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Two alarms go off at the same time, one on my phone and one on hers. It means it’s pill time.
“Pill time!” she yells from her seat. She’s always yelling. I’m used to it by now.
Patty sits herself up, using the remote to her chair.
“You seem like you’re in a good mood today,” she points out as I hand her the medications and the cup of water in myhand. “Too good, in fact. You almost killed Jolene with your daydreaming over there.”
“Jolene?” I ask, intentionally avoiding the rest of what she said.
“You know damn well I have a name for every plant in here, don’t try to distract me. You spent weeks looking down in the dumps, and now something’s changed. Update a poor old woman that can't even leave her home.”
“You can leave whenever you want. You want Ella to take you to the mall?”
She glares at me, not at all oblivious to my bullshit. “You’re killing me.”
Maybe it's my lucky day, because she actually lets it drop.
My mom calls me on my way home. I find myself wishing I’d never let her memorize my work schedule. Things have never been this tense between us. I know I need to talk to her about Autumn, but I want that conversation to be on my terms. I don’t want it to be over the phone. She has to know how serious I am, there’s no other choice here. If she wants to stay mad, I won’t feel guilty about it.
I’m going to protect Autumn from her either way.
“Hi, mom.”
“Hello, child of mine. How was work?”
“Always a blast, how was yours?” I’m only half sarcastic, I could have worse things to deal with than a nosy grandmother.
“It was a good day. Chloe came in with pictures of her house, it’s just gorgeous. Suits her perfectly. I can’t wait to get started.”
“That’s nice,” I mumble.
“Which reminds me, I would love it if you'd come with me next week. The shopping is always fun isn’t it? And we can have lunch with her beforehand to—”
“Why would I go with you for lunch?”
“You know how much I want you to be comfortable around the office.”
She’s always thought I’m too good for my job. It's been impossible to get her to see that I don't want to do anything else. I'm happy where I am.
“And wouldn’t it be nice to chat with her some more? You barely got the chance.”
And there it is. I don’t miss how carefully she words it. How she wants to act like the reason wasn't that I told her point-blank that I was not interested.
“It's such a shame you didn’t even get her number, but I could give it to you. She’d love to hear from you.”
“I don’t want her number.”
“You haven’t even tried to get to know her.”
“I don’t want to get to know her.”
She groans like I’m a disobedient child she can’t get under control. “Did your brother do nothing to get you out of this funk?”
“I’m not in a funk.” Not anymore.
“I don’t see the problem, then. You could at least try, give her a chance. She’s successful, and smart, and—”
“You do know what the problem is, and I don’t have the energy to pretend it doesn’t exist for your sake. Love you, mom. I’ll talk to you later.”
