“Do you want coffee?”Maeve asked.“Charlotte’s finishing her ice cream and I did promise to make her up a bag of makeup to practice with.”
“Sure, coffee, why not?”he asked.
She chuckled.“That would be a question for you to answer yourself, but if you’re worried, don’t be.This is not poisoned.”She winked at him.
He couldn’t help but laugh.Everything with Maeve felt so natural.
His cell phone buzzed inside his pocket, and he checked to see it was Nancy on her way.She was not happy with Charlotte yelling at her.He didn’t quite know what was going on with his daughter.She was never this temperamental.His ex-wife and daughter never argued.It was a bond they had.
Maeve held out a coffee for him, and Charlotte was at the dining room table sulking.Rather than talk to his daughter, he followed Maeve who’d gone into her sitting room.
“I thought you’d be off in another city by now,” he said.“You’re always working.”
“I know, but I decided to take a little break.”
“You did?”
She nodded her head and let out a hum.“Yeah, I’m doing what my parents did, and that was working all the time.Don’t get me wrong, I love it, I do, but it’s getting to the stage that I don’t know what to do in between working.”
“What do you mean?”he asked, taking a sip of coffee.She made such a good mug of it.
“My parents worked all the time, and they barely took any time off.When they eventually did take time off, they never knew what to do with Eden and I.We just sort of got stuck.When I’m off, there’s nothing for me to do.”She shrugged.“I can’t think of anything other than practice my makeup techniques, try out new products, and it’s kind of lame.”She was taking so many products out of one bag and placing them into another.
“You don’t know what to do with your spare time?”he asked.
“Not a clue.I do need to do some shopping tomorrow.It will be exciting.I do enjoy food shopping.”She held her hands up.“I know.I know.I’m a weirdo.”
“You’re not weird.It’s cool to food shop.”
Maeve chuckled, and her door rang.She got to her feet and brushed past him.Seconds later, his ex-wife, Nancy, stepped into Maeve’s house, and he watched the two women hug.
Charlotte was purposefully taking her time with her ice cream.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t text,” Maeve said.“We got into the makeup, and you know how I get.”
“I also know how my daughter gets.”
“It’s rude to tell someone to talk to your parents,” Charlotte said, finally appearing without her bowl of ice cream.“You know how lame it is, right?”
“It’s not lame,” Maeve said.
Charlotte let out a sigh.
He was starting to get a little embarrassed about his daughter’s behavior.She’d never acted this way, and it was starting to piss him off.
“Here you go,” Maeve said.She rushed back into the sitting room and came back with a very swollen makeup bag.
“What’s this?”Nancy asked.
“You never listen, Mom.”
“Charlotte is considering moving into makeup artistry, and I said before she committed to something, it might be a good idea to get started with a few classes at the local college.They’re not too expensive, and I have plenty of spare makeup for her to use.”
Maeve was a good, kind person.There were so many people that would take advantage.
“If there’s anything she needs, she can holler.I’m here with nothing to do for a couple of weeks.”
She looked so uncomfortable with that.
