The Kidnapper's Wife

16. Before

                   

I'm examining myself in the mirror, trying to be quiet while Connor sleeps. I'm wearing my 'Girl Power!' T-shirt that I always wear on days like this, trying to decide if I should wear wedges or gladiator sandals with my jeans. Or maybe I shouldn't wear sandals at all and should do boat shoes or canvas sneakers. I'm staring at my feet, considering, when I feel two hands wrap around my waist, "Happy Anniversary babe!"

Startled, I look into the mirror at Connor behind me, his hair a ruffled mess from sleeping, his eyes still holding onto that sleepy, half-awake quality that makes them softer at the edges. I beam up at him, delighted he remembered. I've never been much into anniversary's before, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't a tiny bit jealous of all the girls who painstakingly celebrated each month they were with their boyfriends like they were in high school. Every month was a bit much of course, but six months was, after all, a pretty long time!

"Happy anniversary!" I turn to face him, "It's been an amazing six months Connor."

"Agreed." He kisses me, "So I know we have your event today, but I was thinking tonight I could take you to a nice dinner to celebrate, if you're up for it."

I'm a little hung up on the 'we' part of the sentence. He's planning to come with me to this? I manage to swallow my confusion and answer, "That sounds lovely babe, thank you!"

He turns abruptly to the small shelf of the closet that holds the few clothes he's started keeping at my place. "Now what does one wear to an 'Empowerment Day'? Something casual, judging from your jeans?"

"Casual is good," I'm still confused as to why he'd want to come with me, "You know...you don't have to join me today."

"I want to! I want to be supportive of everything you're involved with Jade!"

"Okay...well if you're sure." For some reason, I realize that I really don't want him to come. I can't put my finger exactly on why, but something seems off about this. Connor and I aren't one of those couples that are attached at the hip. We each have our own friends, our own interests, and spend at least a portion of our weekends doing our own things. So maybe that's why it seems strange to me that he wants to spend his day at an event from middle school girls. It just doesn't strike me as his scene.

"I'm sure."

I smile hesitantly, and decide on the gladiator sandals, "I'll meet you downstairs then. Eggs good for breakfast?"

"Sounds perfect!"

As I'm making the eggs, I sing along to Taylor Swift in the kitchen. "I knew you were trouble when you walked in!" I don't realize I'm shouting it until I hear Connor's laugh, "You know babe, I think you might be missing out on a career in singing!" he jokes from the table, where he's putting on his shoes.

"Shut up!" I laugh back at him, "I bet if Taylor could hear me she'd sign me on as a backup singer right away."

"Probably," he agrees jokingly, taking the plate of eggs I hand him.

We finish our banter with our breakfast, getting into the car right on time.

As Connor drives us to the middle school, he speaks over the radio, "So explain this again? We're trying to make little girls smarter?"

"No!" I laugh, "We're trying to encourage them to pursue higher education in fast growing fields. Math, science, law, engineering, medicine. Things like that. So we do some fun projects with them to show how fun these fields can be, and then we do some big pep rally type sessions to get them excited. It's really fun, and it's cool to see them find out this stuff can be fun."

"Interesting," Connor says, "What about little boys though? Don't they get to feel this excitement?"

"Men dominate all of these fields already, they're interested in them to begin with." I tell him, "We need girls to see that they are just as capable, and that it's just as 'cool' for them to be into this stuff as the boys in their class."

"Interesting." Connor doesn't comment further, just sits back in his seat with a pensive expression as we pull into the parking lot of the school.

The first event of the day is a dance party, designed to get the kids pumped up and excited. We play kidzbop songs and dance around the balloon-filled school gym. All of the adults are over the top into the dancing at first, trying to encourage the kids to join us and get out of their shells. Eventually, the more outgoing kids start dancing, quickly followed by the rest.

Connor is having a blast, holding hands with a little red headed girl as they jump around to the music. She looks up at him with a big grin on her face, Connor's good looks aren't lost even on a middle schooler, and as I watch, he picks her up, lifting her almost over his head before setting her back down on the floor. She laughs, and Connor winks at me.

After the dance party, I run my activity, where the kids dress up in costumes and role play criminals, police officers, and lawyers, a little murder mystery. I even brought food to match the theme, which is "Murder at a Hawaiian Luau". The girls eat grilled pineapple and ham skewers, and drink a fruity punch. They seem to enjoy it, although I don't think it quite compares to the "solid liquid goo" science experiment that is scheduled before my session, but I'm okay with that, as long as they're finding something they like.

At the end of the day, both Connor and I are exhausted but happy, I can tell we both loved playing with the girls all day, and I'm happy he came after all.

As we drive home to get changed for dinner, Connor looks out the window musingly. "You know what?" he asks, not taking his eyes off the road.

"What?"

"You've inspired me Jade. This purpose, it's so important! And seeing those little girls so interested in this stuff...it's amazing. I think I'm going to follow in your footsteps and volunteer with little girls too! Some of my coworkers volunteer on high school robotics teams...what if I started an all-girl one? Wouldn't that be cool?"

I move my eyes from the view out the window to look over at him, my heart melting, "I think that would be wonderful Connor!"