“Won’t you stay a little longer?” My mother still hasn’t glanced at the envelope in her hand. Her eyes are filled with tears. “I’d like to try again.”
I shake my head. “It’s too late.”
“It’s never too late.”
“No,” I say. “Sometimes it is.”
It’s not until I quietly shut the door behind me and run to the car that I see my keys nicely settled inside on the front seat.
Crap. I use my cell phone to call roadside assistance.
* * *
An hour later, my mother and I sit at her kitchen table with cups of tea while I continue to wait for my car to be unlocked. My very emphatic “see you later, Mom, thanks for nothing” was made far less powerful by the fact that I couldn’t get into my getaway car. Yes, I could have asked Dale for help. But when faced with the choice of sitting with my biological mother who abandoned me versus having Dylan potentially find out I needed his security team to help me out of a jam, I chose option A. I know Dale swore about privacy and all that, but I didn’t want to take the risk.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” my mother asks me.
She touches my shoulder, and I smell it then.
“You still wear that perfume,” I say.
“Ruby XO,” she says.
“I remember.”
“Really?” She smiles now.
“Yep. That and Malibu.”
“The beach.” She nods. “Gorgeous there. When I first saw Malibu, I thought maybe dreams really do come true. But I was a single mother, and it was very difficult. You were beautiful on that beach, though. You still are.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat, and we return to an awkward silence.
“So is there a boyfriend? Someone special?”
I shrug. “There was.”
“Really?” Big smile.
“Why do you care?”
“Because I want you to be happy. Just because I couldn’t figure it out doesn’t mean you need to carry on the gene.”
“Well, some habits are hard to break.” I stare down into my tea.
“Try,” she urges. “Because pain isn’t worth wallowing in. Believe me.”
“There was someone,” I find myself saying. “He was the best.”
“And he’s gone?”
“Yeah.” I look out the window at my car.
Is Emergency Roadside Care ever going to get here?
“What happened?” she asks.
I quirk an eyebrow at her. But she seems genuinely curious.
