathless little chuckle. She’s not slick in the least. I need to teach her how to dodge unwanted conversations more smoothly in the future.
With my niece fleeing back to the safety of her classroom, I return to the receptionist’s office where Mosely is sitting. He’s flanked on either side. One child is dressed in an all-black outfit and wearing eyeliner in this generation’s version of a goth outfit. The other is wearing baggy pants and a hat pulled low over his head.
My assistant is sitting stiffly, both arms tucked into his side as ifhe’sthe one in trouble.
The moment he sees me, Mosely shoots to his feet. “Ready to go, sir?”
When I nod, my assistant looks relieved and eagerly ushers me out of the school. The principal is nowhere to be found and I assume she’s trying to ‘spite’ me for dictating how my donation to the school should be used.
Back in the car, Mosely punches in directions to the airport.
I stare at the city passing by, seeing the blur of skyscrapers and registering little of it.
Is it Yaya? Is it not?
My thumb caresses the nicks and grooves of the pink watch.
Thinking that Yaya has the matching pair is ridiculous. Maybe Talia really does have it in class. Even if she doesn’t, it’s possible she lost the watch and didn’t want to admit the truth to me.
So what if the lights are flashing? A random child in a random neighborhood could be playing with it, which explains why it goes off so often and without rhyme or reason.
There’s no way Yaya would be in possession of the item that connects me and my niece and there’s no way she would be pressing it as if to signal that she’s missing me.
Yaya is with Henry now.
Yaya wants a deaf partner.
Those two facts are undeniable.
I can buy her everything she could ever want. I can take her everywhere she could ever want to go. I can love her the way she deserves to be loved, but I can’t be the man she’s envisioned for her life, and I don’t believe in returning to a company that’s already taken negotiations off the table.
It’s safer to spend my days working. At least million-dollar contracts won’t choose Henry over me.
“Sir,” Mosely faces me, “are you okay?”
I blink slowly. The car’s stopped moving and we’re in the airport’s private parking lot.
Shaking my head to clear it, I abandon all thoughts of running back to Yaya knowing that, at this point, it would be pushing myself on someone who doesn’t want to be chased.
* * *
