Friday morning arrived with Singapore's typical humidity and Aria's atypical anxiety. She hadn't hardly slept, mentally running though contingency plans for every conceivable scenario. Luna recognizing Xavier immediately, Luna getting overwhelmed by the presence of Xavier, Xavier saying something inappropriate to Luna, and the other parents asking inappropriate questions about their connection.
Luna was the complete opposite, nearly vibrating out of her chair with excitement over career day.
"Mrs. Rodriguez said there is going to be a pilot, and a chef, and someone who builds robots!" Luna chattered over breakfast, her gray eyes shining. "And maybe some other interesting people too."
Aria managed a smile while vigorously stirring her coffee. "That does sound exciting, baby."
"Will you stay to watch their presentations?" Luna asked, before adding with the logic of a four-year-old, "You could tell them about marketing, but that might be boring compared to robots."
"I'll stay for a little while," Aria said. She needed to see Luna's interaction with him at first, how she responded to him, and be able to intervene if needed.
An hour passed before Aria was now back in the familiar disarray of Singapore International Academy's main hall organized for career day with colorful banners and small presentation stations. The room was filled with parents and professionals moving around the space waiting to prepare visuals and testing microphones while the excited children bounced between activities.
She was able to spot Xavier right away—he was hard to miss in a room filled with highly accomplished adults. He was getting settled near the technology station, organizing what looked to Aria like a sophisticated tablet demonstration, his movements quickly and purposefully arranging items. He was dressed for their meeting with forethought: dark khakis, a blue button-down shirt, and a smile that was bright as he was talking with the volunteer coordinator.
"There' the robot man!" Luna shouted while tugging on Aria's hand. "Can we go, see?"
Aria felt a jolt just by Luna's identification of Xavier in person—not as her father, but as the most interesting presenter in the room. The analytical brain that had made the connection of Xavier's news photos with her genetics was pulled like a magnet to his demonstration of technology and was totally fascinated.
"Let's visit all the stations first," Aria replied, hoping to prolong their arrival and witness how Xavier engaged with the other kids.
They toured the pilot station, where Captain Wei was showing flight instruments to a group of wide-eyed five-year-olds. Then the cook station, where Luna politely tried new spices but never stopped glancing at the tech box. Finally, they were inexorably at Xavier's space.
"Thanks for coming to the future of business tech," he was saying to a small group of kids, a commanding presence that dominated corporate boardrooms, but enthusiastic. "Can anyone tell me what they think this device might do?"
Immediately several hands shot up. Xavier called on a boy near the front.
"Is it a computer?"
"Not quite! It's a tablet that can run programs designed to help people make better business decisions," he said as he manipulated the display to present colorful graphs and charts. "The really neat thing is that it learns based on the information you give it."
Luna pressed even closer to the front of the group, eyes wide and connected. Aria saw from the edge of the circle where they were standing, Xavier's eyes found Luna among the group and held just for an instant—recognition, judgement and something that looked like wonder.
"You with the gray eyes; what do you think this graph is telling us?" Xavier asked as he focused on Luna.
Luna examined the image with intense focus. "It's a representation of numbers over time going up and down. Is it something like tracking how many butterflies visit a particular flower during a season?"
Xavier smiled genuinely, and with appreciation. "Yes, exactly. This graph is being used to track the quantity of different kinds of things people buy at different times of the year. Just like butterflies visit certain flowers at certain times of the day, people buy certain things at certain times of the year."
"So the computer learns the patterns," Luna continued with lively and curious engagement as she again seemed to be in her own world.
"The tablet learns the patterns," Xavier confirmed. "The device is like you, when you learn that butterflies visit roses at different times in the morning, the device learns when people are most likely to buy hot chocolate or ice cream."
Luna nodded very seriously, still processing the information, just like with anything that got her interest. "That's very clever."
"I think it is too." Xavier said with a hint of something in his voice that made Aria's chest feel tight. Pride. Paternal pride in his daughter's ability to quickly understand the task and his daughter's thoughtful questions.
The session continued for another ten minutes with Luna engaging Xavier with some additional questions that revealed her analytical thinking. Xavier answered every inquiry patiently and sincerely respected her intelligence, never condescending to her age.
When the session concluded, and the children were starting to migrate to other stations, Luna was lingering next to Xavier's display, very much hesitating to leave.
"Did you enjoy learning about business technology?" Xavier asked squatting down to her eye level.
"I did, very much," Luna responded as was polite. "I like to understand how things work."
"What things do you like to understand the most?"
Luna gave Xavier's question serious consideration. "Math patterns. Why people make different choices. How butterflies know what flowers to go to." She paused and then continued, "And why some families look different than other families."
The innocent observation impacted both adults with an unexpected weight. Xavier's expression shifted in a way that was more complex than one could articulate; realizing that his daughter was dealing with questions about family structure, about her place in the world, about the parent that was missing in her life who she was meeting again without really meeting anyone.
"Those are very important things to understand," Xavier said carefully.
"Especially regarding families. Every family is different, and you can't always read what's special about them, especially to outsiders."
"My mama says families are made of people who love each other, even if they don't all live in the same house," said Luna.
"Your mama sounds incredibly wise," said Xavier quietly. "What is your name?"
"Luna Chen. What's your name?"
"Xavier Knight. It's very nice to meet you, Luna."
They shook hands seriously, with Luna treating it as she would any formal introduction with an adult whose respect she earned through engaging conversation.
"Will you come back to our school again?" she asked.
"I hope so," he said. "Would you want me to?"
"Yes, please. Maybe you could bring more demonstrations of how computers learn patterns."
"I will see what I can do," Xavier said.
As Luna was finally convinced to check out other career stations, Xavier stood up and tried to make eye contact with Aria across the room. The gaze they exchanged was fraught with meaning—Minds were already reeling—an acknowledgment that the initial contact had gone better than either had hoped.
Luna had been completely herself with Xavier, totally captivated by his intelligence and interested by his explanations. Much more importantly, Xavier had been completely himself with Luna, even replying to her questions with both respect and clear anticipation of her fast mind.
An hour later, as parents were starting to pick up their kids and career day was winding down, Luna bounded over to Aria with her typical exuberance.
"Mama! That was the best career day ever! The robot man was cool, but the technology man was the best. He knew about patterns and learning, and he answered every one of my questions - properly!"
"I'm glad you liked it, baby," Aria replied, her heart doing flip-flops as she watched Xavier summarize and pack away his display across the room.
"Do you think I could learn how to make computers with brains for learning about patterns?" Luna asked.
"I think you could learn how to do anything you want to, Luna," Aria replied confidently.
As they were getting to leave, Xavier came across to them with an intentional casualness, "Luna, I enjoyed talking to you about learning patterns. You had very thoughtful questions."
"Thank you," she replied, polite and nevertheless happy for the compliment. "I have many more questions to ask you if you ever want to answer them."
"I would be glad to answer additional questions" Xavier said while darting a glance toward Aria first, as if for approval. "Your mother and I may be able to arrange for you to visit an actual technology company one day if you're interested."
Luna's eyes lit up. "Really? We get to see more computers that learn patterns?"
"Of course."
"Mama, then maybe we can?" Luna looked to Aria with hopeful expectance.
For her part, Aria felt the weight of two pairs of gray eyes on her, one filled with the thrilling excitement of childhood and the other with the careful anticipation of adulthood. What she would decide at this moment would decide either the advancement of their tentative arrangement or stall at this first successful contact.
"We could discuss a visit." Aria offered slowly. "If Mr. Knight has availability."
"I'll make it available," Xavier piped up immediately.
As they walked to the exit of the school, Luna rattled on about everything she'd learned during career day. Aria reflected on how thoroughly her expectations had been upturned. She had thought that there may be awkwardness, confusion or overwhelming emotion from Luna's first meeting with her father.
Instead, Luna had responded to Xavier exactly as she responded to any adult who treated her intelligence with respect—with natural curiosity, engaging questions, and immediate comfort. The connection between them had been obvious but not dramatic, built on genuine interest rather than forced emotion.
More concerning for Aria's peace of mind was Xavier's obvious natural aptitude for interacting with Luna. He'd been patient, encouraging, and genuinely interested in her thoughts. The corporate predator she'd feared would overwhelm her daughter had instead revealed himself to be someone who could match Luna's intellectual curiosity with supportive guidance.
"Mama," Luna said as they reached their car, "I liked the technology man very much. He made me feel like my questions were important."
"That's wonderful, baby," Aria replied, though she was beginning to understand that Xavier Knight's integration into their lives might be more seamless—and therefore more dangerous to her carefully maintained control—than she had anticipated.
As they drove home, Luna continued processing her career day experience with characteristic thoroughness, asking questions about different professions and expressing particular interest in returning to learn more about business technology.
Though she did not question if the technology man could have been in the running for the fatherhood she'd wondered about, something about her satisfied expression suggested that Luna's analytical mind was churning through connections that her four-year-old emotional intelligence was yet to process.
The first contact had gone beyond Aria's most hopeful expectations of success. It meant the next step in introducing Xavier into Luna's life was not just possible but outright inevitable.
And Aria was starting to suspect that the ties binding her daughter with her father might begin out from their own accord and needs, and this thought brought her a sense of solace but was contrasted immediately by vulnerability from her side.