Lucy Parker teaches English at Oak Ridge High now. Her classroom is right next to the Technical Center.

Some afternoons, she brings her lunch over and sits on a stool in the corner of the workshop while I teach. She tears her sandwich in half without saying anything and puts it on my workbench.

The students noticed before I did.

“Mr. Sullivan,” said one of the girls, “is Ms. Parker your girlfriend?”

I went red. Lucy laughed her big laugh.

We've been together for a year now.

On our first proper date, I took her for dinner, then drove her home in my old red pickup. It broke down on the way. Of course it did.

I got out in my good shirt and fixed it by the side of the road while she held the flashlight. “My grandpa would have loved you,” she said, watching me work.

“Because I can fix a truck?”

“Because you didn't pretend it wasn't broken,” she said.

I think that might be the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me.