Page 36 of Call Off the Dark

“Perhaps you should go help Tyler and his father with the burgers now.”

She’d been dismissed. Helen felt a crowd of emotions rolling beneath the surface, and if she went outside and saw Tyler’s sweet face, she might burst into tears. So instead, she said, “Is there a bathroom I could please use first?”

“Down the hall. Third door on the left.” Evelyn didn’t even look at Helen when she said it.

Inside the bathroom, Helen turned on the faucet in case she did start to cry, but now that she was alone, she didn’t feel like crying. Instead, she felt the anger crash in like a runaway train.

What a disaster! She could see what Tyler meant about the Wicked Stepmother. The entire conversation had felt precarious from the beginning. It was as if Evelyn had been trying to keep her off-balance every step, as if she reveled in being cruel.

Looking in the mirror, Helen wet her fingertips in the running water and smoothed down the few flyaways at the part in her hair. She grabbed a tissue and blotted the shine on her nose. Then she licked her lips and smoothed the hem of her shirt. No way was she going to cry on the car ride home like Tyler’s last girlfriend! Helen was good at the sarcastic retort, the curtly raised eyebrow. Watch out, because she could out-bitch this bitch.

Faint voices from the backyard drifted in. Helen lifted the curtain to look out the small bathroom window and saw Tyler and his dad talking by the barbecue. Tyler tilted his head back, laughing at something his dad said. It tugged at her heart to see Tyler enjoying himself. When he spoke of his childhood, his stories about his dad were always fondly recounted. The post-divorce years had been bumpy though, and now he didn’t see his family enough. The main issue was Evelyn.

Sighing, Helen let the curtain fall back across the window.

She stared into the mirror, thinking deeply for several moments. Then she turned off the water and returned to the kitchen.

Evelyn was arranging flowers in a vase and didn’t look up when she entered.

“Evelyn,” Helen said. “I’m so sorry I upset you. I’m so embarrassed.”

Evelyn stopped fussing with the flowers and peered at Helen curiously.

Helen was surprised to feel the pressure behind her eyes. She blinked to keep the tears from springing into them. She didn’t know why she suddenly felt emotional. The words she was saying weren’t even entirely real. The whole thing was a performance of sorts, and she was no actress—she couldn’t call up tears on cue—so why was this speech making her feel this way?

“The thing is,” Helen continued, “I was just so nervous to come here. I just want you to like me so much, because you’re the center of this family.”

She felt the tears threatening again, but this time she didn’t blink them back, because maybe she wasn’t going to out-bitch this bitch anymore, but she just might outsmart her. As Helen’s eyes turned shiny, Evelyn’s face softened.

“You looked so elegant when you answered the door,” Helen said, “so I got even more nervous, and when I get nervous, I never know quite what to say . . .”

Evelyn came around the kitchen counter, opening her arms. “It’s okay, darling. Come here. I’m sorry.” She pulled Helen into a hug and said, “I get nervous too.”

As Helen inhaled the smell of Evelyn’s floral shampoo, her mind raced. What the hell was happening? Her goal had been apology accepted, not this.

“Don’t be upset.” Evelyn rubbed Helen’s back. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Sometimes Gary says I drink too much wine, but there’s no way you could have known that. And you might think I’m the center of this family, but I’m not. The kids barely tolerate me.”

“That’s not how Tyler talks about you at all,” Helen said. Lies, all lies.

Evelyn pulled back so she could see Helen’s face. Evelyn’s own expression was a mixture of doubt and hope. “Really?”

“Really. He told me how hard it was when the divorce first happened, but not anymore,” Helen said. “Tyler always says how crazy his dad is about you.” That part, at least, was more or less true.

Evelyn cleared her throat and stepped back, turning away. “Well, that’s nice to hear.”

Her voice sounded funny, and Helen realized that Evelyn was trying not to cry. She waited quietly until Evelyn finally turned back around and said, “Heavens. I thought there for a moment I was going to start crying. Of all things!” Evelyn exclaimed, as if crying was on par with joining the circus. “I never cry.”

“Never?”

“Not since my mother died when I was thirteen.”

“I’m sorry.” And Helen truly was. Beneath Evelyn’s prickly surface, there were sad layers.

“It is what it is, and tears don’t solve anything.” Evelyn nodded briskly as if everything was now settled. “I like you, Helen. I’m so glad Tyler is with you.” She smiled.

Helen smiled back at her, and then the slider to the backyard opened, and Tyler stepped inside. A smile was pasted on his face too, but Helen could see the uneasy expectation beneath it, the sense of How is it going in here? And suddenly she was swept into a wave of the same emotions she’d felt when she’d started her preplanned speech to win over Evelyn.

“Hey!” Helen said. “We were having a good conversation.”