Note:
Welcome to the final chapter in the saga of Dani and Amara! The first thing I want to say is THANK YOU to my readers. This was my first foray into this genre and I didn't know what kind of feedback to expect. I was absolutely blown away by your generosity, so a very sincere thanks for the comments, votes and emails!
My goal in the story was to describe a period of change and growth for two characters. I hope I succeeded in a way that was entertaining and fun, and that you consider the time spent reading this story to be worthwhile.
This is a story about fictional consenting adults.
*****
"Bill let the balloon go and it went up in the air. It went higher than the birds and higher than the trees. Bill watched it get smaller and smaller until he couldn't see it anymore," Dani said, then paused in the story. Sometimes Anne liked to ask questions or point to different pictures, but this time she was silent. Dani took it as a sign that the little girl was enjoying the story. Or maybe she'd fallen asleep on Dani's lap.
Reading to Anne was still the most challenging part of the day - Dani had never learned to read - but over the last two months Dani had developed three ways to make it easier.
For starters, Dani had studied all of Anne's favourite books. Some of the easy words she could recognize on sight, and the more difficult ones she'd memorized with Amara's help so she could read the stories the way Anne liked.
Second, Dani made frequent trips to the library in search of new children's books that only had easy words in them. Anne liked some of the new stories almost as much as those in her own collection.
Third, and most difficult of all: Dani was teaching herself to read better. Amara had found some websites and Dani was slowly working her way through the lessons. It was slow going - it was hard to learn online. Dani wished she could learn faster but there were only so many hours in a day.
It was a lot of effort to go through just to read some books to a three-year-old. But Dani had learned growing up that she could mask a lot of flaws with extra effort and attention. And it made her feel good to be able to read a proper story to the kid; it was kind of like being a real parent.
At first it had been pretty embarrassing to ask Amara to help her with some of the online exercises - Dani hated the idea of looking stupid in front of her partner. But Amara never made her FEEL stupid and was always cool about helping whenever Dani asked. She loved that about the other woman - even though Amara was busy she always tried to make time for Dani.
And the last couple of months had been even busier than normal.
Amara's sister Katie had come with her three boys and stayed for two weeks. Dani and Katie had hit it off, although trying to keep three boys in line was a lot harder than she could have imagined. In the end, Katie had invited Dani to visit her in Edmonton after things with Katie's soon-to-be ex-husband got sorted out.
Then Amara's estranged husband Henry had started stirring the pot, getting more vocal about shared custody of Anne and about selling off the marital home. That had been rough for Amara - she was forced to juggle her hectic work schedule along with meeting lawyers and, later, realtors.
It had been a rough time for Dani too - she'd wanted to help Amara, to support her in some real way, but in the end all she could do was make sure Anne was looked after, the place was clean, the meals were cooked and Amara felt emotionally secure. Not glamorous, but better than nothing. Amara had been appreciative of even that much.
To help with the extra expenses, Dani had tried to refuse the seven-hundred a month Amara was paying her. After all, Dani was getting free room and board and free use of Amara's car - it didn't seem right to be taking Amara's money, too. At first Amara wouldn't consider it, but after Dani insisted they compromised on three hundred a month instead. Still too much, in Dani's view, but Amara could be pretty stubborn when she made up her mind.
So now they were dealing with the 'new normal'. They lived in a much smaller fifth-floor condo. Reluctantly, on her lawyer's advice, Amara had negotiated a shared custody arrangement that saw Henry taking Anne from Wednesday to Sunday every second week - five days in every fourteen. That arrangement was only three weeks old and it was rough on mother and daughter both. But they were making the best of it. They were coping.
Sometimes, that was all you could do.
Dani turned the page and continued reading. "Later, Bill asked his mother where the balloon had gone. 'there is a special place in the sky where all balloons go' his mother said."
"I think there are a lot of balloons up there," Anne said, obviously not asleep.
"Yeah - probably thousands."
"I lost my balloon at the teddy bear picnic."
"I remember," Dani said, giving Anne a gentle hug. The kid had cried for an entire hour!
Dani was about to continue to the next page when she heard a key in the front door. Anne heard it too, and with a shriek the little girl ran to greet her mom. Dani rose from the couch and checked on the chili in the kitchen, then poured Amara half a glass of her favourite Riesling.
"Soooo good to be home," Amara said with a sigh as she appeared in the kitchen doorway.
Dani pressed the wine glass into her hand and got a kiss on the lips in return. "At least tomorrow's Friday."
"Thank God. This week has felt like a year."
"Well, dinner's ready to go. Chili, tonight."
"I didn't know you could make that."
Dani shrugged. "Trying something new."
"Let me change into clothes that won't need to be dry-cleaned when I spill chili on them," Amara said, then took another hit from the wine glass before heading to the bedroom.
"Anne? Wash up for dinner, sweetie," Dani shouted.
It was perfect. The whole arrangement was everything Dani dreamed of. She was in a loving relationship with a quality partner. She had respect and trust, and there were no games being played or high drama flaring up every few days. Dani was making a difference.
Amara loved her - she'd actually used that word, all on her own, with no prompting.
Dani had stumbled into the relationship of her dreams with a woman who was WAY too good for her. She knew from painful experience not to let her guard down or to take anything for granted. Constant effort and diligence was the surest way to safeguard the best thing that had ever happened to her.
**
"Are you ready for tomorrow?" Amara asked as she carefully spooned leftover chili into single-portion, freezer-safe containers.
Dani was at the sink finishing the dishes. There was a dishwasher in the new place, but for just three people it was faster just to do them by hand.
"You know, I was thinking...we've never left Anne with a sitter before. And we don't know a whole lot about Elaine - I mean, she's still in high school and we only met her a couple of weeks ago. It's a big risk, when you think about it. I'd feel better if I stayed and-"
"And I'd feel better if you would just relax about the get-together tomorrow," Amara said. Dani could hear the irritation underneath Amara's patient tone. "It's going to be really informal. There's nothing to worry about."
"It's your senior management team," Dani said. "I'll be in way over my head. I'd die if I embarrassed you in front of your boss and co-workers."
"It's the senior team AND spouses," Amara countered. "Just drinks and dinner. We're not going to be discussing work. Well...maybe a little bit...but it's just an informal team-building type of thing. You won't embarrass me - I'm keen to have you there. PLEASE just relax."
Dani sighed but didn't argue any further. She'd been trying to weasel out of the dinner ever since Amara had invited her and she could tell Amara was getting tired of it.
The whole idea terrified her. It wouldn't be her crowd, for one thing - a bunch of educated, professional, rich people with their educated, professional spouses. They be talking about...the stock market, or real estate in China, or politics...or something like that, anyway. And what could Dani contribute? Bowling? Colouring? Adult literacy lessons? Come on!
But more than that, Dani's performance at the dinner would reflect on Amara. If Dani said something stupid or - God forbid - unintentionally offensive, it would make Amara look bad in front of her boss and the important people in the company - maybe even damage her career. Dani had worked her ass off for a few months to be a real asset to Amara and knew how easily it could be ruined by a badly-chosen word at the get-together.
