“Cheers!” Alicia called.
I laughed and drank, realizing I didn’t care if Robert was fat or bald, happy or miserable. I just never wanted to share space with him again.
And I didn’t want to fail.
Cameron was first to lower his cup, having tossed back the champagne like a shot. “The boys and I unloaded everything we could into the dining room and kitchen. The place is pretty packed now, but Alicia thought you might be able to stay in the trailer at night until you make headway on the house.”
“And I’m off for the summer,” Alicia reminded me. “Possibly the only perk of teaching teens at an underfunded public high school.”
“She means aside from the opportunity to shape the minds of our country’s future,” Cameron said.
Alicia rolled her eyes and took another sip of champagne. “Yep. That too.”
I gave the ramshackle house and overgrown lawn a long look. “Any chance you saw a mower around here?”
Cam lifted a finger to adjust the brim of his hat. “CJ will bring ours over on the trailer and take care of it for you in the morning. Then he’ll come back on the weekends. Alicia already offered to pay him for it.”
“No,” I said.
She shook her head. “I’ve been giving the boys allowance for existing all their lives. They drive now. It’s summer break. They can do this for you. Let them.”
Tears burned and blurred my eyes without falling. I nodded.
“I mean it,” she said. “I can be here to help as often as you want, and the guys will help when they can. Your mom’s got three of anything you can think of in there. We’ll hold on to the things you want. Take trash to the curb and everything else to some kind of donation center. We’ve got this.”
“Sounds like a great plan.”
“It’s what I do,” she said. “Now, what do you want to do first?” she asked. “Because you’re fucking free.”
I looked at the house again, then the backyard and trailer. I thought of Robert’s rage, and a thousand possible repercussions for my absence.
Anything I’d accidentally left behind was surely in the trash by now. He’d see this as an act of war instead of a desperate bid for peace. The family-man persona he’d so carefully crafted would be shattered, forcing him to find a new mask. His second-favorite role was one of a victim. Tomorrow, he’d tell anyone who asked how blindsided he’d been and how gutted he was by my abandonment. That was if he played nice. Instead, he might confess that his happiness was all an act, because he’d been hiding the truth. That I’d been a terrible wife and mother. That’s why he didn’t always come out to see me when I brought desserts to the office. Maybe he’d say I was controlling. Maybe he’d label me an alcoholic like my mother. A cheater. Or someone who spent all his money on vanity and nonsense.
“Let’s start with dinner,” Alicia suggested when I didn’t speak. She wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me to the back patio, where smoke seeped from a grill. “Did you know we’re tailgating tonight? I hired a private chef.”
The table was set with place mats, plates, and silverware. A white cloth runner ran down the center with bowls of chips and pretzels beside covered trays of chunked fruits and sliced veggies. Cameron raised the lid on the grill and flipped shrimp and chicken kebabs.
“We should eat before the boys get back,” Cam said. “Then it’s every man and woman for themselves.”
I laughed.
Tonight, we feast,I thought.Because I have no idea what tomorrow holds.
Hopefully not a famine.
I tossed and turned through the night in Mom’s trailer. The space was cramped and smelled faintly of something unpleasant I couldn’t name.I was thankful for that last part. Strange scent aside, camping in the backyard felt unsafe, making my move into the house a priority.
At six thirty a.m., I dressed in leggings and a T-shirt with sneakers, then pulled my hair into a ponytail and drove to the nearest drive-through for iced coffee, mentally thanking Alicia for the gift card. I returned feeling awake and resolved.
The work ahead of me would be unpleasant, and dirty, so I’d planned ahead. I had purchased extra cleaning supplies with my grocery orders for weeks, then packed them with my things for the move. Alicia had set the boxes out for me before leaving after dinner.
Now I had to face the consequences of my actions and turn Mom’s cluttered house into my new home.
I cued up some Taylor Swift and strode across the lawn driven by caffeine, adrenaline, and purpose. “Let the transformation begin.”
I opened the windows and doors to circulate the cool morning air. Then I dragged things I didn’t want, or couldn’t use, onto the patio to deal with later. Unopened boxes of dishes, small appliances, and upright vacuums in triplicate. Plastic totes of VHS tapes and music CDs. Cases of unopened wine and canned goods.
Organizing the overflow as I went helped me track my progress, but I had to stop frequently to adjust the piles. I’d designated one side of the patio for items destined for charities, food banks, and shelters. Those organizations would properly distribute and put the items to good use. Everything on the other side was essentially trash. Items stacked on top of the table in the middle didn’t fit into either category, so they stayed, temporarily, in limbo.
