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“Who is she?” she said. “She must be very special to have effected such a change in you so quickly. Your fated mate, maybe?”
“Maybe,” I said. “She’s very special. I was hoping I could introduce her to you soon.”
“It’s a little premature, don’t you think?”
“Was it premature when Dad proposed to you after just a week of knowing you?”
Mom smiled at that and reached into her S’mauggai bag for a tissue.
“Using my own words against me,” she said. “Your dad used to play dirty tricks like that too. Fine. You can bring her over. When?”
“When are you returning home?”
“This afternoon.”
“Then how about we come over tonight?”
“Tonight? Are you sure?”
I thought about Vicky and the progress she’d made. Really, what else was there for her to learn? From now until the end of the remaining two weeks, it was going to be nothing but endless practice. I’m sure she’d be relieved to get this whole event over with as quickly as possible.
Plus, once it was over, I would get to enjoy her completely to myself for the next few days.
What would happen after that?
Would she leave?
Would she return home the way we agreed?
Or had something already happened between us?
Had we passed a threshold from which we could never return?
I didn’t know the answer to any of those questions.
But hopefully, Vicky had helped create a new version of me, a version I could take into the future and finally bring myself to look others in the eye and be proud of who I was, and where I came from.
I could become my own man and step out of my father’s shadow.
It’d been a long time coming.
“Is anybody home?” I said, shutting my apartment door behind me.
I stopped by a bakery on the way home and picked up some delicious cream pies. They were filled with all twelve flavors from the hexadodron and smothered with powdered sugar. They were the most delicious dessert, my favorite ever since I was a kid.
I dropped the shuttlecraft keys in the bowl I kept by the door and took off my jacket. I placed it on the cloakroom arm that extended from the wall and walked through the apartment.
It seemed very quiet.
“Hello?” I said. “Is anybody home?”
I heard Vicky’s high-pitched giggle from the kitchen.
I followed the twinkling sound and wondered what she was up to. I crept through the apartment hoping to surprise her.
Instead, it turned out I was the one that was surprised.
Zyod sat with his legs splayed out to either side of her so he could lean in close and whisper something in Vicky’s ear. She giggled even louder.
