I snort. “I’m not perfect.”
“JoJo, you are perfect. You’re perfect for me.”
Chapter Ten
“This one isfrom Gisele and me to you.” Billy’s hesitant, but he hands me the small gift bag.
Taking it from him, I peek inside. “It’s a book.” Pulling it out, I wince. “Life After Obesity: How to stop overeating so you can live your best life.”
I peek over at Mom who’s smiling. It’s forced, I can tell. “What a lovely gift.” She doesn’t mean that. How could she?
“Fuck,” Billy mutters. “I had no idea.”
I pat his leg. “I know.” And I’m not just saying that. I do know because he likes my body just as it is. He’s told me so several times.
We continued opening gifts in awkward silence. Dad opened my gifts first. I got him a Bears sweatshirt and a book. He laughed when he opened it, thank goodness. It’s a do-it-yourself book on how to build your own man-cave in the backyard using things you have around the house, plans included. It’s humorous fiction, something we all need today. I bought Mom a bottle of her favorite perfume and a pretty scarf. She smiled, but that smile never reached her eyes. When she opened Gisele’s gift, she cried her eyes out saying things like, “How thoughtful of her. She knows me so well.” It was a bottle of her favorite perfume and a scarf. A scarf not near as pretty as the one I gave her, but that’s neither here nor there.
“I just don’t see why they wouldn’t let her out for Christmas.”
We all stare at my mom as she keeps on talking.
“I mean. It’s not like she’s a criminal. She’s a dang lawyer,” she says with a scoff.
“She assaulted a police officer.” That came from Billy, but it went right over Mom’s head.
“It was Rory Jorgensen, for heaven’s sake. I’ve wanted to kick him in the shin a time or two myself.”
“Pam,” my dad snaps. “That’s enough. She assaulted your daughter too. Look at her damn face.”
“It’s just a little scratch.”
If you call a scratched cornea and four long, deep cuts on a person’s face “just a scratch,” I’d hate to see what she thinks of real injuries.
“Pam,” my dad said warningly.
Attempting to change the subject, I say, “Mom, I’ll give you the receipts so you can return my gifts. You can pick something out that you really want.”
Without looking directly at me, she replies, “Oh, right. Thank you, Josephine.”
Mom and Dad give Billy a gray sweater. It’s a very nice sweater, but if I had picked it out, I would have gone with a blue hue to go with his eyes. He seems to like it, though. “Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Foster.”
“Mm-hmm” is all my mom says.
My dad remains silent.
This Christmas sucks, and it’s all due to the elephant in the room. Or maybe because she’s not in the room. I know my parents tried to bail my sister out last night, but they were told they’d have to wait until the 26thwhen the judge was back after the holiday.
While part of me is glad she’s not here, the rest of me wishes she were so my mom wouldn’t be so sad. No matter what happened yesterday, I wish today were back to normal. My gut is churning so much, I fear my French toast is going to make a reappearance. I’m not sure how, but Billy must sense my unease because every few minutes, he reaches over and touches me. He either squeezes my hand or places his palm on my knee and gives that a squeeze. It’s more reassuring than I can explain. I mean, I just met this person. Billy was a one-night stand, and yet he’s here supporting me in front of two people who probably hate his guts. The fact that he’s here is not helping my case with either of them, but oh well.
We finish opening gifts, of which I received a sweater, a Franklin planner with next year’s calendar included. “To get you organized,” Mom mumbles.
“Thank you, I need this.”
“You do,” she adds just to turn that knife a tad.
Mom also bought me a new purse that doubles as a backpack that I really do like. And Dad? He bought me the exact same Bears sweatshirt that I got him. Great minds. We like to watch football together. It’s sort of our thing.
Anyway, after gifts, we usually sit down to a wonderful lunch prepared by Mom, of course. But not today. Mom said she wasn’t up to cooking and that she wanted to lie down. “Before you go, I just wanted to let you know I’m going to head into the city and stay with a friend of mine for a while.”
