“Loving you isn’t difficult,” he said like a man truly in love.
“Our love story has been anything but easy.”
“Do you ever think it will be?” he begged to know.
I shrugged, even though no one was around to see it. “I don’t know. Grandma has always said that love is the hardest work around.”
“I want to make it work with you.”
I nibbled on my bottom lip. “I believe you.”
“What do you want, Dani?”
I pressed my back against the wall. So many swirling ideas went through my head, but they all culminated into a singular thought. “I want to feel free to hope again.”
“What would you hope for if you could?”
That was an easy answer. “You.”Chapter Twenty-Six“Today each of you are going to create a résumé, and we are going to do some job interview role playing.”
There were a few groans.
I didn’t know why people disliked role playing. Okay, maybe it was a little uncomfortable, but so were job interviews.
Neveah raised her hand. “What if we’ve never had a job before? How can we write a résumé?”
“Good question. Everyone, log in to the laptop in front of you, and we’ll talk about that.”
I sat on the table in front of the classroom. I found my energy lagged at the end of the day now that I was back to work. A few weeks of lounging around had really zapped my strength. Yet, for once in my life, I was glad I had taken the time to let my body heal. As far as emotional healing went, I was still working on it. Being back at work seemed to help. Sheridan was right—helping others was a great cure. And I couldn’t stay cooped up in Brock’s house forever. Though it hadn’t been half-bad spending a few weeks holed up with Sheridan—Mom. If ever I needed a self-esteem boost, I was going straight to her. Thankfully, I got to go home to her every night. Well, maybe that wasn’t a good thing. It meant John was still being an idiot. Poor Sheridan was beside herself at having to contemplate a divorce.
I was faced with the same dilemma, except my husband was doing his best to make sure that didn’t happen. We could only talk once a week, but he emailed me every day. I looked forward to his sarcastic commentary on his therapy sessions; and when he shared some of his profound experiences with me, I felt a deeper connection with him than I ever had before. He had even shared some of his journal entries with me. A few days ago, one of his journal prompts was, Is there anything you wish you had really taken the time to appreciate before the experience? His response was simply, DANI. They weren’t always that sweet. Yesterday he was asked to describe some key causes of stress in his life right now. He wrote, and I quote: 1. Being away from my wife. 2. The food in this place. 3. This feelings journal. 4. No sex. See number one.
I had been stunned. We hadn’t discussed having sex since the hotel incident. Sex was a huge step. Sex meant we were staying together. I had written back late last night, well after I knew he had gone to sleep. I’d been honest with him about my experiences with sex and how I wanted all future experiences to be about making love. How I wanted sex to never be a question, as Grandma would say, but all about the exclamation points. I’d told him I needed to feel secure in our relationship before we took that step. I was anxious to see what his response would be later tonight.
For now, I needed to focus on my students. “Everyone logged in?”
I got several head nods.
“Great. Let’s talk about Neveah’s question. Why do you need a résumé even if you don’t have any job experience? First of all, it will set you apart from your peers. Second, it will tell your future employer you care about the job you’re applying for. Even if it’s an entry-level position. So, what do you put on a résumé if you don’t have any formal job experience? Thoughts?” I turned it over to them.
Darius raised his hand. “When I worked at McDonald’s, I learned I could shove all the fries in a medium-size order in my mouth.”
The class erupted in laughter.
Even I smiled. “That’s quite the feat, but while that may impress your buddies, your prospective boss probably won’t appreciate it. Any other thoughts?”
Quiet and thoughtful Serena barely raised her hand before saying, “We can write our school experience down.”
“Absolutely. Especially if you excelled in any classes. Think about the skills you learned in high school or here. What technologies do you know? Are you good with your hands?”
“I know I am,” Manuel said way too suggestively. The males in the class snickered.