I take Kimberly’s hand. “We need to tell them how we feel.”

“We?” she asks cautiously.

“Yeah, we. You need to take that risk with Nia, and I need to take that risk with Solange. We both could be missing out on the one person in this world who’s meant for us. Not because it makes sense on paper, or in our heads”—I place a hand over my heart and tap it a few times—“but because it makes sense in here.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready to do that,” she says, her eyes glistening. “It could go sideways real fast.”

“Promise me you’ll think about it?”

She nods. “Okay, I will.”

“One other thing.”

She jerks to attention, plainly still working through her own dilemma. “What’s up?”

“If you need to come clean to Olney & Henderson for your own peace of mind, you obviously can, of course. But don’t do it for me. I don’t need a second chance. No, actually, I don’t want a second chance. I’ll find another way to achieve my goals.”

“I thought making partner is your life goal.”

Yeah, I thought so too. But for the wrong reasons. “That’s just it. That’s not a life goal. That’s a career goal. There’s a difference. Now I’m ready to work on building the future I want; Olney & Henderson won’t be a part of it.”

Kimberly rises from the bench, and I follow suit.

“You know, I think we were meant to meet,” she says, her small smile growing broader.

“I do too. And I truly mean that.”

“Can I walk you outside?” she asks.

“Sure.”

Suddenly that banker’s box Harold’s holding for me doesn’t seem so sad anymore. I stride over to the desk, give him a final fist bump, and grab the box that now represents a new beginning. Kimberly holds the door open, and I take the deepest, most cleansing breath I’ve ever taken in my life.

Outside, a Black man in a sharp three-piece suit is leaning against a slate-gray SUV; he looks up, sees Kimberly, and smiles. I’ve seen him before. When he argued a case before the DC federal court trying to get a reporter’s press pass restored. He was brilliant, and the court sided in the reporter’s favor.

“That’s your dad, isn’t it?” I whisper.

She chuckles. “Don’t be so awestruck. He’s just a regular guy. C’mon, I’ll introduce you.”

Kimberly walks up to her father and clips him on the shoulder. “Hey, I’ll explain later, but I’m not going up.”

I can’t see his eyes behind the aviators he’s wearing, but the rest of his expression turns grim. “Are you sure?”