“Come on,” Tina said from behind her mother, grabbing Taylor’s arm. “Wait until you see all the stuff we bought for tonight.”
Tina was petite, her curly black hair framing her face like a halo as she pulled my much-taller sister down our front stairs and toward their car.
“We bought a lot of junk for tonight, but I promise she won’t come home with a stomachache.”
I waved a hand. “Just send home some Oreos if you have any left.”
“Will do, and you really do look great tonight,” Bonnie whispered.
“Work thing, but it’s nice to get dressed up once in a while,” I said with an almost believable nonchalance, as if I hadn’t obsessed over my dress and hair for the past three hours for the man I wasn’t supposed to be this excited to see.
I waved one more time before I shut the door behind me and ran upstairs to grab my phone and wrap.
“Look at you,” Mrs. Ruiz, our downstairs tenant, said from behind me after I came downstairs and pulled up the Uber app on my phone.
“I hope that’s a goodlook at you,” I said with a chuckle. She was more of a family friend than a tenant, but I could never stop calling her Mrs. Ruiz.
“It’s a wonderfullook at you.” She looked me over with a smirk, arching her gray brow. “Get it, girl,” she told me before shutting the door to her downstairs apartment.
Our circle was small, and lately, being at the center of it brought on a new exhaustion. When my sister would be out for a day and night, it would highlight the loneliness I fought to keep from breaking the surface.
Taylor and I had each other, but I couldn’t help feeling all alone in this world sometimes.
The app said my car would be here in ten minutes, and I headed outside to wait on my stoop, not realizing someone was behind me as I locked my front door.
“Mom? What are you doing here?”
My mother’s wide smile faded at my words. It hit me how much Taylor was beginning to look like her, something I’d never noticed—or my subconscious had worked overtime to ignore. Her dark eyes roamed up and down my body before she met my gaze again.
“I guess I caught you on the way out. Nice dress, even if you should have gotten the size up.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Yeah, thanks. I’ll ask you again—what are you doing here?”
“Jared and I had plans in the city, so I thought I’d stop by to say hi.” She motioned behind her to the tall, bald man on the sidewalk. He seemed younger than Mom, the shadow of hair onhis head suggesting he’d shaved his hair off rather than lost it. A slimy grin pulled across his mouth as he stuffed his inked arms into his black pants, his gaze traveling over me in a way that made me want to jump back in the shower.
“Taylor isn’t home, and I’m on my way out.” I pushed past her and headed down the stairs, willing the car to somehow get here faster.
“We can wait inside, then?—”
“No, you can’t. I changed the locks, and I don’t want you and your new one in my house.”
“Mynewone?” Mom pressed her manicured hand to her chest. As much of a flake as she’d always been, she was always put together. Looking after herself was never one of her issues, only her kids. “You don’t even know Jared?—”
“And I’ll bet you hardly do either. I am out of energy for you and this and, right now, out of time. So again, you aren’t staying at my house?—”
“Your house,” she spat out. “I grew up here just like you?—”
“You never grew up. That’s why Grams left it to me and told me to change the locks. I didn’t when you were pregnant, but now that I am Taylor’s guardian, that was the first thing I did after we signed the papers.”
By the mercy of God, my car pulled up to the curb after I stomped to the sidewalk.
“I don’t know what the big deal is. We wouldn’t stay long, and I thought you’d like to meet?—”
“We wouldn’t. Taylor gets uneasy when you’re around. She’s old enough to know it’s not normal to have your mother stop by only every few months.”
“So, I can’t say hi to my kids? Why are you like this?”
“Nope. And I’m like this because, unlike you, I care about my kid. Yes,mykid, officially and legally, according to the stateof New York. And this ismyhouse.” I pointed to the door. “So, leave, or I’ll call the cops when I get back.”
