AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And so…I’m giving her the space she clearly wants from me. For now, anyway. With that in mind, I head to dinner with my mother.
It’s after we order our meals when my mom finally takes off her reading glasses and studies me, her head tilted to the side.
“What?” I snap.
“I have to leave in the morning, but I don’t want to leave you alone.”
I sigh. “I’ll be fine, Mom.”
“I know you will, but that doesn’t mean I want to leave you to go through it alone.”
“I’m not alone. I have my entire team,” I protest.
“Your team isn’t the same thing as your mom,” she points out. “And your team also isn’t the same thing as friends. Not when you’re the coach.”
“I have Jack,” I say.
“He’s your boss.”
“Mike and Andy?” I suggest even though I’m still at odds with my offensive coordinator and I don’t really like him all that much.
“Your subordinates.”
I blow out a frustrated breath. “What do you want me to say? I’ll be sad and lonely so please stay so I have someone to lean on?”
“If you said those words, I would cancel my flight.”
I chuckle as I press my lips together and look away from her prying eyes. “I’ll be fine, Mom.”
I don’t know if it’s true, to be honest. I’m not sure I’ll ever be fine again.
We both have a few drinks with dinner, and I realize we’re both going through something similar. It’s somewhere around her third glass of wine and my fourth glass of whiskey as we wait for our bread pudding to arrive that I ask, “What about you? Are you okay?”
We ordered dessert not because we’re still hungry after a huge meal, but because I’m not sure either of us really wants to head home.
It’s not home for her. It’s lonely for me. We’re better off here at the restaurant where we’re surrounded by strangers than the isolated quiet of my place.
It’s her turn to glance away from me. “I’ll be fine, honey.”
“It’s just…” I pick up my glass and swirl the liquid around, watching the little vortex make a whirlpool of whiskey. “We’re both going through a loss, here. At the hands of the same man, in a lot of ways, I suppose.”
“Never really thought I’d have that sort of thing in common with one of my children,” she says dryly, and she takes a sip of her wine.
“I never thought I’d be commiserating a breakup with my mother.”
She giggles a little at that and holds up her wineglass. “To new beginnings, I guess.”
My heart aches as I think about how I don’t want a new beginning.
I press my lips together with a wry smile as I shake my head. “How about just to moving forward?”
She clinks her glass to mine. “I’ll drink to that.”
Once we’re home and she’s gone to bed, I grab another glass of whiskey and sit in front of the television. I should cut myself off. I need to be present at work tomorrow, and the last thing I’ll need is a hangover. But I keep drinking anyway because the numbing effects of the alcohol sure beats the shit out of the pain I’ve felt since Jolene ended things with me.
I flip through the channels and stop when I spot those goofy looking yellow minions on my screen.
The movie is just starting on some kids’ channel, and it just so happens to be just before the part with the dinosaur.
