Tania
Hey, so I’m headed to DFA tattoos for a new piece - wanna tag along?
As I process the message, my heart deflates. There’s no way I have the energy to go sit in a tattoo shop, let alone bring Julian along. All I want to do is crash on a couch—I’d even settle for a cheap plastic chair—and talk. About anything. I really don’t care. I just need to take my mind away from my endless work to-do list … and from Will’s smug face.
Maybe she’ll be open to changing her plans. I’ve changed mine so many times to fit into her no-kids lifestyle, after all.
Sophie
Any chance you’d want to just have a coffee or a drink instead?
I hit send and wait, hardly blinking as I stare at the screen. My stomach knots when I see the three dots appear, then disappear, then appear again.
Then, finally, after what feels like forever:
Tania
Can’t, it’s an appointment, not a walk-in, so I can’t really cancel :( maybe next time?
A frustrated groan escapes my throat. Looks like I’m spending another evening alone.
Perfect.
CHAPTER 10
WILL
“Just do these edits and you’ll blow it out of the water,” I tell Karan, who’s typing out my notes on his laptop as if his life depended on it. Which it doesn’t. I still don’t get why Karan wants to transition out of game development and into software instead. The pay is higher, but the benefits he’ll lose will mean he’s making about the same thing.
I lean back against the cushy bench and close my eyes, shielding them against the sunlight streaming through the fiery canopy above. It’s lunchtime, so the courtyard terrace at Benelux is full. My pint, on the other hand, isn’t.
“Thank you, man,” Karan stammers and shuts his laptop. He crosses his mammoth-like arms together on the table, gripping his opposite elbows. “Now that the resume stuff is out of the way …”
I roll my eyes good-naturedly. “I knew it. What else do you need?”
He shoots me a gleaming smile as an apology, but it vanishes just as quickly as it came. He scratches his thick beard, looking uncomfortable. “It’s about Rachel.”
“What about her?”
“You know your mother’s birthday is coming up.”
I tense up. Yes. I know what this is about, then. The moment Océane told us about our mother’s escalated behaviour years ago—how she’d thrown a soda can at Océane’s head out of anger because she wouldn’t get up from the couch due to debilitating pain—enough was enough. For both Rachel and me.
Before then, Rachel had tried her best to convince my parents to go easy on Océane, or at least, to convince them Océane wasn’t ‘lazy’ as they believed. Even when they gaslit her into oblivion, or screamed at her for her falling grades, Rachel did her best to stand by Océane’s side and try to get my parents to understand. After all, Océane told Rachel everything that transpired in that house.
Not to me, though. I was too busy drinking or sniffing myself into oblivion with Matt to forget it was all happening in the first place.
The soda can incident changed everything. Rachel got Océane to move in with her, then helped her find a roommate later on when it was time for her and Karan to get their own place. I don’t think Rachel has spoken to either of my parents since that day.
I know I haven’t.
Now that they’ve moved down to Florida, we’re separated by more than just animosity. But still. I do my best to just bury it all deep where I can’t feel it, but Rachel could never do that.
“Let me guess,” I start, taking the last remaining sip of my craft beer. Despite the cool autumn breeze, my drink has gone lukewarm. “She’s gotten all moody and withdrawn.”
“Yup.” There’s worry haunting Karan’s brown eyes. “Like she does every year around this time.” I’m not surprised to hear about this. “She’s cold. Not mean or anything, but she’ll barely speak. And she doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“Look, man, you’re not going to like what I have to say.”
