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“Um… it was a spontaneous decision.”
“I’ve been calling you for two days. Why haven’t you answered?”
I press my fingers into my forehead, scrambling for a quick lie. “I… you know, it’s embarrassing.”
“Ray-Ray.” A soft laugh masks the reprimand in her voice. “What’d you do?”
“I left my phone at a truck stop just outside Vegas.” I bite my bottom lip. “By the time I realized, it was too far to go back.”
“No wonder Theo was so grumpy when I talked to him.”
My heart stops beating. “You talked to Theo?”
“Of course. I was worried. You never don’t call me back, and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“What… what’d he say?”
“That’s weird, actually, because he said you were at work. So… what am I missing?”
My insides shrivel as Mom’s cautionary warnings from weeks ago start to eat at me. “Um…” I bite my lip so hard it starts to hurt. “We, um… we broke up.”
There’s a pause while she obviously tries to figure out how to respond. I can just picture her face no doubt flooding with relief before crumpling with sympathy. “Aw, baby.”
I close my eyes, grateful that she’s skipping over the “I told you so. I knew moving in with a guy so fast was a bad idea.”
With a little sniff, I try to rally my voice. “I just had to get away and give myself some room to breathe.”
“What happened?”
“Um…” I bite my lips together, shaking my head as the truth tries to claw its way up my throat.
Never. I can never tell her what went down.
“It just… didn’t work out, you know? We want different things.”
It’s such a cliché thing to say, but it’s the truth. I want to be treated with respect. Theo wants his best friend to have free rein to do whatever the fuck he wants, which seems to include treating me like a piece of trash.
Mom lets out a sympathetic sigh and tells me how sorry she is.
“Is all your stuff still at his place?”
“Yeah, but I’ll sort that out later. I can’t even think about it now.”
“What about work?”
I cringe, pinching the bridge of my nose and spitting out another lie so I don’t have to deal with her reaction. “I’ve called them. They’re letting me have a few days off.”
“Well, that’s good. I’m glad they’re being nice about it.”
“Yeah, they’re awesome. They understand I’m kind of a mess right now.”
“Oh, I know, baby. But this feeling won’t last forever. Just give your heart a chance to heal.”
“That’s what I’m doing.” I nod, annoyed by the burn in my eyeballs.
“And please get yourself a new phone. I hate you not being just a phone call away.”
“I will, Mom. Promise. I’ll send you the number as soon as I get one.”
