Life After You

Chapter 7

"Come in!" I call from my office, not shifting my eyes from my laptop. I hear the door open, I stand and do a double take when I see Jeremiah closing the door behind him. "Jeremiah, hey" I send him a smile as he walks to me.

"Hey, Isabelle. Busy?" he asks, smiling. I shake my head no when in reality I am. I have exams this week starting in two days and also have work in between to attend to. "James told me to give you a hand on the manuscripts you're working on" he smiles while my mouth forms an 'o' shape. Feeling relieved would be an understatement.

"Oh my gosh, he did?" I ask in disbelief.

"Yeah." Jeremiah smiles and walks toward the stack of files on my desk and opens the first one. "Tell you what, you go ahead and call it a day, I'll finish this up, okay?" He looks up at me from the file. I stare at him, unbelievably. Am I dreaming?

"I-I.. you would do that?" I almost whisper, fidgeting with my fingers.

"Of course." He smiles kindly. Without another word, I start packing my things and thank Jeremiah before leaving my office and the building and heading home to study.

I don't know what it is with Jeremiah, I don't understand how someone could go from being a very nice neighbour to a strange therapist and now to just a life saver in a matter of just days!

-

"There you are. How was studying?" I gasp at the voice but relax almost instantly when I see Jeremiah. "It's just me, sorry" he apologises and slowly walks toward me.

"Good. Thank you again for um, earlier today.." I trail off as he gets closer to me. "How was your day?" I finally ask after debating in my head. He smiles before saying,

"It was..good," he says with that same smile. "You do a lot of work for a day." He says, getting my attention.

"Oh. Is that a good thing?" I ask. Something about his tone makes me want to watch him doing my work now.

"Yes. Definitely yes." He says and then he looks at the stars just as I move my gaze to the sky.

"Do you see that? Isn't that... a butterfly?" I almost squeal as I connect the dots, well, the stars that make up into a butterfly. Something close to it at least.

"Oh yeah, that's the first time I'm seeing a butterfly" we are still gazing at it and then I realise I'm leaning on his arm holding his shoulder. "So when are exams finishing?" He asks after a few minutes of silence.

"Two weeks."

"Okay. You have plans? After exams I mean." He clarifies.

"Um, not really..." I mumble.

"Okay. Well..." he starts but then stops. I look up at him silently asking him to continue. "Would you like to hang out with me? We could do some things together..like-"

"Like what?" I smile, interrupting him on purpose. He smiles, amused probably.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Uhhh" I chuckle before racking my brain for ideas."Maybe I'll think about it after exams." I finally say when nothing interesting pops in my head.

"Sure." He says, looking pleased. He brushes his curls backwards and then shakes his head as he looks slightly up, towards the sky maybe. "Would you like me to walk you to your apartment?" He asks, gesturing towards the small door.

"Uh, sure. Thanks" I smile and then follow him downstairs. "How is Adeline doing?" I find myself asking as we enter the lift.

"She's good. Started school. New class." I nod along as he talks. I just realised that his voice is something I can listen to over and over again without getting tired. "Why didn't you call her Addy?" He adds silently. I didn't even know he'd notice it.

"Because I haven't earned the right I guess?" He chuckles and then looks away. "What? Do you think I've earned the right then?" I ask him curiously.

"Maybe..." he shrugs. "She likes you, you know." He informs me when we reach our floor.

"She does?" I can't help but ask. He nods.

"Good night Isabelle" he says when I say,

"Thank you for finding me. On the rooftop" I laugh at my own words. Jeremiah stands in place, his movements halting.

"Of course," he smiles. It's not like his usual charming smiles though. This one's different. He smiled with care.