“Can I—” I hesitated for a few beats. I’d never asked for this before. “Can I have the day off?” The question felt foreign falling off my tongue. “This is important.” When I looked at my dad, he was beaming, like he was proud of me, like hearing me asking for time off was the best thing that’d happened to him in recent memory. He nodded. “Of course, August,” he said with a warm and knowing smile. “You deserve it.”
