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“You have no idea. Hopefully, it improves.”
“With pizza and cars, how could it not?” I say, watching and she takes a bite, and the cheese stretches from her lips to the slice in front of her.
“True,” she says around a mouth full of food.
“Classy.”
“Mhmm,” she nods.
“So, how’s your mom?” I ask.
She stops chewing and looks over at me, and I feel like this is one of those fight-or-flight moments she’s having to work through.
Just like a wild animal, I think.
“Why do you ask?”
“You left last time saying you had to go check on her. I was just wondering.”
She visibly deflates, and I can’t help but wonder what she was thinking.
“She’s doing good,” she answers with an easy nod.
“Milo mentioned she had cancer?”
“Yeah, breast cancer. But she’s in remission now,” she smiles, but it doesn’t fully reach her eyes.
“That’s good.” The thought of losing my mom to something that I can’t control like that makes my insides twist into a heavy knot, and I wonder how this woman has managed to stay so strong in the face of all this negativity.
“Yeah, now if I can just make all the bills disappear, everything would be ten times better. That way I could focus more on Eli and… other crap,” she trails off, looking afraid that she’s said too much.
“Yeah,” I say, waiting to circle back to the other crap later on, “I imagine that part really sucks.”
“Eh, it is what it is,” she shrugs, taking another bite.
“Still sucks,” I say, and she nods.
“What about you?” she asks, reaching for another slice.
“Pretty slow actually, but I had a heavy workload yesterday, so I’m not complaining.”
I think back on my morning and my attempts to fight off the demons that plagued me and close my eyes briefly. I momentarily wish Keaton was one of those girls that talked way too much, if only to silence my thoughts and keep my mind off of things.
“What about you? What made your day so shitty?” I ask, thankful when she indulges me.
“Just one thing after another,” she sets down her pizza, dusting off her hands as she begins to tick off everything that went wrong. “First, I forget my keys at home and couldn’t get into work. My co-worker was a little late, but we got everything going pretty fast. Then some kid threw sugar all over the floor and I burned two dozen muffins while I cleaned up that mess.”
“Holy shit,” I say, eyes wide.
“Yeah, then my co-worker’s boyfriend calls and wants her to pay to bail out his dumbass friend after he and some other dude got arrested last night,” she shakes her head, but all I can think about is what I saw on the news this morning.
“Did he say what his friends got arrested for?” I ask as nonchalantly as possible.
“No, but seriously, it shouldn’t be Teagan’s responsibility to bail the guy out. Oh, uh, Teagan is my co-worker,” she clarifies.
I don’t know for certain, but something in my gut tells me that this chick Teagan’s boyfriend is talking about the two guys from the drug bust. It could all be a total coincidence, but it’s too convenient. Either way, I don’t like the possibility of Keaton being so close to that shit.
“Well, I don’t think I could eat another bite if I tried,” Keaton says, leaning back in her chair and settling her hands over her stomach.
