“I was a shit.”
She doesn’t laugh.
If anything, she frowns harder. “I know yousaidyou were a shit, but I thought you meantnormalteenager stuff. Like drinking and smoking weed and breaking into Bergdorf to steal the latest Manolos when your father cuts off your wardrobe allowance, which I didn’t do, for the record—that was someone else I know but can’t name because she has too much dirt on me. Is there something more you want to tell me about before we go any further?”
“That gonna change how you feel about me?”
“Hello, fellow member of the human race with my own issues in my past and who’s currently here because my grandmother’s convinced my soul is teetering on the edge of being forever damned. I just want to really,reallymake sure you’re ready if people get up in your comments and DMs, trying to tear you down because of who you used to be. It can basically suck harder than a reverse hot tub jet, and there was this time that I was in Sri Lanka at a hotel where the hot tub jets got dorked up and started sucking backward, and I had a hickey on my left butt cheek for like three weeks after I got sucked into it, so I know how hard things can suck. But you’re so—I mean, I didn’t think—” She cuts herself off with a sigh. “Were youreallya shit, like the bad kind of shit, or were you justsort ofa shit and you have a massive guilt complex?”
“I was the bad kind of shit.”
“Butfor real?”
“Oh, he was a complete and total shit. The highest shit on the shit scale,” Marta says as she ambles back into the kitchen. She beams at me. “And look at the man he is now. We’resoproud of him.”
Tavi squints at me.
“He’s proof positiveanyonecan change. Here, honey, let me hit this switch, and—yep. Got the right breaker. You won’t get electrocuted now.”
“Thanks, Marta.”
“Anything for you. And for the record, I’d still love you even if you were still a shit. Wasn’t all your fault, you know, and our childhoods shape so much of who we become as adults. What you’ve made of yourself despite all that—shew.” She waves her hands in front of her face as her eyes go misty.
“He’ll make a great spokesperson for Tickled Pink, won’t he?” Tavi says to her, which isn’t what I’m expecting her to follow up with.
Is she being intentionally obtuse and focused just on business?
Does she not care that I was a shit? Or is she trying to pretend we weren’t having a hard discussion?
Or is it because she doesn’t want an audience when she might let something real about herself slip?
Whatever the case, Marta’s nodding enthusiastically as she blinks away the shine in her eyes. “Oh yes. The best.”
Tavi’s full grin pops out. Therealgrin. “Plus, I can’t wait to see the look on my grandmother’s face when I tell her that she had nothing to do with saving Phoebe’s soul. It’sclearlythe Tickled Pink effect, since it’s been done before.”
Marta nods even more vigorously. “When the kids were little,Pink Goldwas still mandatory in the classrooms. We’re pretty sure it helps make everyone around here better people for having such a greatexample at a young age of even the most selfish people never being too old to learn to be better.”
“Oh, totes.” Tavi’s eye twitches like she hates the movie, and I stifle a smile.
So I’m not the only one.
It’s not a bad movie. It just makes me feel like I’ll never live up.
She waves a hand like she’s brushing the whole conversation away. “So for Dylan’s social media debut, I’m trying to talk him into taking his shirt off.”
Marta goes red as one of my tomatoes.
Honestly, I think I might be going that shade of red too.
“You know he’s best friends with my baby girl?” Marta says. “Even this horny old lady has some limits.”
“Sometimes you have to use what’s easy first, to lure people into the good stuff. Don’t you want to know the next generation will keep this adorable little town going?”
“I’m not taking my shirt off.” I turn back to the task at hand and crawl back under the cabinet. “Iamgonna clean out these potato peels and get on my way, though.”
“She might have a point, honey,” Marta replies. “Maybe if I close my eyes, this’ll work. How’s the lighting? Is there enough light in here? I can get that fancy ring-light thing that Hannah got me for my birthday for when we video chat. Does he need makeup on his chest?”
“You video chat with Hannah?” Tavi asks.
