I smiled at that. My parents had always been supportive, even when they questioned my common sense. As grim as my life was, with all my hopes and dreams crashing and burning, my parents were there with a safe place for me to land. Not everyone had that, and I reminded myself to count my blessings instead of tallying up my failures.
“Thank you all,” I said. “It’s been a rough week and it’s good to be home.”
My parents got up to give me a hug and even Nic reached over to ruffle my hair. My appetite returned after that and the rest of the meal was much more pleasant. I agreed to move into the basement and promised not to adopt a bunch of cats.
Yet.
When dinner was finished, I said I would take care of the dishes. Mom deserved to kick her feet up after an amazing meal. After taking out the trash, Nic walked into the kitchen with a swagger, grabbed a towel, and stood beside me to dry the dishes as they came out of the sink.
My big brother bumped me with his shoulder. He had stopped playing football after high school but he was still the size of pickup truck. The gentle nudge rocked me on my feet.
“How are you doing for real?” he asked.
I kept my eyes on the plate I was cleaning. “I’m drowning.”
“It’s just a rough patch,” he said, taking the plate from me. “You’ll get back on your feet.”
“I feel like a failure.”
Nic’s meaty paw landed on my shoulder and he turned me to face him. “Let’s get one thing straight: Losing your job wasn’t your fault. That mess in LA wasn’t your fault either, but one thing at a time. You had nothing to do with the Helios closing. Some architect fudged the math a century ago and now the building needs to be fixed. The theater would have to close even if you never set foot in the place. It’s just bad luck.”
I summoned a weak smile and nodded at him. “Let’s hope some good luck comes my way for a change.”
“It has to.” He laughed. “You know, I can probably find some paperwork or filing for you to do at the shop. Not fulltime or anything.”
“Thank you, but that feels too much like charity. I’ll find something.” I dunked Mom’s fancy butter dish into the soapy water. “Jessie said I should go sub at her school.”
“Hey, now there’s an idea,” he said. “That’ll keep you going until spring.”
“It’s not steady. I can pick up days when they’re available but it’s not enough to support me.” I shook water off the butter dish and passed it to Nic.
“You’re not seeing the bigger picture,” he said, drying it.
“By all means, tell me what I’m missing.”
He placed the butter dish with the other mostly dry stuff. “Moving back home sucks but it also means any money you make is all yours. Start building up that savings. I don’t know if you still want to go to New York, but that place ain’t cheap.”
“You’ve got that right,” I said, scrubbing one of Mom’s nice plates gently. “And of course I still want to go. Losing my job at the Helios just confirms I can’t rely on it. If I really want to design sets, I need to go where the work is. And that’s Broadway.”
“You’ll get there,” he said, wrapping a beefy arm around my shoulders and giving me a squeeze.
“Easy, I can’t breathe,” I said, giggling. “But thank you. It’s a relief knowing you all are here for me.”
He let go of me and shrugged. “That’s what family does. We take care of each other. If it was my life in the shitter, you’d be there for me.”
I wasn’t thrilled with his brutal description of my current situation, but his heart was in the right place, and he got creditfor that. My lifewasin the shitter. I was confident I could turn my luck around, but at the moment, things weren’t going great.
Nic tossed his towel on the counter. “I’m going to head out. Don’t wait up for me.”
“Where are you going?” I let the water drain from the sink and wiped my hands. “You’re not going to hang out with Mom and Dad?”
“They’re already napping on the couch in front of the TV. I’m going to see an old friend I haven’t seen in a while.” His grin reminded me of him when he was younger.
“Is Luke in town?” I asked, my heart suddenly galloping.
Nic paused, then nodded, giving me a nonchalant shrug. “He called me and wants to get a drink. No big deal.”
We both knew it was a big deal. Luke rarely ever came back to town. He was busy being on TV all the time. From what I understood, Nic and Luke kept in touch, but Luke’s schedule was so packed he didn’t have time for friends.
