Chapter 14 Dreams of Forever #2
"Same things you've already survived, but worse."
Tan laughed.
"Sounds encouraging."
Hayes leaned back.
"Your father know?"
"Not yet."
"He'll be proud."
Tan smiled.
"Probably annoyingly."
"Good man."
"You know him?"
"Everybody knows Terrence David."
Tan shook his head.
Even here.
Still Dad's reputation.
Hayes seemed to understand.
"But I'm talking to you because of what you've done."
Tan looked up.
"This isn't legacy."
"This is earned."
That mattered.
More than Hayes probably knew.
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet."
Hayes stood.
"Get through the panel."
Tan smiled.
"I will."
That night, Tan showed up at Amari's house with takeout and barely made it through the front door before she noticed something.
"You got promoted."
Tan stopped.
"How do you do that?"
Amari smiled.
"You have your happy face."
"I thought you said I had a secret face."
"You have many faces."
Tan set the food on the counter.
"I'm interviewing for team lead."
Her eyes widened.
"T!"
She threw her arms around him.
He laughed.
"Didn't get it yet."
"You will."
"That's a lot of confidence."
"I know you."
She pulled back.
"You earned this."
The same words Hayes had said.
Tan looked at her.
"What?"
"Nothing."
She smiled.
"You're happy."
"I am."
"And scared."
Tan laughed once.
"You really do know me."
Amari took his hand.
"Why scared?"
"Leadership."
"More responsibility."
"More people depending on me."
She nodded.
"That sounds like every promotion you've ever taken."
"It's different when decisions can get somebody killed."
Amari's expression changed.
She never liked thinking about that part of his work.
But she refused to pretend it didn't exist.
"You'll make the best decision you can with what you know."
"That's all anybody can do."
Tan nodded.
"That's what Dad says."
"Your dad is usually right."
"Don't tell him that."
"I tell him regularly."
Tan stared.
"Betrayal."
Amari laughed.
The team-lead evaluation stretched across six exhausting weeks.
Tan passed the written assessment.
Passed the command simulations.
Passed the physical evaluation.
Then came the final scenario.
A staged hostage rescue designed to overwhelm judgment.
Conflicting information.
Civilians in the wrong location.
A simulated injured officer.
Communication problems.
Time pressure.
Tan made two decisions he questioned afterward.
For forty-eight hours, he was convinced he'd failed.
Then Captain Hayes called.
"Congratulations."
Tan closed his eyes.
"Seriously?"
"Effective next month."
He exhaled.
"Thank you."
"You earned it."
Again.
That word.
Earned.
Tan sat alone in his apartment after the call.
The ring waited inside the locked box in his bedroom.
His promotion letter sat open on his laptop.
For a moment he thought about the frightened five-year-old boy who'd once had nothing except Panda and a jade pendant.
Then he looked around.
Career.
Home.
Family.
Amari.
The life he'd built didn't erase what he'd lost.
But it proved loss didn't get to write every chapter afterward.
Tan bowed his head.
"Thank You."
Faith had become more natural over the years.
Not perfect.
But steady.
He still had unanswered questions.
God had never given him a complete explanation for why his first family disappeared.
Tan had stopped demanding that faith function like an investigation.
Some truths couldn't be subpoenaed.
Some answers came slowly.
Some never came at all.
But gratitude had become easier.
Then his phone rang.
Amari.
He answered.
"Hey."
"You sound weird."
Tan smiled.
"Everybody says that."
"What happened?"
"I got it."
Silence.
Then screaming.
"TAN!"
He held the phone away.
Amari continued.
"I KNEW IT!"
He laughed.
"Congratulations, baby!"
"Thank you."
"We're celebrating."
"We have dinner tonight."
"No."
"What?"
"We're doing something."
"What?"
"Don't worry about it."
"That sentence always worries me."
She hung up.
Tan stared at his phone.
Then smiled.
Two hours later, Amari arrived at his apartment carrying balloons, champagne, a cake that read TEAM LEADER DAVID, and enough food for a small wedding.
Tan looked at everything.
"How did you do this in two hours?"
"Government efficiency."
"That's an oxymoron."
She hit his arm.
"Don't insult my employer."
He laughed.
Amari set down the cake.
"I'm proud of you."
Tan pulled her close.
"Thank you."
She kissed him.
Slowly.
Then rested her forehead against his.
"You know what I love?"
"What?"
"You never act like you've arrived."
Tan frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"You always want to do better."
"Learn more."
"Be better."
She touched his cheek.
"Your father gave you something really beautiful."
Tan's eyes softened.
"He did."
Sunday dinner became another celebration.
Gloria made enough food to feed the entire block.
Terrence raised a glass of sweet tea.
"To Tan."
Everyone quieted.
Tan immediately looked uncomfortable.
"Don't make a speech."
Terrence ignored him.
"To the boy who spent half his childhood saying he was going to do everything I did."
Tan smiled.
"And then grew up smart enough to do most of it better."
The table reacted.
Tan looked at his father.
"Come on."
Terrence continued.
"I'm proud of the officer you've become."
"But I'm more proud of the man."
Tan's throat tightened.
Terrence lifted his glass.
"Congratulations, son."
Everyone raised theirs.
"Congratulations!"
Tan looked around the table.
Eva.
Terrence.
Gloria.
Harold.
Travis.
Ella.
Amari.
His people.
Then Gloria added,
"And next we're celebrating a wedding."
Silence.
Tan nearly choked.
Amari's eyes widened.
Eva stared at Gloria.
Terrence covered his face.
Travis burst out laughing.
Ella screamed,
"GRANDMA!"
Gloria looked around innocently.
"What?"
Tan pointed at her.
"Why would you say that?"
Amari slowly looked toward Tan.
"A wedding?"
"No."
Gloria smiled.
"I didn't say whose."
Travis laughed harder.
"Grandma, you're terrible."
Tan glared at Harold.
"You told her."
Harold raised both hands.
"I ain't saying nothing."
Amari narrowed her eyes.
Tan stood.
"I'm going home."
Eva laughed.
"Sit down."
Amari grabbed his sleeve.
"Definitely sit down."
Tan looked at her.
"Do not listen to these people."
Her dimples appeared.
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face is asking questions."
"It is."
Tan sighed.
Terrence was laughing now.
Tan looked at him.
"This is your fault."
"I didn't say a word."
"You married into this."
Gloria pointed her fork toward him.
"I heard that."
The table erupted again.
Amari laughed until tears filled her eyes.
Tan watched her.
Whatever frustration he'd felt disappeared.
He loved seeing her like this.
At his family's table.
Happy.
Included.
Loved.
Maybe Grandma's outburst hadn't ruined anything.
Maybe it had simply confirmed what everyone already knew.
Amari belonged here.
And Tan wanted to make that permanent.
A week later, Tan drove alone to the intersection where Terrence had found him.
He hadn't planned to go there.
He simply found himself turning toward it after work.
He parked near the same curb and stepped out.
Traffic rushed past.
Different businesses now.
Different cars.
Different people.
Same intersection.
Tan stood near the crosswalk.
Once, a five-year-old boy had wandered into this street searching for the family he'd lost.
Now a grown man stood there carrying an engagement ring in his pocket.
The contrast nearly overwhelmed him.
His phone buzzed.
A message from Amari.
Amari: Grocery store after work? I need avocados. Try not to embarrass yourself.
Tan laughed.
He typed:
Tan: I’ve improved.
Amari: Debatable.
He stared at the message.
Then looked across the intersection.
Something clicked.
The proposal.
Not the restaurant.
Not Maui.
Not some expensive rooftop.
Here.
The place where his second life began.
But not exactly in traffic.
Amari would kill him.
He smiled.
There was a small park less than a block away.
Terrence had taken him there years ago after the fight at school.
The place where he'd taught Tan that other people's opinions couldn't define his family.
Tan looked toward the trees.
Yes.
That was it.
The place where family had become something he understood not as blood, but as choice.
He would ask Amari there.
Surrounded by both families.
Simple.
Meaningful.
The people who shaped them.
The people who would become one family when she said yes.
If she said yes.
Tan laughed at himself.
"She better."
Planning involved more people than he'd intended.
Terrence.
Eva.
Gloria.
Harold.
Travis.
Ella.
Simone.
Denise.
Calvin.
By the end of one group call, Tan regretted involving anyone.
"We need flowers," Eva said.
"Not too many," Tan replied.
Gloria disagreed.
"You can't have too many flowers."
"Yes, you can."
Simone said,
"She loves white roses."
Tan frowned.
"I thought roses were too much."
"For a first date."
"This isn't a first date."
Calvin asked,
"You sure she's gonna say yes?"
Silence.
Tan looked toward the phone.
Amari's father laughed.
"Just checking."
Denise smacked him somewhere off-camera.
"Ouch!"
"Leave him alone."
Ella wanted candles.
Terrence vetoed them.
"Fire hazard."
Travis wanted a photographer.
Tan agreed.
Harold volunteered to grill.
Everyone shouted no.
Harold looked offended.
"Why not?"
"It's a proposal, Grandpa."
"People gotta eat."
"After."
Gloria nodded.
"At our house."
Tan leaned back in his chair.
"Why did I tell y'all?"
Eva smiled.
"Because you love us."
"I regret it."
"We love you too."
The plan was set for three weeks later.
Saturday evening.
Sunset.
Tan would tell Amari they were meeting Terrence and Eva for dinner nearby.
Instead, he would bring her to the park.
Their families would wait at a distance.
Not hidden so dramatically that it felt staged.
Just present.
Afterward, everyone would celebrate at the David home.
Tan felt strangely calm once the details were settled.
Until work intervened.
Two days before the proposal, Captain Hayes called an emergency briefing.
Tan arrived to find photographs spread across the conference-room screens.
Golden Meridian Imports.
Warehouses.
Missing persons.
Intelligence reports.
Federal task-force logos.
His stomach tightened.
Hayes addressed the team.