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I know you’re at class right now, but I wanted to know if I could borrow your black sweater tomorrow night. I have a date. Squeeee! It’s that
guy I’ve been crushing on in my business economics class. His name is Landon and he’s studying to be a restaurant owner. Mmm, imagine marrying someone
who can cook. I think I could be the happiest girl on the planet. God, I’m
getting ahead of myself, but I’m excited and I need to look perfect tomorrow night. Maybe
after a few dates, we can join you and Reagan some time.

I finally feel like our lives are starting to come together again. We deserve it. We deserve to be happy. And I’m so happy right now!

Love ya, Cali Cal xoxoxo

EEK! I’m so excited.

Krissy

Oh my God. I push myself up from my desk and make it to the bathroom as quickly as I can, hoping no sees me crying this hard. Landon? It couldn’t be the same one. What are the odds? Did he go to
the University of Texas, too? Everything was supposed to be perfect. She never dated. She didn’t give guys a chance. School was too important to her. She was truly happy that day. She was thinking of
a future neither
of us could comprehend for the longest time. I was always the one trying to make our future plans, trying to pull her out of her depressing funk. Why would she be murdered that night? Why
would the world work like that? It’s so fucking unfair.

All of my pain is resurfacing, and my hormones are definitely amplifying this. God dammit. How am I going to fucking survive this shit, I can’t even make it through a day at work without breaking down. I used to be the strongest woman I knew, and now
I’m the weakest. The absolute weakest person I’ve ever met.

I clean up my face and head back to my desk, immediately
starting a new email.

Hey Sash,

What college did Landon go to?

Just wondering.

-Cali

She responds within a few minutes with:

University of Texas. Why?

-Sasha

I have spent the last four hours of my workday staring at a blank screen, contemplating life and the lack of it that remains.

My desk phone rings and pulls me out of my trance, and I
debate ignoring it and going home sick, but I answer it anyway.

“Cali speaking?”

“Hey Cali, I have a new laborer starting tomorrow. He’ll be
meeting with you at nine. Just giving you a heads up.”

“Thanks, Jack. I’ll be here.” I hang up the phone and wonder why my boss is reminding me to be at work on time tomorrow. I’ve never been late, and I haven’t called in sick. Must be a high-level position.

***

“Landon, do you remember a girl named Krissy from your business economics class a few years ago?” He thinks for a minute and then his face turns pale.

“Oh yeah, I do. Poor girl,” he says, staring through me. “How did you know about her?” His eyes focus on mine, probably puzzled
about how I would know of their brief encounter.

“She was my sister. I—ah—I waited two years before opening up her last e-mail to me.” I pull out the printed e-mail and hand it to him, then watch as his eyes sadden while he reads each word.

“Oh my—wow. Yeah, that was me. What are the odds?” He nods his head slowly looking at me with sympathy. “I heard she was
killed in some alley a few blocks away from where she lived.”

I can feel my eyebrows puckering and tears filling my eyes. “You made her really really happy that day. She hadn’t been that happy since our mom died. You gave her that.” I can’t say anything
else. I just wrap my arms around his neck and squeeze him. Sasha’s on the other side of us, crying too.

We spent the rest of the night sharing stories and Landon telling us about the little hard-to-get game Krissy played with him for two months. He told us how nervous he was to ask her out and couldn’t believe when she actually agreed. Landon said she always looked
happy and that’s what drew him to her. I guess he had no idea how troubled she was. She must have been good at putting on a front when she was in class. She was good at hiding her troubles behind a smile.

Rather than falling asleep with a lump in my throat as I do most nights, I fall asleep knowing that Krissy smiled a real smile the day she died. And it gives me a little closure.

***

These mornings are getting harder and harder to pull myself out of bed and drag myself to the office. I’d much rather sleep all day. That’s what I should be allowed to do in this bodily state, but
instead, I unlock the
glass door of the office and step inside. I flip the lights on and turn
around to face my desk.

And my heart stops.

And my heart starts racing.

And the tears, they pour down my cheeks.

And the sobs, they gurgle up through my throat.

I walk slowly over to my desk. I walk slowly over to the man sitting
in my desk chair. My mouth is hanging open and I’ve forgotten how to
speak.

He stands up and moves toward me.

“I’m here for a job,” he says with a jaunty grin.

“I think I might have one for you,” I manage to say. I wrap my hands around my swollen belly. “How about being a dad?” I cry again.

His smile grows twice the size and he rushes up to me, quickly
closing the space between us. His hands cup around my cheeks and he presses his lips into mine with so much fierce exuberance, I almost forget about the last eight months. “The baby’s mine, right?”
he asks, sounding worried.

I slap him. “No one else could fill the empty shoes you left behind.”

“Wait, weren’t you on the—pill?” These don’t seem like proper
I haven’t seen you in eight months
,
lets catch up
questions, but I’m sure just as many things are whirling through his head, as are in mine right now.

“Turns out you’re not the only one who can be the exception to a rule,” I say, biting down on my bottom lip.

“Marry me, Cali. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone in my entire life. I thought of you every single day for the past eight months. I prayed that you hadn’t moved on, and that you’d be waiting for me.

“I love you. I’ve loved you and I will always love you. I would have waited for forever. And yes, I’ll marry you.” I strangle my arms
around him, squeezing so tightly it releases some of the built up pressure in my chest.

“Easy easy. I don’t want to hurt—“ He places his hands on my
stomach. “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

“A girl. I want to name her Tyler Krissy Wright. “ For the first time since I met Tango, he’s crying. He’s crying not because he’s dying. Not
because he’s remembering a horrible memory from combat. Not
because he had to say good-bye to me. I think he’s crying because he gets to experience a second chance at life—with me, with our daughter.

When the emotions settle down, I can see different thoughts
running through his eyes. “I have something for you,” he says.

“What else could I possibly need beside you?” I ask, wiping my drippy eyes.

He walks back around my desk and pulls out a large white canvas along with a bundle of cloth-wrapped paintbrushes and paints. “Here,” he says. “It’s a blank canvas. I want you—I want us
to pour a bucket of
white paint over this and start over. I want you to fill this canvas
with what our lives should look like.”

He remembered.

TANGO

I’ve seen my life flash before me too many times. But for the first time, I see my future flash before me. Beside the thirty-second heart
attack I had when I watched Cali waddle through her office door, wondering if she had met someone else and was having his baby, I haven’t felt like anything was so right in all my life.

The folks in China weren’t so bad. Their only goal was to successfully cure cancer with the new drug they had spent years
developing. They treated me well. Treated me more like a friend than a test subject. The only thing they prevented me from doing was making outside
contact. But being in the Marines and deployed a number of times, this wasn’t a lot to ask. Although, I would have done just about
anything to tell Cali I was okay.

I built an unbreakable bond with Alice. She’s an amazing woman,
mother, and friend. I can see why Cali’s heart would never heal from her absence. I can also understand why she remained hidden for so long.

I was notified that Eli turned himself in, and while we all thought he’d be convicted for international theft, he was able to prove to the world that this treatment did work with no side effects. For this he was released and forced to retire, taking up a new residence with Alice in the home she had built for her family all of the years he was busy working.

My lungs are completely healed and I’m cancer free. So is Alice.

The scientists are in the process of getting the drug put through trials. With their eight months of research and testing, they have all the information they need to prove to the world that a cure for one of the most deadly diseases is close to being approved and publicized.

They let me go as they promised they would. They’ll come check on me periodically to make sure the cancer doesn’t return, but I’m okay with that.

We walk into Sasha’s house and Cali leads me down to her bedroom. “So this is where you’ve been living for the past eight
months?” It’s small, but I’m glad she was able to stay with Sasha.

“It’s been fine. I’ve saved up enough money to rent my own place, but I haven’t found one yet.”

I laugh a little knowing that we won’t have to worry about money ever. “Not only do I have the money Eli gave me for taking care of Cali, but the company in China gave me a large sum of
money to pay for my
time spent being their test subject.“ I think if I help out with a mortgage, we can buy a nice little house near your parents.” The smile on her face is so pure and real. I love making this girl smile
and I will do whatever
it takes to make her smile every day for the rest of my life. “I’m
taking you to see your parents tomorrow and to show you the house that I sort of already picked out.” I wince, hoping she doesn’t mind. It was a long flight home, I had free Internet service, and they gave me a laptop and a phone in addition to the money. I spent the entire trip searching for houses and rings.”

“Really? Wait, both of my parents are . . . home?” she asks.

“Yes, your dad is now retired and your parents will finally have their happily ever after.”

And more tears commence. “Jeez, Cali. You’re like a running hose. Have you been crying like this the whole pregnancy?”

Her tears turn into giggles. “Yes, I can’t help it.” I wipe her tears
away and place a kiss on her nose. She’s changed somehow—she’s
happy and free.

“Wait. What about your parents? Can you tell them you’re not really dead?” she asks.

“Not really, but I have an idea . . .”

CALI

S
IX
MONTHS
LATER

My toes crunch into the white sand as I walk toward Tango,
deliciously dressed in loose khakis and a white shirt. With baby Tyler in Tango’s
arms, wearing a tiny little pink dress, they both smile at me as I make my way toward them with a large bouquet of white lilies
clenched between my hands.

I glance over at my parents sitting on the left, keeping one chair
open for where Krissy would have sat. Mom and Dad are both
crying
happy tears, which makes me turn my head quickly to avoid my own tears. I look to the right and I see Tango’s parents and sister. While Tango couldn’t tell them he was still technically alive and that
he had
set up his own death, I asked them to meet me in Mexico—a place where it was safe for everyone to be together without getting Tango’s old Marine officer in a lot of trouble for forging a death. It
was tough
getting them to Mexico, especially with a plea coming from a
complete
stranger, but I told them there was something they should know
about their son. Chelsea helped.

Tango saw them for the first time in two years today. His mother was angry at first, but she understood what a snap decision after
receiving a
two-month death sentence could cause a person to do. They made a promise to meet in Mexico twice a year and they would keep in
touch through me. Chelsea and I have become very close and we talk daily. Everything is as perfect as it could possibly be.

With Sasha on one side and Landon on the other, one as a maid-of-honor and the other as the best man, I arrive in front of my two loves. Tango hands Tyler to Sasha and fills his empty hands with
mine.

“Do you, Carolina, take Tyler Wright to be your lawfully
wedded husband? Will you promise to love and trust one another until you both shall part?” the priest asks.

“Yes. I love you. And I
trus
t you,” I smile, knowing how easy it feels to admit the feeling of trust. “You will always be my exception to
the
rule.”