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I bet she wouldn’t have taken any shit from Kyle, either.
No.
Thinking about him is only going to make things worse. You need to stay in the present.
I fix my eyes on Mia’s electric blue sneakers and try to make the shaking stop.
“Congratulations, Henri, you make a five foot nothing, less than half your weight woman young enough to be your daughter cry.”
He starts to open his mouth, but she cuts him off with a glare.
“Yeah, yeah, I know you don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself, so that doesn’t mean anything to you, but you wasted a perfectly good cake by putting your dirty fingers all over it. That’s money you’re throwing in the trash. And for what? So you could feel like a big man? Move!”
She shoves past him and then holds out her hand.
I grab onto her with the same intensity that a drowning man grabs a tow rope and pull myself to my feet. A newborn giraffe would be steadier on their feet than I am right now, so I focus all of my attention on not falling over.
“Go home, Honey,” Mia says gently. “You don’t deserve to deal with this. I’ll cover pastry today, although I won’t be able to do the rosettes half as elegantly as you do them.”
“But I need?—”
“I’ll see to it that you get paid for your full shift today. Consider it hazard pay.”
She nods encouragingly at me and squeezes my hand.
“Go on home and give my godson an extra kiss for me,” she insists.
“Now wait just a minute!” Henri exclaims, puffing out his chest.
I don’t wait around to hear the end of the fight, but I can hear their raised voices echoing through the venue until I get out to the parking lot.
The drive to my parents' house takes forever and no time at all.
I stare hopelessly at myself in the rearview mirror. My cheeks are paler than paper. Instead of the sleek, platinum bun I’d put in place this morning, there’s a pile of brittle straw at the crown of my head. I can barely see my eyes for how puffy they are, but they’re such a light shade of blue that I wonder if I cried the color out of my irises.
I can’t let Leo see me like this, but I don’t have a choice. I don’t have any makeup in the car or in my purse to hide the physical effects of my bad day from him.
Maybe I should have taken out loans and gone to school after graduation. Kyle would have been upset, but at least I would have been able to give Leo a better life. He’s right. I am pathetic.
If I had just stood up to him and gone to college, he might have respected me more and maybe we’d still…
Enough, I scold myself. You’re going to plaster on your brightest smile and you’re going to march your butt in there and put on the best show of your life for that little boy. Do you understand me?
I allow myself one last pathetic sigh before I square my shoulders and march into my parents’ home.
“Ma! Ma! Ma!” Leo squeals, running to me.
“Baby!”
I scoop him into my arms and pepper his dirt-streaked face with kisses.
“Look at you! You’re more dirt than boy. What did Oma do with you today?”
“Gift,” he says, shaking his fist at me.
“For me?”
“Yes.”
