But I couldn’t bring myself to smile back.

All I could think about was the suffocating weight of my student debt, the late notices piling up in my email, and the constant anxiety gnawing at me. For months, I’d quietly hoped that maybe Dad would use some of his savings to help me dig out of the hole I’d fallen into. I wasn’t expecting a full rescue, just a lifeline. But instead, he chose this: two wheels, an engine, and a dream.

“Beautiful, isn’t she?” he asked, brushing his palm over the handlebars as though they were made of glass.

I forced a nod. “Yeah. She’s… nice.”

Nice. That was all I could muster.