Dating After the End of the World

by Jeneva Rose

“No need to thank me, Casey. I’m your father. My job is to take care of you.”

“I’m twenty-nine, Dad.” “I don’t care if you’re fifty. You’ll always be my daughter, so I’ll always take care of you.”

Animosity hurts you, not the person it’s directed at. It’s like poison, but you’re the only one consuming it.”

“Just returning the favor,” I say, full well meaning it. Elaine was there for me after my mother passed, in ways no one else could be. She might not have saved my life. But she saved me. Elaine smiles and squeezes my hand, knowing exactly what I mean.

But I can see she’s different now that she’s lost her husband. That’s what death does. It changes you.

But I can’t watch you love someone else. It’d be like watching the world end all over again, and I don’t think

I’d survive a second doomsday,”

My eyes go to the horizon just as the sun starts to dip below. The sky is a mosaic of pinks and oranges, splashed in every direction. It’s as though Dad painted it on his way up there, leaving something beautiful in his wake—a final lesson from him. Just because the world ended doesn’t mean yours has to end too.

“Sometimes the family you’re born with can’t always be there. But the family you pick up along the way can be.