Page 73 of Jaime
“I can’t believe you went from blowing off guys for work to blowing off work for a guy. Never thought I'd see the day.”
I found myself smiling softly.
“Yeah, well, Jaime’s not just any guy. He's special.”
“Awww.”
She made a soft, gushy sort of sound, the same one I’d heard her do whenever the little kids did something cute.
“That’s my cue,” I chuckled. “I have to call Arty and my dad to give them updates.”
“Alright, good luck.”
Arty was buzzed. He’d seen the studio before they’d suggested the arrangement to me, and he had been on the edge of his seat waiting for my approval. Telling him how excited it made me feel and how nice I thought it was helped ease into the fact that I wasn’t dead set on it yet. My excuse of not being ready to leave my hometown seemed to help ease him off a bit.
Then there was my dad.
The deep, familiar sound of his voice soothed me like nothing else. Until finding Jaime, I’d never thought I would find another person who I would love like family. Now, suddenly, I had both him and Evie and life felt different from top to bottom.
“Hey, Buddy, I was waiting for your call.”
“I know, sorry, Dad.”
“How was the city?”
“Alright,” I answered.
The fact that that was his first question, that I had told him about work, but not about Jaime, bothered me.
“You know, it was okay, but it made me realize a couple things...”
“Oh yeah?” he asked.
My dad was great that way, ever patient and calm no matter what. I often thought that nothing could shock him more than the things that had already happened in his life.
“Now that I’ve gone to see it, I find I’m more interested in making sure things still work with this guy I’ve been seeing.”
He was quiet for a moment.
“What’s his name?”
“Jaime,” I said and then everything started tumbling out. “And he has a little girl—his niece actually, but he cares for her. He’s been a bit down on his luck for a while but since we met there’s this connection between us...”
I swallowed, unsure why I was sharing all of this now. Maybe for his advice on how to move forward.
“What kind of connection?” he asked. “Physical?”
“I mean, yeah, that’s definitely there, but there’s more than that. Something solid, like we can rely on each other too.” I leaned back, trying to put words to the way it felt when we were together. “It’s like we fill in each other’s cracks... I don’t know.”
I chuckled, feeling foolish, but my dad was silent for a long minute.
“Ethan, if you found something like that, then that’s the number one thing you should be prioritizing,” he said. His voice was full of emotion and it hit me, making my heart hurt and eyes sting. “When you're on your deathbed, you won’t be thinking about how much money you made. You’ll be thinking about the people you care about and if you did enough for them, if you got enough moments with them. I know I’ll be thinking about you, your mom and sister, even after all this time. I don’t want you to have any of those big regrets, son, like I do.”
I blinked back tears, forcing air into my lungs.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I know you’re right. It’s not a long commute, but being gone five days a week, probably ten-plus hours wouldn't work for us. Moving makes more sense, but I don’t know if I want to leave the life I’ve built here. I like the little things, like reading at the library and even our small studio.”
“Of course,” he enthused, “because you did it all yourself. You built up your career, following your heart every step of the way. Ethan, you’ve been an inspiration.”
