The following month, I threw a graduation party for my exiting seniors. It was hard to believe that another school year had drawn to a close.
We had the party on Friday. We went to the park just like we did on a weekly basis, but this time, we stayed longer, played games, and I bought extra food and invited more people.
Lance had been to my classroom a few times since we'd been together, but he never stayed long, so all of my students had thoughts and notions about him that weren't necessarily true.
Ellie made up fantastical stories about him. She was an aspiring writer who loved comic books and science fiction. She knew Lance worked with fish, so she made him into this aquatic-hero guy similar to Aquaman, only his name was Fishrico. She went through what must have been twenty names before she settled on that one—
Oceanman,
Oceanguy,
Waterguy,
Riverking,
Gill,
Seadude,
Fishboy,
Fishman... the list went on until finally she gave him a little moustache and cape and settled on Fishrico. A few times, she had written a story about him and then sent it home with me to let him read. I was pretty sure she had a little crush.
Guy and David got into Ellie's stories as well, chiming in to help her with storylines and character development. Hanna, on the other hand, swore Lance was a fireman even though all of us had told her multiple times that he wasn't.
Lance really liked them all, but there was a special place in his heart for Matt. He had already talked to Matt and Matt's mom and agreed to hire him at the shop two days a week after graduation. With all the medical stuff he had going on, Matt would only be able to work for a few hours at a time, but he was extremely excited about the job and found it difficult to restrain himself from bragging about it to all of the other students. He mentioned it to me any chance he got, and we winked at each other, knowing that he was Lance's buddy.
It was a beautiful May morning when we went to the park for our graduation celebration. It was overcast, which gave us a little relief from the blazing Miami heat.
The bus driver dropped us off at the park at 10am, and Michelle and I hung decorations under the pavilion while my mom went with the students and a couple of their parents on a walk down the nature path. My mom had never met any of my students, but she mentioned wanting to several times, and she was off on Fridays, so I invited her to join us.
There was a grill near the pavilion, and I brought premade hamburger and turkey burger patties along with buns, condiments, and all the toppings. Lance had work to do that morning, but he would meet us there at eleven to fire up the grill.
It might as well have been the party of the century. My students had been talking about it and looking forward to it for weeks. I had brought a few games with prizes, and Michelle and I worked on setting them up once we were done with the decorations.
One game was a ring toss.
The second was a relay where you had to carry an egg in a spoon. (Normally, you would use only your mouth to carry the spoon. This version was quite tricky, so we altered it where you could hold the spoon in your hand.)
The third game was a guessing game where everyone tried to estimate how many Skittles were in a glass jar. I had counted them myself, and there were four hundred and eighty. The student who guessed closest would get ten dollars in cash and, of course, the jar of Skittles.
We also brought several Frisbees and a soccer ball, so there was sure to never be a dull moment.
Abigail and Ash arrived at the same time the students came back from their walk. It was chaotic with everyone approaching at once, but I couldn’t help but notice that my mother had taken over pushing Guy's wheelchair, which made my heart happy. I had seen so many changes in her recently—all positive ones.
My students were so accustomed to Abigail bringing fish food that it was the first thing they mentioned when they saw that she and Ash had arrived. I was in the process of hugging them both when David brought it up.
"Where's the fish food?" he asked, looking for her bag.
"Ms. Abigail might just want to come for the party today," I said since he rushed it.
He looked at Abigail for her response, and so did everyone else.
"I definitely have food in the truck," she said smiling. She glanced at me. "If you didn't have other plans."
"Well, we do have some pretty big plans," I said gesturing toward the whole set up. A few of the students clapped with excitement when I said that. "But we can fit fish-feeding in if you guys want to." Everyone clapped again, and this time, some of the parents joined in as well. Apparently, everyone loved to feed fish.
Abigail ran to get the food while the rest of us headed toward the pond. Within a minute, she was back, ready to give each of them a small handful, like she always did. They all stood in a line, including the parents, which I thought was really cute.
Hanna and David, without fail, would hurl their whole handful of food into the pond without a second thought and then be disappointed when they had to watch while everyone else used their rations slowly.
Sure enough, they did it, laughing as the fish went into a frenzy splashing around at the spots where the food landed.
"I didn't know they had a pond here," Mom said as we watched everyone begin feeding them. She was standing next to me, but so was Ash, so Abigail walked over to join us after she handed out food. She grinned at Ash, and he kissed her cheek, and I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of them.
"Abigail's been meeting us here every Friday for years," I said to my mom. "She brings the food and we all ask her a bunch of questions about fish."
"I should probably ask her a bunch of questions about fish," my mom said.
"Aw, soon I'll be asking you the questions about pond fish," Abigail said. "Alex said you're doing amazing."
Lance had hired my mom to work in the retail store, but after only a week of working, she asked him if he would consider letting her train with the pond crew part-time. She thought she might enjoy working with fish and wanted to try a position where she got to be outside. This was a surprise to me because she had always worked indoors and mostly stayed in her condo when she wasn't working. She had never been the outdoorsy type. She rarely even took Sheila outside when she was dog sitting, and she absolutely never went for walks or hung out on the beach.
It was for this reason that I cautioned Lance against letting her try a position with the pond crew—I didn't tell him not to do it, but I did caution him. I didn't want there to be strife if things didn't work out. Mom seemed to be doing fine with retail, and I wanted her to stick with that. But Lance wanted to take a chance. He assured me that it would make him happy to give her a shot at it, and that he wouldn't feel any differently about me or her if things didn't work out.
I was absolutely overjoyed to admit that, so far, it seemed that she was proving me wrong. Lance took a chance on her, and she was stepping up to the challenge. She was excited to go to work every morning, and she came home after every shift exhausted and talking Aunt Regina's ear off about different types of pond fish and their various environments. Aunt Regina was basically becoming an expert right along with her.
I was proud of my mom. She seemed to really be enjoying her work, and it was a steadier income than any other job she ever had. Lance had told me he would be willing to offer Aunt Regina an office job, but she was still working at Waffle House for now. With mom in a better situation, there wasn't as much pressure on Aunt Regina. (Plus, she still had her eye on one of the line cooks.)
"I just love working there," my mom said to Abigail. "I feel like there's so much I've got to catch up on. I should've gone to college to learn about fish like you did."
"Just take it day by day," Abigail said. "Have fun with it."
"Oh, I am," Mom assured her.
"Are y'all talking about All Things Fish?" Matt said, chiming in when he heard us.
"We sure are," Abigail said. "Ms. Dixon's mom works with me now."
Matt looked at my mom. "Imma work there, too," he said.
"Are you really, Matt?" Abigail asked excitedly.
I gave him a conspiratorial look, knowing that everyone else would go on a tangent about wanting to work with Lance, too. "He really is," I said, nodding discreetly to Abigail. She got the picture and winked at Matt who winked dramatically back at her.
"Fishrico!" I heard Ellie's exclamation before I saw Lance approaching. Ellie instantly tossed her remaining food into the pond so that she could run up to Lance for a hug. I wanted to do the same thing, but I was willing to let her have her moment. I smiled as I watched him hug her, grinning as he patted her on the back.
He was wearing his work clothes—khaki cargo pants and a black polo with the name of the store embroidered on the chest. He looked casual and comfortable, but he might as well have been a model from a magazine with how handsome he was. My stomach turned flips at the sight of him.
So, move aside, make way.
Fireman Lance is gonna save the day.
Hanna loved to sing, and she always delivered her music in the slow, dramatic style of a baritone opera singer. She didn't sing loud, but she was serious about her music. Her face would contort as she sang. She always sang slowly, so it took her quite a while to deliver the lines.
I didn't comprehend what she was singing at first, but then it hit me. "Hanna, Lance is not a fireman," I said, smiling and shaking my head at her.
"He's Fishrico!" Ellie exclaimed, going back to join everyone else by the pond.
"I didn't know I was either of those things," Lance said, grinning as he came to where I was standing.
"He's Lance," Matt said, furrowing his eyebrows at the girls.
"He's Ms. Dixon's boyfriend," David said.
"And, he's my boss," Abigail said.
"Mine too," my mom chimed in.
I instantly looked at Matt with a warning expression. He knew exactly what I was thinking, and he kept his mouth closed, nodding at me.
Lance came to stand right next to me. I had always been a little reserved when it came to PDA, but I couldn’t stop myself with this man. He smiled as he reached out to greet me, and I walked straight into his arms, stretching up to kiss him on the cheek. He smelled like soap mixed with delicious sweat.
"Hey," he said, smiling as he spoke directly to me.
"Hey," I said.
"Y'all are the cutest ever," Abigail said. She was shaking her head as she regarded us. "I can't believe you met at our wedding. You know that makes two of you, right? It's super cool that I got to play cupid at my own wedding… and neither of you were the one who even caught the bouquet."
"Who else met someone at your wedding?" Lance asked.
"Kristen, my roommate," she said. "Blonde. Photographer. I'm sure you guys have met her."
"I used up all my food," Hanna said, walking up to Abigail with her hand out as if asking for more.
"That's all," I said. "Everyone else is almost done, anyway, and we'll play some games before we eat."
"Ms. Abigail always brings us fish food when we meet her at the park on Friday," Matt said, dusting his hands off as he finished with his.
"Mr. Lance is actually the one who pays for that," Abigail said. She made an over-exaggerated reluctant face as she looked at Lance. "I bring a little of the Koi food I keep in my truck," she explained. "I thought you might not mind."
I watched as Lance's face morphed into a mask of disapproval. He scowled angrily at Abigail. "You mean to tell me you bring truck food up here and give it out for free?"
"Uh-huh," Abigail said, nodding as if she was in fear for her life, which she clearly wasn't.
"And just how long has this been going on?" Lance asked, still scowling with his arms crossed.
"Every Friday for… years…" she squeaked sheepishly.
"Well, I… I…" Lance's angry grimace slowly shifted to a smile. "Think that's a great idea."
All of my students (who had been wide-eyed and holding their breath) busted out laughing with relief when he said that. Abigail knew he had been joking the entire time, and she cracked up at the students' reactions.
"I thought you was gonna throw Ms. Abigail in the pond!" Matt said.
"I thought he was gonna throw us all in the pond," Hanna exclaimed, putting her hand to her heart dramatically.
"Fishrico would never do something like that," Ellie said seriously.
"Fishrico's the one from the stories," I said, seeing that Lance wasn't quite sure what she was talking about.
"Oh, yeah!" he said nodding. "You're right, Fishrico would never do that. He thinks Ms. Abigail's doing a good job using truck food. He says you guys should definitely feed the fish on Fridays."