I wanted to tell her that wasn’t the case, but at that moment I had to stifle a yawn. “I’m good. They wouldn’t call it work if it didn’t make you at least a little tired.”
“All work and no play makes for no type of life at all.”
“I play plenty.”
“Yeah? When’s the last time you saw your girlfriend?”
My chin dropped as I counted the days in my head. Chanel and I had FaceTimed plenty in the week I’d been gone, but with me in Vegas and her in Houston, that was as good as it got.
“I just saw her last night,” I hedged.
“FaceTime doesn’t count,” she countered.
Another laugh spilled from my lips. My mama was nothing if not quick as a whip.
“And you’ve got, what? Another week before you return home?”
“Yeah, something like that,” I admitted. An image of Chanel floated to mind, and my chest tightened.
“Hey, why don’t you take her on that cruise?”
My face scrunched in confusion. “What cruise?”
“You know, the one you bid on and won, then gave to me, but I can’t go to? You still have the tickets?”
I’d forgotten all about the cruise. I was going to see if one of my restaurant managers wanted the tickets but had forgotten to ask. “Yeah, I still have them.”
“You should take Chanel. I bet you both could use the vacation.”
“Ma—”
“I’m just saying. You have the tickets. Why not use them? Just think about it.”
“I will,” I conceded.
“What else is going on in your life?” she asked.
There was one question I’d wanted to ask her. By then, the driver had arrived at my hotel, but I asked that he park in the garage for a minute while I finished my conversation.
“I have wanted to ask you one thing,” I began.
“Sure, what’s up?” My mother’s voice softened.
“When you first found out you were pregnant with me, did you ever consider not having me?”
Ever since my conversation with Chanel about what happened after she’d left her ex, I’d been wondering this. Honestly, I still couldn’t understand how I felt about that.
“What made you ask that?”
I sighed, not wanting to go into the details of where the question had come from. My mother, being the wise woman she was, must’ve discerned my reluctance to answer.
“To be honest, it was a passing thought, but that was all it was. It didn’t take me more than a minute to toss that idea out of the window. I knew I wanted you from about the first moment I learned I was pregnant. I was scared, of course. I was young and in school, and your father…well, you know the story there, but you were always mine.”
It wasn’t anything she hadn’t told me before. I felt it down in my soul she wasn’t making it up either. Growing up, I never felt anything less than pure love from my mother. And while one parent can never completely make up for the lack of affection from another parent, she came damn close.
“Thanks, Ma.”
“Now, you know good and well there’s nothing to thank me for. Are you all right?”
