CHAPTER 138: Friday

POV: Selene Castellano

She wore the green dress.

She had no idea why, but that morning she just knew what she wanted to wear. She opened her wardrobe and there it was, waiting for her. 

Avalon saw it and said nothing.

He caught her eye for just a moment, and in that instant, he got it - no words were needed, he just understood.

They left at nine.

Dr Okafor's office was warm.

December outside, warm inside, the contrast of a room that had been designed to feel like a pause from everything else.

Dr Okafor gave a nod as we settled in, "You look ready."

"I am," Selene said.

"Any questions before we begin?"

"No," Selene said. " You've answered them all."

Dr Okafor looked at Avalon.

"You?"

"No," he said.

"Then let's go," Dr Okafor said.

The procedure itself was straightforward.

Selene had prepared herself for, the task of separating the hope from the mechanics of the thing carrying the hope.

Avalon held her hand.

As she gazed up at the ceiling, her breath slowed, and her mind began to wander to Elena, remembering the warmth and comfort of being held. Then, her thoughts shifted to Dr Ruth, standing in a hospital room, selflessly choosing to hold a baby in need of human touch. Nene's question echoed in her mind, and she pondered the unknown they were working towards. A mix of emotions swirled in her chest - fear, conviction, and love - all intertwined like the threads of a rope, each one pulling her in different directions, yet somehow holding her together.

Mostly love.

Afterwards, they sat in a small recovery room, just them, a nurse checking in twice, nothing urgent happening.

"How do you feel," Avalon said.

"It's weird," she said, "I don't feel bad or anything, I'm just really aware of myself, you know, in a way that I'm not usually aware of myself, it's like I'm thinking about how I'm thinking, and it's kind of strange."

He nodded.

"Hungry," she added.

"Good," he said. " That's good."

"Is it medically significant that I'm hungry?"

"He just shook his head and said, 'No, I just enjoy giving you food.'"

She looked at him.

"I'm serious," he said, looking at me with conviction. "I really mean it.

They grabbed a bite to eat at a small diner just a couple of blocks away from the clinic.

They sat down to a simple breakfast - eggs, toast, and coffee. The coffee was a bit too strong, but neither of them said a word about it.

"Now we wait," she said.

"Two weeks," he said, recalling the words of Dr Okafor, who had told him it would be that long.

"I know what she said."

"I'm just saying it out loud."

"Why?"

"When we say it out loud, it feels more real, like something we can actually grasp. Instead of just being this vague thing that's happening somewhere out of sight, it becomes more tangible, more concrete. It's like we're giving it a shape, a form, and that makes it feel more manageable, more like something we can wrap our heads around."

She looked at him across the diner table.

"Two weeks," she said.

They didn't talk about it much after that.

Not that day, not the days following.

Things just kept on going, pretty much like they always had.

The foundation. Nexus. Amara's year-end report. James presented to a city council subcommittee on the corruption network's impact on community funding — a 90-minute presentation that yielded three immediate policy review commitments.

Maya and Kofi settled into married life with the ease of people who had already been living like they were married before anyone made it official.

Kofi's new office on Valencia Street was finally open for business. It was a small space, but it had a certain charm. One of the best features was the courtyard that you could see right through the front window. On his first day, Kofi decided to add a little touch of warmth to the place, so he put a plant out in the courtyard. He was pretty proud of himself, so he took a picture of it and sent it to Maya. Maya thought it was a nice touch, so she forwarded the photo to Selene. Selene, in turn, sent it to Avalon. When Avalon saw the picture, he didn't say much - just a simple "Good courtyard" after looking at it for a moment.

One week in, Selene woke at three AM.

She lay in the dark, listened to Avalon breathe, and thought about two weeks being fourteen days, and fourteen days being a specific, finite number of hours she's been trying not to count.

She failed, so she got up and made tea.

She stood at the kitchen window with it.

The city at three AM.

She stood at the window, lost in thought, and her mind wandered back to the same spot a year ago. It was as if she was staring at a different person, a version of herself who had made it through the darkest of times - the warehouse, the deposition room, the brutal board battles. But as she reflected on that journey, she realised that getting through it all wasn't the same as truly being alive. Back then, she was starting to grasp that surviving was only half the battle, and that it would take so much more to really start living.

She was living now.

Whatever happened in the next seven days.

She was actually here, alive and surrounded by her people, which was more than she had thought possible just a year ago, when she felt so isolated and alone, staring out of this very same window.

The tea had gone cold by the time she finished her thoughts.

She didn't mind this at all, she just went back to bed.

Avalon stirred.

"You okay," he murmured.

"Yes," she said.

"Come here," he said.

She did.

He pulled her close and went back to sleep, and she lay in the dark, feeling his heartbeat as it gently drew her into dreamland.