Page 33 of Mr. Principal

“Gosh, you’re a smarty-pants.”

“Just like my mother,” she said in a sing-song voice.

I guffawed. How could I be in a bad mood when I had such a great kid?

“Well, Auntie Piper and I had an argument.”

“About what?”

Yikes. I didn’t know how to answer that one. What should I say? Well, your father cheated on me for years and I knew nothing about it. But it’s cool, we’re even since I cheated on your father with the guy who is now your principal.

Nope. I wasn’t going to say that. That was even too much daytime talk show-like drama for me to take.

“Sometimes adults have disagreements.”

“Oh,” she said sadly. “You guys had a fight?”

Her voice was so sad. I instantly rushed to reassure her. “No… just a little fight. About something that happened a long, long, long time ago.”

“If it happened a long time ago, then why are you still mad now?”

I sighed to myself. Again, Meredith was wiser and a better person than her mother. Why was I angry with Piper?

I could lie to myself and say I was unhappy with her because she had lied to me by omission, but nope, that’s not why I was angry.

It was what she said about me not believing her. She had been right. I’d convinced myself that every piece of evidence of Tom’s infidelities had all been in my mind. The text messages he received when we were together. The excuses for why I could never visit him at his apartment. There had been so many red flags and I’d ignored them all. Well, all but one. And the one I hadn’t ignored had directly led me to finding solace in Carter’s arms.

But now I wondered if Tom’s infidelities had just been my excuse to run to Carter. I didn’t want to think too deeply about that and instead focused on Meredith’s questions.

“Sometimes adults do really stupid things. And you made me realize that being mad at your Auntie Piper is really stupid.”

She nodded like a sage satisfied by a deduction her student had made.

“Exactly, Mom. So just tell Auntie Piper you’re sorry for being mad and then everything will be okay again.”

“You think so?” I said, needing reassurance and laughing at myself from getting it from a five-year-old.

“Mom, it’s Auntie Piper. She’s like the nicest person in the world,” Meredith said, rolling her eyes as if I were the stupidest person in the world.

“You’re right.”

“And I don’t think she’s mad at you anymore because if she was mad at you she wouldn’t call you ALL the time.”

I laughed. “You’re so smart. You know that?”

“Yep. You tell me that every day.”

We pulled up to the drop-off line and I was careful not to hit anybody this time. I waved goodbye to her as she climbed out the car.

“Have a great day, sweetheart!”

“You too, Mom. Have fun at work.”

I tried not to grimace at her parting words. I hadn’t told her that I’d been fired. I knew she would worry about me and I couldn’t have that.

I was scared that Carter would be waiting for me and planned to ambush me and force me to talk to him in the drop-off line, but he was nowhere to be found.

I breathed a sigh of relief and drove off. I could only deal with fixing up one relationship at a time. I would start off with Piper first and then contact Carter, I told myself.