“How’dyou come up with that?” my dad asked, scraping his fork against the plate forany straggling crumbs.
Ishrugged. “I don’t know. It’s one of those things. I knew it would fit with theflavor profile and I felt the dish was missing an important crunch component.”
“Itis impressive,” my mom conceded.
Kimcame back to check on us and I put in the rest of our order. Our crispy porkbelly served over creamy polenta with glazed carrots for my mom. The steak andfrites for my dad—Kobe filet served with hand cut duck fat fries and charredbroccoli. And I ordered the sweet pea tortellini for me. The tortellini was myfavorite dish on the whole menu and one Wyatt made himself. I quickly added theswordfish curry—at least Wyatt’s take on curry—over lentils and root vegetablesto share.
“Kaya,that’s too much,” my mom chastised for the second time after Kim had walked wayagain.
I smiledpatiently at her. “You don’t have to eat it all. But I promise you’ll thank melater.”
Hereyes dropped to my midsection. “I thought maybe you’d given up yoga, but now Iunderstand.”
Usedto her passive aggressive cruelty, I changed the subject without acknowledgingher dig. “How’s Claire? Is she excited for summer?”
Mymom’s entire face lit up at the mention of my younger sister. “She loves herclass this year, but she’s looking forward to the break. She works so hard, youknow? Those kids give her a run for her money.”
Irestrained an eyeroll. My poor sister that had to work normal hours every weekand got summers and major holidays off. Not to mention all those paid teacherwork days.
Guiltimmediately kicked me low in the gut. That wasn’t fair to teachers. I knew theyworked hard—harder than most. And my sister loved her students, pouring everybit of herself into their little lives.
Butthe scales were skewed at my house. Claire was revered for how hard she worked,while I was pitied because I had no social life. Maybe it was that Claire hadachieved better life balance and I was jealous of her summer breaks. I mean whowouldn’t be? Or maybe it was my parents’ refusal to pay attention to what I didwhile Claire was worshiped, but either way, I knew my resentment for Claire wasunhealthy. Borderline insane. Claire was wonderful. And we genuinely got along.I had a frustrating amount of misplaced resentment for my parents.
“She’splanning to visit you for a few weeks,” my dad added.
“Huh?”
“Claire,”he said slower. “She misses you. She told us she’s going to spend a few weekswith you this summer.”
“Shehasn’t said anything to me,” I told them.
Theyshrugged. They didn’t care what I thought. If Claire wanted to spend time withme she would. I didn’t get a say.
“Ourair conditioner needed new filters last week,” my mom said, changing thesubject in a weird direction.
Ididn’t know what to say to that or why she was telling me about her airconditioner, so I nodded and mumbled, “Oh yeah?”
“Ihad to run into town to buy them. Your father wrote down what I needed, but youknow what his handwriting is like. I got to the store and couldn’t for the lifeof me figure out what he’d asked for. I got him to send me a picture of itthough.” She lifted her eyes to the ceiling, demonstrating her exasperation.“Although I still couldn’t find what he needed.”
Ather pause, I tried to sound sympathetic. “That must have been frustrating foryou, Mom.”
Shelooked at me and reached out to squeeze my hand as if my sympathy meant theworld to her. I nibbled on my lip ring to hide my smile. I pictured her harpingon my dad all week about his negligence while he ignored her to watch golf.
“Itwas,” she said. “Thank you for acknowledging my feelings, Kaya.”
Ismiled at her again.
“Anyway,while I was wandering around the hardware store, you’ll never guess who I raninto.”
Oh,man, I had a guess and I wanted to keep it to myself but—
Shelifted her hands in excitement and exclaimed, “Nolan! Can you believe it, Kaya?He was right there. Right when I needed him the most.”
Swallowingback the sarcastic way I wanted to ask her why air conditioning filters werethe things she needed most in the world, I said, “It’s not that hard tobelieve. I mean, he does live a block away from the hardware store.”
Mymother’s smile pinched. “He was so kind,” she added. “He found me exactly whatI was looking for.”
“Oh,thank God. I was so worried about the air conditioner.”
