Becca swallowed hard against the lump in her throat as she hugged Sandra tightly and then released her. As much as she tried to stop them, tears leaked from the corner of her eyes and she wiped at them impatiently, before laughing a little at herself. “Oh well, I guess I’m just a sappy, weepy old lady. Before now, I would have blamed my haywire hormones for this, but now that I have given birth, can I still use that excuse?” She asked, gratified to see that Sandra was also a little teary.“Oh, come on. Now you’re making me cry. I didn’t realize that I was going to miss you this much. Now I’m regretting why I moved so far away and thanking my stars that at least, we're still in the same city.” Sandra replied. Dan was standing beside his car, holding Alex, and shuffling from foot to foot as he waited for them to say their goodbyes. The moving company had moved the last of Sandra's stuff over to her new apartment the previous day. Dan did not look as sad as Becca had thought that he wou

Craig’s parents fussed over Tyler, who was soaking up every bit of attention, as he loved to meet new people, but hardly did so. Anna and Noah promptly forgot about Ryan, and neither did they ask about Taylor at first. After they had played with the child for a while and bestowed enough kisses to last for a lifetime on him, they finally turned to face Ryan.“He’s such a happy child and he seems to be developing really well,” Anna said, bouncing Tyler on her lap, while he busied himself with trying to stuff her hair in his mouth.“He is indeed,” Ryan replied, wondering if he dared to hope that they won’t ask about Taylor.“And his sister? I would have sworn that you sent us two baby pictures and told us that Meghan had given birth to the twins she was carrying before the horrible incident that claimed her life and Craig’s.” Noah added.“Yeah … about that, you see. Apparently, Angela only returned Tyler and went out again with Taylor. She enjoys taking Taylor out a lot. She dresses her

A month and two weeks after she gave birth to her daughter, Becca resumed work. It was not the same without Sandra, of course, and Becca missed her friend so much that at first, she was finding it difficult to concentrate, especially since the new teacher who had been hired to take Sandra’s place turned out to be a snob, who treated Becca with condescension, but she had no choice but to adapt and ignore the woman in turn. As she had known, things were not the same between her and Sandra, despite the fact that they still lived in the same city, only in different parts. It was almost as though she was now forcing her friendship on Sandra and the latter sort of seemed to be nervous each time Becca came over, so much so that Becca had begun to think that she had to stop going over so much. It was just that Sandra had made her promise to visit every weekend, and since Becca had no other friend apart from Dan, who was almost always busy, she had taken up Sandra on that offer. Her haywire h

As Becca had suspected, Sandra didn’t come over as she had promised the next day, which was a Sunday, neither did she text or call. Becca, who had resolved to stop bugging her, was contemplating whether to take Emma and go to see a movie when her doorbell rang. She opened the door to see Dan standing there sheepishly, a basket of fruits in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.“Hey, stranger.” He said, nodding at her in greeting as though they were strangers to each other. Becca fought the urge to roll her eyes.“What do you want?” She asked instead.“Is that any way to talk to your dear neighbor who has missed you more than you can imagine?”“Yeah, right. You missed me so much that you couldn’t even be bothered to check up on me. Come in.” She told him, standing aside and letting him go inside the house. Just seeing him alone was enough to get her pulse racing and her entire body tingling, and knowing that there was nothing stopping her from having sex with him if she wanted no

Becca had just finished teaching her class and was sitting down looking at her emails when all of a sudden, a ruckus erupted among her pupils. Startled, she raised her head to see almost all of them trooping towards the door, arms waving. Standing up, she turned in that direction to see the reason why they were doing that. Dan was standing in the doorway, bending to carry some of them, while the others crowded around his legs, craving his attention. He ruffled their hairs one by one, smiled at them, asked them how they were, and smiled sheepishly when his eyes met Becca’s shrugging, the smile not quite hiding the worry in his eyes. Finally, he sent them back to their seats and came over to meet Becca, nodding slightly at her.“Hey, you. What on earth are you doing here, and how come my pupils seem to like you so much? I’m kinda jealous, come to think of it.” Becca joked.“I usually come over for career day, and I used to visit Sandra when she newly started to work here.”“Oh. I didn’t