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ELEVEN
Kayla
“Look who came to visit!”Amy said when I found myself on her doorstep three days after that…encounter with Elias.
She opened the door and pulled me inside.
“Hey, Amy,” I said, giving her a quick hug.
“Hey, Kayla.”
Then, I squatted down and hugged Crystal, who was standing next to her mother with a plastic push vacuum cleaner in her grip.
“Hello there, sweetheart,” I said.
She hugged me then regained her balance and went back to her toy.
“You’ve done a lot with the place,” I said, looking around as Amy led me through the foyer and into the heart of the house.
The last time I had been here was Crystal’s first birthday party, and in the months since, Amy and Davit had settled in.
“I guess,” Amy said, a frown on her face.
I followed her gaze as she looked around the space and saw children’s toys, a throw on the huge sectional couch, a couple of books on the coffee table. “No, it looks like you guys are really settling in,” I said.
“Oh, you mean it’s a complete mess?” she said, straightening her glasses on her face.
“No, that’s not what I mean,” I said with a smile on my face.
“Come on. Let’s catch up with Crystal before she tries to vacuum up the sofa,” Amy said.
I laughed. “Of course, and I’m sorry for popping in on such short notice,” I said.
Amy led me down the hallway. “It’s no problem at all. My mother is coming over for lunch, but I don’t have any other plans, so it’s no problem,” she said.
“And how’s that going?” I asked Amy.
She’d poured us juice and corralled Crystal before she sat at a bar stool across from me.
She sighed and then smiled. “Good. Really good.”
“You sure?” I asked, not missing the strain in her voice.
She didn’t answer immediately, instead taking on a wistful expression. “I am. It’s hard, and we both knew it was going to be. But we’re committed to trying, and Davit is right there beside me.”
“I know he is. Always,” I said.
“He is. And honestly, I’m not worried about me and her, not really,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
I knew she and her mother had a very complicated relationship with a lot of things that needed to be worked out, and I told her I would always be an ear if she needed one.
“We’re still getting to know each other, trying to navigate this whole mother-daughter thing. But she won’t address any of the other stuff,” she said.
“Like that place she was held?” I asked.
I could scarcely contemplate what Amy’s mother had been through, and I only knew the barest of details.
