After 20 Years, My Husband Kissed Her 10 Minutes Before Our Daughter Graduated novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Stay

Sonya lets Paula stay in the second family photo, watches her fetch Calvin's pills from his briefcase at lunch, and finds his name on a second key card to Paula's apartment.

The flash went off while Calvin's hand was still on Paula's waist.

Only then did he seem to remember where he was.

He dropped his arm and stepped away from her.

"One more," the photographer said.

June turned toward me with her smile fading.

"Mom? Are you okay?"

"Your mother is tired," Calvin said. "Look at the camera."

He kept his voice gentle, but it was an order.

I faced forward, and June did the same.

When the second picture was done, Paula took a step back from the group.

"Let me take one of just the three of you," she said. "You should have a real family photo."

"You're in it already," Calvin said. "Stay where you are."

Paula looked at me, and so did June.

There was a line of parents behind us on the steps, and the photographer held up a hand to hurry us along.

"Stay," I said.

That is how she got into the second photograph too.

She didn't push her way in.

I was just the one who would have had to push her out.

I had reserved a table by the window at the restaurant across the street and ordered June's lemon cake ahead of time.

A gold paper sign stood between two vases.

CONGRATULATIONS, JUNE.

June sat beside me, and Paula sat beside Calvin.

For a while June scrolled through photos on her phone and told us about her friends.

She told us how the principal had mispronounced three names, and I nodded in the right places.

The appetizers came, and Calvin reached for a fried pepper.

Halfway through the meal he pressed two fingers under his ribs and winced.

Paula's eyes went to the side pocket of his briefcase, and she did not reach for it.

"The stomach pills, Cal," she said quietly.

Calvin unzipped the pocket and took out a silver packet.

I had packed that briefcase for him for twenty years.

I had never seen medicine in that pocket.

"How did you know where they were?" I asked.

Paula's face stayed soft. "He packed them this morning. I was standing right there."

I turned that over.

This morning, she had been somewhere she could watch him pack his bag.

Calvin broke a tablet in half with his thumb. "She dropped by my office before the ceremony."

June pushed her plate away.

"Please. Not at lunch."

Her eyes were bright.

All around us, other families were laughing under paper banners.

A boy in a green gown posed by the dessert case while his grandmother took pictures.

June did not know what she was asking me to hide.

She only knew that if I said it out loud, her day would change.

My throat closed.

"Go to your party tonight," I said. "I won't call you home."

Her shoulders came down.

She looked relieved before she looked guilty.

The cake came out with candles, and June blew them out.

Calvin cut the first slice.

Paula filmed all of it on her phone, as she had filmed every birthday since June turned one.

My phone lit up beside my plate.

Edith Lang had written again.

The job is still yours. I need your answer by Monday.

Edith had been my supervisor years ago.

Three months earlier she had offered me the operations director job at her freight company in Nashville.

Calvin had asked me to hold off answering until June graduated, because the family needed stability.

I had meant to say no.

June had graduated now.

At home, June changed for her party.

She hugged me longer than she usually did before she left.

"Thank you," she whispered. "I wanted today to be a good one."

I stood at the window and watched her drive away.

Calvin went upstairs.

He shut the bedroom door without a word to me.

I carried the graduation gifts into the dining room.

The same-day print of the family photograph lay on top of one bag.

His hand was clear against Paula's waist.

I set it down beside my laptop.

For fourteen months I had paid the rent on Paula's apartment.

If Calvin had been going there, the building would have a record of it.

I opened the Linden Court resident portal and signed in to the lease account.

My name was at the top as the leaseholder.

Below it were the payment history, the repair requests, and a tab marked Access.

I clicked it.

LONG-TERM KEY CARDS: TWO ACTIVE.

The first was Paula's.

The second had been issued six months ago.

Cardholder: Calvin Roark.

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