12:32 PM, GRASSY FIELD, UPSTATE NEW YORK

It had been one bizarre morning.

It had started like any other ordinary day: wake up, have some breakfast, drive to site, start work.

But then, there appeared a tractor… and a sign… and a mesmerizing and apologetic woman asking for a second chance.

It had taken all of Jodi’s will not to dismiss her team and make love to Bette right then and there. Instead, she asked her lover to join them, and she happily agreed. The Ivy-League educated Dean of the California School of Arts had no qualms about getting down and dirty, working hand in hand with the rest of Jodi’s team in an effort to bring the structure to life.

Jodi couldn’t help but laugh openly when she saw what Bette was up to at the moment. She had been assigned to help Aaron and Hank set up the left side’s support beams, so she was working about twenty feet to Jodi’s right. But judging by what she read on those beautiful lips, Bette was giving the seasoned welders advice on how best to proceed. Jodi bit her lip, completely amused by the dumbfounded expressions on the workers’ faces.

You can take the Dean out the school…

With any luck, the sign would be up by the end of the week.

The sign.

Jodi slowly crouched in front of the monstrous sign. Her hand traced the edges of the exclamation point. Bette’s grand gift had been the most romantic gesture anyone had ever done for Jodi. It had been many years since Jodi had felt overwhelmed with emotion, and she found it to be both thrilling and terrifying.

The cold steel felt surprisingly soothing against the tips of her fingers. She could feel – rather than see – the flaws on the edges, the areas where it had already started to be consumed by rust and the assault of the natural elements. It was very old, worthless to some, and would have probably been melted and resurrected as soda cans if Bette had not retrieved it.

But if anything, those imperfections made the structure even more precious to Jodi, because it gave it a unique human dimension to its existence: flawed, but strong… battered by its surroundings, but ultimately surviving.