Page 82 of Trust Me Always

“Since I was seven.”

“Seven?” I take another sip of my drink. “That’s even longer than my boys.”

Alister smirks. “At least I’m beating someone somewhere.”

I give him a blank blink, and he chuckles, nudging my knee lightly with his elbow.

“Anyway,” he says, going back to the screen, “since we’reworking on kindergartners and whatnot—I had to google what they learned too, by the way—I broke things down into colors, items, and places. Basically, the idea is it will give them an option of three to five colors, and they pick the one they are drawn to the most, then it moves to the next image based on the color they choose, and they pick from that and so on.”

My fingers are dancing along my cup, my mind swimming with what he’s saying. Alister’s eyes are bright, gauging me and seemingly liking what he sees.

He scoots closer, and I move in too, fully intrigued with what he’s about to show me.

“So check this out: obviously I don’t have a program to make this work like I see it in my head, but for the sake of a good grade, I think this can do.”

He pulls up the first set of images; four cubes, each a different color, are on the screen, and he even added little text blocks that spell out the color above the shape. It’s smart, a way to help with potential letter recognition. I wonder if he even realizes this?

“Pick a color.”

“Purple.”

He pretends to click the purple before backing out and clicking the folder labeledpurple,and another page pops up. Four more boxes are on this page, but this time they are items.

A doll with a purple bow, a basketball with purple swirls, a paintbrush with purple dripping from the tip, and a little book with a purple elephant on the cover—toys, sports, art, and reading.

I look at the four boxes again, which can be interpreted by a child as either an interest in the animal on the cover or the book and idea of reading or having a story read to them. It really covers all the basics in an extremely profound way.

I pretend to click this time, choosing the little book, curious as to where it will lead in this test of his.

Alister smiles, scrolling to the last page, but it’s unfinished.There’s a diagram he’s created, little color-coded text bubbles breaking down his thought process.

I nod, reading over his random thoughts, and it’s pretty impressive. It’s easy to see what he’s trying to showcase.

“Alister, this is…” I look his way, not realizing how close we are until we’re both facing each other.

“It’s not the sharpest concept.”

“It’s perfect, simple in a complex way, and it makes sense. You’re breaking things down intellectually and for a purpose, but at the level a child can process, having no idea it’s essentially a test they’re taking, even if it is just one that helps the teacher rather than the child. This is really, really good.”

“Yeah?” Pride shines bright in his eyes, and I have the urge to reach out and touch him. To feel the smile lines along his temples and the hint of stubble on his jaw.

I hold my cup a little tighter. “How long did you stay up to work on this?”

He shrugs, glancing back at his computer, but I wait, and a few moments later, he faces me again. “I couldn’t really sleep so…”

My smile is slow, and the giddiness he has been known to stir inside me does its thing. “You wanted to impress me today, so you stayed up half the night to work on this.” It’s not a question, and Alister doesn’t answer because he sees it—what this means to me.

He can apologize until he’s blue in the face, make promises only time can prove the truth of, and shower me in honesty, but to embrace something I’m passionate about when he’s only just realized that I am?

It’s more than words. More than physical action.

It’s care in a rare sense.

He really is trying here, and his effort isn’t going unnoticed.

Quite the opposite as I think, maybe for the first time, that I’m seeing a side of him he’s never shared before.

There is no arrogance in his eyes, no cocky tilt to his lips. He’s not all about the game, and this thing between us isn’t a chase. I was already caught, after all, though the line broke before he could reel me in due to his own mistake.

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