“I didn’t know you were superstitious.”
I reached for her hand. “I’m not superstitious. I’m scared. I’ve never been so happy. Not in all thirty-five years of my life. I’m scared that even acknowledging that fact will cause me to lose you.”
She ran a hand through my hair. “We’ve both seen our share of bullshit, but if we lose each other, then it’ll be because we were stupid enough to let this go. When my brother ran away from home, I had no idea if I’d see him again. But I kept that faith. I knew he wouldn’t just abandon me.” She paused, looking me in the eye. “I want to tell you the same, Dom. I won’t let you go. If you hold on to me, I’ll hold on to you.”
I was too choked up to speak, but I nodded vigorously before leaning in to kiss her.
Epilogue
Nicolette
“So what the device does is it harnesses the kinetic energy you expend while walking, and stores it in the battery. This can then be used to power your laptop or your phone if you live in an area with spotty power or are caught in a situation where power is out.”
One of the girls I was teaching, Genevieve, raised her hand. “Like if there’s a hurricane?”
“Yes. Or even just a storm, or maybe your parents haven’t paid the bill on your electricity.”
Genevieve nodded as if she knew exactly how that went. “But what if you’re too tired to run, or your legs don’t work?”
“That’s a good question, Gen. The kinetic energy is generated by movement. Any kind of movement. Now the thing you have to know is that this isn’t a pioneer in its field. There are a lot of devices that function with this kind of energy. The difference is that I managed to recalibrate it so that each revolution generates enough energy to run a laptop for twenty minutes. A phone for half an hour.”
“But if it’s such a good idea, how come you didn’t get the money to pursue it?” Magda asked from the back of the room.
“Well, there’s more to funding than a good idea, and clearly, other people’s ideas were thought to bring better returns for investment than mine.”
“That sucks,” Candy said around her lollipop. I grinned at her.
“That’s true. But this is just as good. Teaching you guys, giving you the tools to develop your own projects – it’s reward enough.”
Magda raised her hand. “But…there are so many people who need your battery.”
My mouth twisted. “Yeah, but it’s probably the wrong kind of people.”
“That is such bullshit,” Genevieve piped in.
“Yes. It is.” I nodded because it was true.
Candy raised her hand. “Maybe we can do a GoFundMe for you.”
I smiled. “That’s very nice of you, but-”
“It’s not GoFundMe, it’s Kickstarter. That’s where we need to be,” Genevieve cut in.
I opened my mouth again to refute this and tell them that I was fine with being a mentor, and that maybe one day, I could sell the project to someone else, but they were already debating amongst themselves on the best site to use and how to set up a page.
I stared helplessly at them; my three students who continually challenged me, pushed me to be better, and drove me to achieve more than I ever could have dreamed.
Dom’s non-profit was still very much in pilot stage, but two years in, we were already seeing results. I’d stepped forward to mentor anyone interested in research and science and was surprised to have ten students apply. I had to do a bit of recruiting of my own. Jacinda now mentored three students and two other scientists in my department had a student as well. I had four students, one of whom was absent today.
Magda came forward to sit on my desk as I looked over their project proposals for senior year. It was work above and beyond their schoolwork, yet they didn’t complain, not once.
“Why this project though? If you knew that they wouldn’t take it, why didn’t you do something else?”
I smiled a little, shaking my head. “I don’t know where I read it, but there’s this saying about if you find something that you need or want and it hasn’t been made yet, then you should make it.” I shrugged because I knew my explanation was inelegant. “So when I was growing up, my…stepfather wasn’t too good about paying bills. We were in the dark a lot. Sometimes, I had to break into the school library to do my homework on the computer there.”
Magda laughed. “I think you’re the only person I know who broke into school for something.”
“Yeah, even when she’s being a badass, she’s a goody two shoes.” I jumped at his voice as Dom slipped his arms around my waist and pulled me flush against him. Magda’s eyes gleamed with interest as they landed on Dom. I was used to girls looking at him like that. He never seemed to notice.
He turned his face into my neck. “Are you ready to go?”
Genevieve and Candy were still deep in discussion and Magda was watching Dom like a hawk. “Yeah, sure I am.”
“Great.” He let me go and then took my hand, leading me out of the class. He turned to smile at me, hand automatically going to my belly. ‘How are you feeling today?”
“You know it’s not like I’m sick, right? I’m just pregnant.”
He gaped at me incredulously. “Just pregnant? Take that back right now.”
“Fine.” I grinned at him. “I’m only carrying around your spawn. No biggie.”
He pulled me to him. “If you weren’t pregnant, I would so kick your ass right now.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” If my voice was a bit smug, I really couldn’t help that.
“No, I wouldn’t.” He dug into his pocket and extracted a Twinkie. “Got something for you.”
“Aww, Dom, you shouldn’t have.” I snatched it from his hand and unwrapped it, taking a big bite.
He smiled at me a bit smugly as he
