The Exception to the Rule (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #1)

Subject: Re: Happy Valentine’s Day?

Good job, you badass! Is it weird that I just had a pang of sadness that I won’t be at your college graduation? I know we don’t know each other, really, and I don’t have any idea where you’re going to school, but in the past six years of change and chaos, you’ve been a constant. We come from the same hometown so in a way we do know each other. Or at least, we know where we come from. Maybe someday, way in the future, we’ll run into each other back in Irvine and I’ll just somehow know it’s you.

Anyway, I’m getting sappy. And re: my major, I did! Actually, I was happily plugging away as a psych major and then I took a [subject redacted] class with this new, young professor, and it was like a total revelation. I’m in love. Hoping to grad school it myself when I’m done.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 15, 2020

Subject: Re: Happy Valentine’s Day?

It’s not sappy. I agree. And it’s a cool thought. If I’m ever back in Irvine for good, I’ll drop you a line. You do the same.

And I’m so glad that you found what sparks you.

Happy Valentine’s Day, T.





Chapter Eight


2021


From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 13, 2021

Subject: Happy Early Valentine’s Day!

Yes, I am four hours early! And no I don’t care! I WIN!

I know we said last year that if we were both going to be in Irvine we were going to connect, but I guess that plan doesn’t work when we’re in the midst of a global pandemic. I thought about you a lot this past year, though. I hope that doesn’t sound weird. Around May and June, especially, I wondered whether you were bummed to not be getting a graduation ceremony. You were just on my mind a lot. I don’t know why I didn’t email. It felt like I’d be breaking the rules, I guess.

Did you get to start graduate school this past fall? Are you still in Irvine? Or, I guess, did you ever come back?

I came home in March. Our school had a 3-day move out, and it was chaos, but I made it back here and finished the year online. I decided to delay my junior year because I didn’t want to do everything virtually, so I’ll go back in the fall. It sucks a little to be behind a year now, but my major isn’t one that’s easy to do outside of the classroom. I spent the last 7-8 months coaching kids’ [sport redacted per the D&P Rule Book, lol, why are we still doing this?] and it’s been so fun and good to be outside as much as possible.

Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day, C. I hope you’re doing okay.

T.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 13, 2021

Subject: Re: Happy Early Valentine’s Day!

Haha sneaky, but I guess I can’t protest since I started the early email trend. Happy Valentine’s Day, T.

Woof, yeah, the last year has been wild, hasn’t it?

I did come home last March when school shut down. My whole family holed up in the house and I have to admit, it was actually great at first, despite the way it felt like the world was ending all around us. It sucked not getting to walk at graduation but initially we all felt grateful to be healthy and together. Lots of game nights, cooking, together time.

I don’t really know how to say this, or whether I even should, because it isn’t like we really know each other outside of this day, but I know that your mother went through some health issues back in 2019, and at this point it does feel like you know me. Seven years, now, we’ve been doing this.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that my dad died last summer. He didn’t get COVID, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and went pretty fast. The worst part, I mean the absolute shit of it, was not being able to see him once he was admitted to the hospital.

So I was in Irvine with my mom and sisters until late December when I moved away again to begin grad school in person. I started a semester in, like, a month and a half ago, but everything is so chaotic for all of us, at least a lot of us are in the same boat. Like yours, it’s not a field that does very well over a computer.

I’m here now and adjusting. I like [new town redacted, though I agree at this point it’s sort of moot] a lot. I’d been at UW Madison for undergrad, I guess I can tell you that now, and it was great, but so different from California as you can imagine.

I hope you’re doing well, T. For what it’s worth, you wouldn’t be breaking any rules to message me a different day. You can email me anytime.

C.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2021

Subject: Re: Happy Early Valentine’s Day!

Oh my god, C, I am so sorry about your dad. I don’t even know what to say, this is just devastating. I’m so sorry for you and your mom and sisters. Ugh. I wish I could hug you.

Love,

T.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2021

Subject: Re: Happy Early Valentine’s Day!

Thanks, yeah honestly, it’s been rough. I felt bad leaving home again, too, because I realized that even though I’m the youngest, my dad took care of his girls in a way that I want to continue even though he’s gone. He kept up with everyone’s life day-to-day. He always knew what questions to ask. I want to follow in those footsteps but feel a little lost.

We’re all just figuring it out as we go.

But I really love what I’m studying right now, and everyone else in the family is doing well, considering. My oldest sister just had her first kid in January, so I’m an uncle to a baby girl now, and my middle sister is getting married this summer, so life goes on even when hard things happen.

Happy Valentine’s Day officially now. Go get some Din Tai Fung and toast a dumpling to me.

C.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 15, 2021

Subject: Breaking the rules for soup dumplings Here’s a picture for you from dinner last night. Soup dumpling and my hand holding chopsticks. I consulted the D&P and this was allowable. It was particularly delicious last night, too. I can’t stop thinking about you and your family. I know they don’t know me, but send your mom and sisters some love from me.

xo

T.





Chapter Nine


2022


From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2022

Subject: Look who’s back on top Happy Valentine’s Day and I’ll take my victory lap now.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2022

Subject: Re: Look who’s back on top Ahhh. I even set an alarm for midnight, but I slept right through that flimsy bitch.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2022

Subject: Re: Look who’s back on top How are you? Are you back at school or still in Irvine?

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2022

Subject: Re: Look who’s back on top I’m back at school! It’s so awesome to be back on campus. I don’t think I realized how isolated I’d started to feel. Everything is amazing. Except for the snow. That is less awesome. Everyone thinks of Southern California summers as this magical time, but the best kept secret is that we have the best February of any place in the world. Summers are boob sweat and crowds.

How’s your mom doing?

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Date: February 14, 2022

Subject: Re: Look who’s back on top I cannot attest to the boob sweat but agree re: crowds. And the social isolation of the pandemic must have been brutal. If we were smarter, we would have met at a park. Why didn’t we think of that?

Mom is doing pretty well. She’s always been healthy but never super into fitness per se, but got really into hiking last year, so she’s 55 and in the best shape of her life. There’s a lot of saucy “If your father could see me now’s” happening, and, quite frankly, I don’t want to know how that sentence ever ends, but I’m happy for her. She’s doing all right.

You’re in your junior year now, right? Still doing your same redacted sport? Still studying your same redacted subject?