Page 24 of Second Chance

“Who do you talk to?”

“Friends. Family. A professional if you can find one.”

“Who did you talk to?”

“I didn’t.”

Not for the first time in the last few days, Tony remembers the comforting darkness in Daniel’s car while he tried to put into words the things he’d never had cause to say out loud before. How nice it was that he was driving so his hands and feet and eyes were all busy. How vulnerable and bruised he felt afterward, and how safe in Daniel’s bed. In Daniel’s arms. “Sometimes it feels easier, not talking about things,” he offers. “Safer.”

“Yes.”

He pretends not to notice how she wipes at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Going to university… My siblings all went before me, but for safe subjects, medicine or law. I was taking a risk, and I couldn’t fail. It was my first time away from my family, and I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting into with studying anthropology, and I didn’t know how to cook anything, and it was very…very…”

“Lonely?”

“I suppose. I didn’t want to admit that at the time. I made it work.”

“As far as I can tell, you did a pretty good job of that.”

“I suppose.” Colette smiles over at him. “I don’t enjoy being out of my depth, not then and not now.”

“Well, I’m sure Sean appreciates you making the effort.”

They work at the salad in companionable silence for a while until Daniel wanders in.

“Hey! Why’d you let her help?”

Tony elects not to answer.

Daniel downs the rest of his wine, slumping heavily into one of the bar stools at his tiny kitchen island. “That was Fatou Nchama asking for a letter of recommendation for an application at CUNY.”

“Not Fatou,” Colette says. “I love her.”

“I know. She’s great, everyone loves her. She doesn’t love the idea of being stabbed though.” He lets his forehead lower to the flat surface of the counter and rests there, spine curved much too far to be comfortable.

Colette catches Tony’s eye with a rueful twist of her lips. “Daniel’s talked to three different junior professors today. All of them are considering looking for different jobs.”

Tony’s never gone job hunting a day in his life, but if violent crime were a frequent occurrence at Angel Automotive—yeah, he’d consider it.

When he says as much, Colette sniffs disdainfully. “A sign of a weak constitution, to run at the first indication of trouble.”

“There’s running, and then there’s two professors down in less than a year,” Tony points out. “Any news on what happened?”

Reluctantly, Daniel straightens. “Not much. Amelia—Professor Lawrence—usually kept her office unlocked. We don’t know who might have done it or why. It’s…I can barely believe it happened.”

“It was broad daylight,” Colette chimes in. “She was found in the middle of the afternoon. Only in America.”

Daniel winces visibly.

“It’s true.” Colette sets her wine glass down, presumably to gesture more emphatically. “This is the least civilized countryin the world, people here persist in acting as if these things are unpreventable.”

“Okay, I see your point. But isn’t that more about gun violence?” Daniel props his elbows up on the counter, ready to start a discussion.

“Violence is violence. If it weren’t so normalized here, if there weren’t school shootings every other day, do you think someone would simply walk into a professor’s office and…and…” Colette breaks off and takes a big gulp of wine.

After a long moment, Tony asks, “So this wouldn’t have happened in France, huh?”

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