Always her: He Left Before He Ever Knew

Chapter 4: Five Years of Building

Five years later

Isabel

The eggs were wrong again.

Not the eggs themselves. The eggs were fine. Perfectly scrambled. Exactly the way I had been making them every morning for eight months since Noah decided scrambled was the only acceptable format for an egg.

The problem was that Noah had changed his mind sometime between last night and this morning and had not yet informed me of this development.

“Noah?”

He looked up from his plate”

He had Daniel's eyes. I had stopped flinching at that when he turned two, which I considered my personal achievement.

“Why aren't you eating?

“I don't want eggs”

“But you wanted them yesterday”

He looked back down at the plate. “I don't want them anymore”

“So what do you want?”

“Dinosaurs”, short for the dinosaur shaped pancakes.

“Noah. It's seven fifteen”

“Dinosaurs”, he repeated, his voice low, lips pouted.

Nobody tells you this about raising a kid. Everyone tells you about the hard parts. They tell you about the exhaustion that builds up, their sleepless nights because they decided to watch scary movies before bed, and those doctor appointments that get you worried.

But they don't tell you about the eggs. About the negotiations over dinosaurs. About how their plates, spoons and cups have to be the same color before they can sit at the dining table.

And how, after a while, you just get good at it.

I went to the kitchen and made Noah some dinosaurs.

Noah ate three dinosaurs, before declaring the fourth one unfit.

“What's wrong this time?”

“The tail is broken”, he said as he stared at it.

“It tastes just same as the others”

Noah didn't say anything. He just shook his head and pushed the plate away from him.

I picked it from the plate. And I ate it. It tasted the same.

I looked at the clock again.

“Go get your bag or we'll be late”

I dropped Noah at his school. He walked in without looking back, like he's always done for the past two years. He dropped his bag and went to the other kids to play with the trucks.

I stood there at the door, just a moment longer before I turned to leave for my office.

Sofia was my first client when I started my design studio. Then after that, my partner. And ever since then, my best friend.

“How's Noah?”, she said, as she handed me a cup of coffee.

I took a slow sip. “He didn't want eggs”

“Oh.” Sofia took a brief pause, her eyes scanning my face for the usual signs of the fatigue of my morning negotiations. “So dinosaurs then?”

I smiled into my cup. “Yeah.”

Sofia reached for an envelope resting on her lap and held it out to me.

“This arrived for you this morning.”

My eyes caught the gold-embossed logo on the top left corner was unmistakable. My heart fluttered in my chest. I didn't even have to take it from her to know what it meant.

“Is that…?” I started, reaching out. My fingers brushed the seal.

“Congratulations, Isabel,” Sofia said.

I tore the envelope open. My breath hitched.

It was a formal nomination letter for the National Excellence Awards. Reyes Studio was printed in bold, elegant script.

“Sofia,” I whispered. I traced the letters of my own name. “Only the most prestigious businesses in the country get selected for this.”

“And you’ve done in five years what they did in ten,” Sofia said. She walked around her desk and squeezed my shoulder. “You deserve it.”

That afternoon, I left work early.

I drove to a boutique and bought a floor-length emerald dress. The silk was heavy, smooth and screamed success.

The night of the ceremony finally arrived. The ballroom was full of black ties and shimmering gowns. The crystal chandeliers that hung from the ceiling cast their bright lights over the guests.

“And make sure he’s in bed by 9 o’clock”, I said to the phone.

“Yes, Miss Reyes”, the sitter replied.

“Izzy, focus on tonight”, Sophia said, taking the phone from my hand to hang up. “Noah’s going to be fine”

I sat at our table. Sofia was right beside me. She didn’t stop trying to ease my nerves with an occasional joke of how some of the nominees looked like they were rehearsing their humbled faces.

Then at the awards section, the MC's baritone voice cut through the room.

"And the winner of this year's Innovative Interior Space Award goes to…Reyes Studio. Isabel Reyes."

The applause started as a ripple and grew into a roar.

I didn't move for a few seconds. The sound of my own name through a microphone felt like it belonged to someone else.

Sofia's hand squeezed my arm as she leaned in close

"Isabel!”, she whispered. “That's you. Get up."

I stood up and walked towards what felt like a dream.

I reached the stage. I took the award from a man in a tuxedo. It was heavier than it looked. Solid crystal that caught the spotlights.

I stepped up to the microphone. I looked down at the award, then out at the blur of the room.

“Thank you”, I spoke

I said the names of the people who deserved to be said. Sofia, and two members of the team who had been there since the beginning. I spoke for two minutes before walking back to my seat.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding since. I looked at the award in my hands. It was real. I should have felt triumphant. I should have felt like I wanted to scream from the rooftops.

Sofia leaned over, her shoulder brushing mine. "You're doing the thing."

I didn't look up from the award. "What thing?"

"Where you receive something good and immediately try to find a reason it doesn't count."

I finally looked at her. Her eyes were soft but knowing.

"It counts," she said.

She picked up her champagne glass and nudged my arm. "Go get a drink. You've earned it."

Sofia was right. I did earn it. And I deserved it.

I got up and walked over to the small mini bar at the corner of the hall and ordered a glass of Virgin Mohito.

I stood there for a moment, my award in one hand, and a glass of my cocktail in the other. I felt a sense of pride wash over me as I took a sip.

And then…

"Isabel.", I heard a man’s voice from behind me.