The hostess, as if summoned, is all smiles. “I have a booth ready for you folks. Follow me.”
Life throws curves at you, and Ava was definitely a big one. But I know we’ll be fine, all of us. There’s room in our hearts for one more, and the girl needs us so much. I’ve never had a daughter and I don’t have much experience with girls, but I vow to be the best stepmom in the whole state of Illinois.
Joel is not here. He’s likely at the salon. Or perhaps he’s taken a mental health day. I wonder how he is. I desperately want to reach out to him. But we both agreed we’d stay away from each other. Yet… he must need a friend right now.
The hostess leads us to a booth and we all slide in.
A server appears, all smile — a young curvy bubbly redhead with a nose hoop, smack in the middle of her nostrils. “How is everyone today?” she asks.
Good. Great. Fine.
Oblivious, this woman has no clue how fucked up our situation is.
“My name is Patsy, and I’ll be your server today,” she says as she hands everyone laminated menus. “I’ll be right back. I’ll go and get you started with glasses of water.”
As fast as she appeared, she’s gone.
We all flip open our menus. A long awkward painful pause fills the air above our table. I scramble to say something but I’m at a loss. I mentally scold myself for not preparing. “Um… everything looks good.”
“So… how’s school, Ava?” Brian asks, an attempt to strike up a conversation.
“It’s all right,” she says but doesn’t elaborate — she’s certainly not making things easy.
“I hear you’re a gifted pianist,” he says. “I’m a musician myself. Guitar.” Yes, since he’s been following her social media feed for years, Brian knows all about his daughter.
She smiles shyly, face buried in her menu. “I’m not that good.”
“She’s too modest,” Renee chimes in. “She’s amazing.”
We chit chat about school and her cat while perusing our lunch choices.
The server comes back around. “Have you folks decided what you’d like yet?”
“Uh… I’ll have the veggie burger,” Ava says. “And a Coke, please.”
“Would you like house salad, fries, or potato wedges with that?”
“Fries.”
The server jots it down and turns to Renee. “How about yourself?”
“I’ll have the same, with salad and a Perrier.”
The server smirks. “Sorry, we don’t have Perrier.”
“It’s fine. I’ll just have this glass of water.”
I order the BLT and a glass of iced tea, and Brian orders a regular burger and a Coke.
When the server leaves us, an another uncomfortable silence floats above our booth. “Uh…” I say. “This place is really cute. The boys love it here.”
Everyone nods. God, could this be more awkward?
“You have two half-brothers,” I tell Ava. “They’re typical boys. Trevor and Tristan. Fifteen and thirteen.”
She forces a smile.
“We’ll have to all get together soon.”As soon as we tell them about you.
