We eat in silence for a minute. Then Maurice clears his throat and says, “How was everyone’s day today?”
Nobody speaks. I'm afraid to say anything. As much as I wanted to share my good news, I can’t. It's too soon and will only make my mom angrier.
“That good, huh?” he jokes. “Well, mine was fine. I had to go in to work for a couple hours to fix the computers but at least they are up and running for Monday. Otherwise it would have been a disaster.”
“I could imagine,” Mom says quietly, staring down at her food.
“How about you, Adrienne?” he says, turning to me.
I freeze in place with my fork halfway to my mouth. I steal a glance at my mom, who is still staring down at her food. I suppose I have no choice but to answer, regardless of the response. “Um, well, Lyndsay and I went out to Hidden Treasures and then did some shopping.”
“Hidden Treasures?”
“It’s an arts and crafts commission shop in Richmond.”
“Huh, haven’t heard of it. Did you buy anything nice?”
Here goes nothing. “I wasn’t there to buy.”
“Oh. What were you doing there then?”
“I was there to sell.” I carefully place my forkful of broccoli in my mouth.
This is when my mom chooses to speak. “Sell what?”
“Purses and wallets.”
She sets down her knife and fork, then carefully dabs her mouth with a napkin. “Are you telling me…that you spent the summer making purses…and wallets?” She nearly chokes out the last part.
I flinch, but calmly reply, “Yes…and pillows.”
Kaitlin turns to me with wide eyes. “You made my pillows?” she asks in awe. I nod. She looks like she wants to smile but she doesn’t.
“Well then,” Mom says, throwing her napkin down on her plate, “it’s nice to see you’re not wasting your life away.”
“Joy,” Maurice says gently, touching her hand.
She shakes her head and stands up, hands on either side of her plate. “No, Maurice, I can’t sit here and listen to this.” She looks at me. “Adrienne, I cannot express my outrage at your immaturity. Purses? Pillows? You can’t make a career out of that! You can’t live off the income from that! There is no way you can justify this choice.” She points a finger at me. “Let me tell you something: You're going to find out real fast what the real world is if you keep this up. You had the perfect career right in front of you that we have had planned out since you were little and you’re going to give it up to be some sort of ‘designer.’” She makes quotes with her fingers.
At this, I shove my chair back and stand up. “We planned out? No, you planned this out. You have spent my whole life molding me into a miniature you, and why? Because of tradition and the honor that goes with it. But you know what? You never once, for even a second, took the time to ask me what I wanted to do, or paid attention to the things I liked to do.” I think, Like when I used to sew, or when I fix the seams that come apart on your clothes. “You just kept shoving it down my throat and never allowed me to think for myself. I spent all my life thinking like you, believing that nursing was what I wanted. Now that I’m making my own choices, I can see what I want.”
“What?” she spits out. “Making minimum-wage sewing for a living?”
I shake my head and flare my nostrils. “No…to do what I want to do and not live in the shadow of a woman who cares more about tradition than her own daughter.” With that, I run upstairs to my room and close the door.
Half an hour later, there's a knock at my door. I sigh and say, “Who is it?”
“Kaitlin.”
Relieved, I sit up and tell her, “Come in.” She cautiously opens the door and closes it behind her. She stands there for a few seconds. I pat the bed and she sits down. “What’s up?”
She glances at the door, then back at me. “I wanted to thank you for making the pillows for me. Nobody has ever done anything like that for me before.”
I smile. “You’re welcome.”
“They’re so beautiful.” She looks down and touches her fingers together. “I think…I think if you can make something that cool, you can do anything.”
There I have it, a good thing that has come out of all this mess.
Kaitlin likes me.
I grin and say, “Thanks for the vote of confidence. I’m happy to have one person who believes in me.”
“I’m sorry you and your mom are fighting.”
I sigh. “Me too.” I hold up a hand and brush it off. “It will all blow over soon.” Fat chance, but I don’t tell her this. “We should just take our minds off of this and watch another episode. What do you say?”
She nods enthusiastically. “That sounds great.”
Maurice knocks on my door while Kaitlin and I are still watching our show. He asks me to step outside for a second, so I do. He says, “Your mom and I decided when we got married that we wouldn’t interfere when it came to parenting our stepdaughters. I wanted to let you know that I am still standing by that. However...” He pauses. “I know that this isn’t something that will just disappear tomorrow. In the meantime, I think it would be best if we don’t discuss upsetting things at the dinner table anymore.”
“I think you’re right.” My mom and I aren't going to find a middle ground overnight. It's going to take some time, if it even happens at all.
It's at that moment that it hits me.
I know of somebody who could offer insight into the mind of my mom. Someone who lived with her for years. Someone who argued with her. Not only that, but someone who can still manage to get along with her despite their differences.
My dad.
~*~
Half an hour later, I call him up. Just when I am expecting to leave a voicemail, he answers. “Adrienne! I'm so happy to hear from you.”
“Hey, Dad. How are you doing?”
“I'm doing all right. The hospital is keeping me busy. How about you? Getting excited to start classes in the fall?”
He makes the segue into the main reason why I was calling easier. “Well…” I start. “Actually, I’m taking a semester off.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. I decided I’m not going to be a nurse.”
There is a long pause on his end where I can only hear light breathing. “Does your mom know?”
I close my eyes. “Yes.”
“Ah…I can only begin to imagine how that went.”
“It hasn’t been good.” I tell him about everything that happened, from that first day of skipping the volunteer work up until now. “That’s why I called. I don’t know how to fix this and I want to understand how you guys have been able to get along, despite all the problems.”
“It didn’t happen overnight.” I can hear a hint of a reflective smile in his voice. “Your mother and I had our difficulties over the years, yes, but the thing that held us together was you. We both wanted what was best for you. When the divorce happened, we knew that although we had trouble getting along, we weren’t going to drag you into it. There was a truce set in place to be civil around you. I like to think that she and I get along partly because we still care about each other even though we aren’t in love anymore.” He lets out a breath. “She can be quite inflexible when it comes to certain things though.”
“That's the problem.”
“The way I see it, you only went along with it because you thought it would please her. She kept it going because she thought it was what you wanted too. At this point, you have both come to the opposite realization. Right now, her guard is up and precious little will get through to her until she softens. Talking to her will not do you any good until then. Once she does, then you need to talk to her seriously. Sit down with her and tell her you need to talk about something and you want her undivided attention.”
I'm not seeing a point when she will calm down. “You really think it will work?” I ask apprehensively.
“Yes. She'll listen. She always listened. Did I eve
r tell you about the time when I was working at St. Jude’s?”
“No.”
“Back then, you were a baby, barely a couple months old. I was working sixty hours a week. I was away from home far more than I liked. Your mom didn’t think it would be practical for me to quit that job. It paid well, and as a young family with a brand new house, we needed the money. Since I was working so much and she was raising you by herself, it ended up bringing about a compromise. If I would take on a different job, I could spend more time with both of you. It would also open up the opportunity for her to go back to work part-time.”
I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for him to convince her of this. “Did it work out?” I ask.
“It was rough working out the new routine at first, but it didn’t take long for us to get accustomed. The change of pace and lighter load made everything easier.” He is silent for a moment. “She may seem unyielding, but she is willing to meet you halfway if it makes sense.”
If she could find middle ground with my dad, I'm sure she and I can eventually. It feels nice to have an open dialogue going with somebody about this. “Thanks, Dad,” I say.
“You’re welcome, Adrienne.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
Monday, August 6th
I head out as usual to go to Lyndsay’s on Monday. Only this time instead of staying the day over there, I load up my car with all my supplies—the sewing machine, the books, the material, and the thread. Why waste fuel and time to travel over there now that there's no need to hide it?
Lyndsay squeezes me tight before I leave. “It’s going to be weird not seeing you this week.”
“You barely saw me during the week anyway.”
“You know what I mean, dork.”
“Yes, I do.” I rest the side of my head against the door. “Am I kidding myself?”
“About what?”
“About this,” I say, holding up a bag of remnants. “I have barely gotten anywhere with this. How am I going to meet my mom halfway?”
She taps my chin with her fingertips. “Give it a little more time.”
“How much more time? I mean, how long will it take me to exhaust all my resources? What if this doesn’t work out?”
“What if it does?”
“No, what if it doesn’t? Look, I want to be optimistic but I also need to be realistic.”
She thinks for a few seconds before saying, “If it doesn’t, who cares?”
My eyes open wider. “‘Who cares?’” I repeat slowly.
She shrugs. “Yeah, who cares? You just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and do something else. I still don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring for me. Sure, I want to be a nurse but maybe ten years from now I’ll prefer to be behind a desk. At the very least, this is going to teach me a lot about the medical field, and those skills can help launch me into a number of other careers.”
I stare at her in disbelief. “Wow.”
“I know, right?” she says with a grin. “Mom and I were talking about my future and she started talking about her work experience. I pretty much knew the whole story already but I looked at it with new eyes and realized that the same applies to me. I’m just like her in many ways, and despite my worries, I can be just as strong as her and handle whatever life decides to hand me.” She appears relaxed as she tells me this. Like the weight of the world was lifted off her from one simple epiphany. It doesn’t mean everything is going to be perfect, it just means that her view of it is balanced.
It is truly inspirational.
I breathe a sigh of relief. “That’s a great way to view it.”
And that is exactly what I needed to hear.
~*~
I spend the rest of the day reorganizing my room. I rearrange the books on my shelves to move all the papers from my desk over. I find Coventry hiding behind where the papers were. I smile as I pick him up, then place the little kitty plush on my shelf next to my DVDs. I set the sewing machine on my desk and hook it up. After moving a few more things around, I have a nice little craft nook going in one corner of my room. I stand back and take it in for a moment.
“Whoa,” says a voice behind me. I turn and find Kaitlin standing in my doorway.
“Hey,” I say cheerfully. “I thought I’d bring it all back home instead of hiding out at Lyndsay’s again.”
She bounds to my bed and jumps on it. “What’s your next project going to be?”
“I won’t have enough money for what I need until next week.” There is an exquisite fabric I would like but it's quite expensive. The money from last week’s chores won't be enough. “But, I do have some bits and pieces I can use for something smaller. Like maybe…headbands.”
Kaitlin claps her hands together. “Cool.”
I grin. Her enthusiasm is contagious. “My thoughts exactly.” Just then, my phone rings. I glance down and see that it is Chevy. I flip it open. “Hey!”
“Hey! I just wanted to see how things were going.”
“It’s…okay. Mom’s still not talking to me.” My mom actually left the chore money on the counter in an envelope instead of handing it to me. It's the first time she has done that.
“That’s too bad. It is fresh though.”
“That’s what I keep reminding myself. How is your family?”
“All right. My dad is doing better but I have a feeling he fell off the wagon again.”
“Oh no.”
“I could be wrong though. It just felt like he was acting strange last night. Maybe it’s just because he’s craving it and getting edgy.”
“That could be it. It is a disease after all, not just a habit.”
“That’s what I keep reminding myself.” He sighs. “I’m glad I’ve got someone who understands.”
“Likewise.”
When we hang up, Kaitlin looks over at me. “Who was that?”
“Chevy. He wanted to see how I was doing.”
She tilts her head. “Really?” She draws the vowels in the word out.
“Yes, really,” I say with a chuckle.
“You like him.”
I blink twice. Is it that obvious? Maybe Kaitlin is just that smart. I cover my face with one hand and peek out. “You’re very observant.”
“Does he like you?”
I am sure the answer to that question is yes, based on the way he acts with me, but I still have my doubts. “I hope so.”
“I bet he does.”
“What makes you say that?”
“How could he not like you?”
I reach over and pull her in for the biggest hug I have ever given her.
Chapter Thirty
Friday, August 10th
I have become weary from making headbands. My eyes are beginning to cross and my patience is dwindling like the light from the sun as it sets. I keep wishing for it to be September so that I can go back to Hidden Treasures and see what kind of commission I got. I'd go there now just to see how things are going but I don’t want to jinx anything.
I talk to Chevy on the phone for a few minutes about it but he has to get back to work. I put my projects away for the day and find something else to occupy my mind. I go to the kitchen and make cupcakes with Kaitlin. After they cool, I start to frost them and Kaitlin goes to the living room to set up our next disc. A minute later, Kaitlin yells, “Somebody just pulled into the driveway!”
“They’re probably just turning around.”
“Nope, they’re getting out of the car.”
I set down the last cupcake and join her at the window. Sure enough, somebody is here.
And it’s Chevy.
I run to the door and open it up before he gets to it. “I thought you had to get back to work.”
He grins. “Well, I did but there really aren’t many jobs pressing at the moment, so I asked if I could leave early.”
“Why would you do that?” I narrow my eyes at him.
“To cheer up a friend,” he says, gesturing to me.
“I don’t ne
ed cheering up.”
“Yes, you do,” Kaitlin says from behind me. I turn to her and make a face.
“See? She agrees with me,” Chevy says with a smirk. “I just want to take you somewhere for a little bit.”
“I don’t want to leave Kaitlin alone.”
“Why not?” she asks. “I was home alone when you were at Lyndsay’s all summer.”
I start to say, “But—”
“Go ahead. I have a book I want to finish anyway.” I know what she's doing. She's attempting to act all innocent, but I know.
“I’d listen to her if I were you. She’s wise beyond her years.” Chevy winks at Kaitlin and she smiles bashfully.
“She is.” I smile at her, and then turn to Chevy. “Okay. Let’s go.”
He takes me to The Caffeine Café and tells me, “Get whatever you want. My treat.”
I can’t decide. He may say it's his treat but I'm not greedy. “I’ll just get a toffee iced coffee,” I finally say.
“Just get a…” He sighs. “I’m serious, get anything you want. Like…” He reaches over and grabs one of the giant brownies from the basket. “Do you want one of these?”
I purse my lips. “Maybe.”
He places it on the counter. “And how about one of these?” He points to the cookies.
“Maybe.” I chuckle a little.
He says to the girl behind the counter, “She’ll have one of each kind.”
“What?” I exclaim as I grab his arm. “You don’t need to get me all of this.”
He laughs. “Don’t worry, we’ll be sharing.”
His kindness hits me in a way it never has before. There's something different about the way he is treating me. I begin to wonder if something more is happening between us. I have been standing by, waiting for him to get to the point that he needs to. Letting him deal with the issues at home. Allowing him to get to know himself. Patiently waiting for the day when he finally tells me how he feels.
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