Chapter 2

Seven years later

Dr. Tasha Harrison, now an associate professor, looked at the clock in the corner of her computer screen; it was 2:47 pm on a Tuesday afternoon. She had been in front of her computer for over two hours, working on a paper she wanted to submit for publication in an academic journal.

She later got a job at the University of California, Berkeley a few weeks after she left Cleverwood seven years ago.

She leaned back in her chair with a yawn, satisfied with what she had done so far. She was sure her paper would be highly commended. Her hard work was getting paid off, she was now well known in the academics. And on her way to become a full professor very soon.

She checked the time again; it was already five minutes before her next class with her post-graduate students. Opening a drawer, she brought out a brown envelope containing the students' graded term papers.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,” Tasha said to her students four minutes later. “I hope you are all doing fine?”

“Good afternoon Dr. Harrison,” a few of the students returned her greetings.

“I'm going to hand out your graded term papers to you.” She brought out a stack of papers from the envelope and handed them to the student nearest to her. “You take yours and pass the rest to the other.”

She looked on as the students passed the papers around.

“Now I want you all to read the comments I made on your papers,” she said after all the students had their papers. “And we are going to discuss those comments one after the other. Is that okay?”

“Yes,” most of them answered. “Desmond, will you like to start?” She asked the young man sitting at the far end of the room after she was sure everyone had read their comments.

“Yes, please,” he answered and read out his comments.

The class lasted for two hours, then she left the school premises. She branched at the grocery store on her way.

"Hi, Tasha." She heard someone called as she walked down the aisle.

"Good evening Grant," she greeted before she turned around and looked into the face of the man who greeted her.

"It's been a while," he moved closer to her. “I hope you are good.”

“Oh yes,I'm good,” she started moving and picked up some packs of ramen noodles. "I have been very busy these days with work and Tyson's games. He recently joined the school football team.”

“Really, that's great." He took some packs of vegetable stock and added them to his shopping cart. “I should come one of these days to watch him play."

Grant lived two streets away from them. He's been showing interest in Tasha for over a year. Sometimes he comes over to help her around the house like mowing the grass, fixing some blocked pipes and what have you.

But lately he stopped coming as frequently as he used to because Tasha was not interested in being more than friends with him.

“I'm sure he would love that." She picked a bottle of rice vinegar and dropped it in her cart.

They both continued shopping and talking until Tasha left him to go to the cashier. He joined her a few minutes later, and they both checked out at the same time.

He helped her load her car trunk with her purchases.

“Thanks so much,” she said to him. “You are always welcome, Tasha.” He smiled brightly at her and closed the trunk up. “Tasha,” he called out softly, “you know I like you and I want to be with you. Why are you so hesitant?”

“I already told you I don't want to be in a relationship with anyone,” she brought her car key out of her bag.

They were both silent for a long time before he finally said, "Okay, will you at least go out for lunch, dinner, or even brunch with me?"

“Grant,” she called her name gently. “Did you listen to what I said at all?”

“I know someone hurt you,” he looked into her eyes directly with raised brows. “But people are not the same…not all men are bad.”

“Did I tell you any man hurt me?” She pressed her lips together.

“You don't have to tell me, Tasha.” His Adam apples blobbed. “It’s so glaring in your eyes . I promise,” he raised his hands up. “I will not hurt you. I like you very much, Tasha.”

“Grant, I need to go,” she dangled her car key in front of his eyes. “See you around.”

******

“Jack took the strawberry from his mom and ran ou-"

Tasha stopped reading when she realized Tyson had slept off. She smiled and closed the book. She studied the sleeping form of her son for the longest time and then remembered Grant's words, “I know someone hurt you.”

A sob rose from her throat, and she covered up the sound with her hand. Each time she looked into Tyson's eyes, she saw the face of the man who had hurt her. She wished her son looked nothing like him. But Tyson was the complete carbon copy of his father, Blake.

She clutched Tyson's story book tightly to her chest as silent tears slipped down her cheeks. She had promised herself never to cry about Blake again. But she continued to fail over and over.

She cleaned off her tears with the back of her hand and stood up from the bed. Tasha leaned down to kiss her boy and then left his room.

She went to her study and powered up her computer. That was what she had been doing for the past seven years, burying herself in her work whenever her heart bled for the man who broke it. She would use work to suppress her pains until she became numb again.

Her phone rang an hour after she started what she was doing and she reached for her phone, seeing that it was her mother. She smiled and swiped a finger across the phone screen.

"Hello, mom."

“Hello princess,” her mother greeted from the other end.

“I'm fine Mom,” she stifled a yawn. “How are you too and Dad?”

“We are fine,” Mrs. Harrison said. “I'm sure you are in front of your computer, Tasha.”

"Yes mummy," she put her mother on speaker and returned the phone to the desk. She began to shut down her laptop. "I have to put the finishing touches to the paper that I'm presenting at the conference next week in Canada.” She giggled, “But I'm trying to shut down my computer now and go to bed.”

“When did you see Grant last?” Her mom asked out of the blues.