Min watched her brother and niece disappear upstairs to the guest room where Ivy would take her afternoon nap, a dull pain settling behind her sternum. She’d never thought much about what married life would look like, but she couldn’t deny that there was something about watching her brother with his family that made her long for a family of her own – the way Rob beamed with pride whenever Tom complimented Heather on one of her latest creations, how her brother and sister-in-law seemed to have these unspoken conversations, the fact their lives were so much more than their careers.
“Tom, why don’t you and Anna go rest in the living room? Mel and I can clear these dishes,” Heather offered.
Her parents gratefully accepted, and Min began gathering empty plates, piling them together. As soon as she and her sister-in-law were in the kitchen, around the corner and out of earshot from the living room, Heather pounced. “Okay, spill, lady,” she said.
“Excuse me?” Min laughed.
“Rob said you’ve got a new man – anolderman,” she whispered. Min groaned. “Tell me everything.”
“There’s not a ton to tell,” Min hedged.
“Bullshit.” Min barked out a laugh at her sister-in-law’s frank reply. “Come on, Mel, you gotta give me something. I’m an old married lady.”
Min pushed Heather playfully, laughing. “You are not. And I’m going to tell Rob you said that.”
Heather scraped a plate into the garbage, setting it into the sink to soak. “Is it serious?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Min said, unable to hide the smile sneaking across her face. “I think it is.”
“Then why the big secret?” Heather lowered her voice again. “You don’t think your parents will approve?”
“I know they won’t,” Min said as she began measuring out coffee grinds into the coffee maker for her mom and Tom. “It’s complicated.”
“It always is,” Heather sighed. “Well, if you’re not going to give me the dirt on your man, at least tell me where you’re applying for grad school.”
“What’s with all the hard-hitting questions today?” Min said, trying to laugh it off.
“Still not sure, huh?”
“How’d you do it, Heather?” Min asked, leaning against the counter to watch as her sister-in-law loaded the last of the dishes in the sink. “You have it all – a successful business, a family -”
“Correction, my dear – I worked for it all. Paid my dues in sweat, student loans, and too many bad relationships to count. Nothing worth having comes easy or free,” Heather said with a knowing look.
“Liam –”
“Oo, the mystery man has a name,” Heather teased.
Min rolled her eyes and barreled on before she lost her nerve. “Liam is perfect.”
“No one is perfect.”
“He’s a musician, too, and when we perform together…”
Heather rinsed her hands and leaned against the sink, facing Min. “That good, huh?”
“Better. When I sing with him… I don’t know, Heather. I’m not prepared to make the sacrifices I’d have to make to be a professional musician.”
Heather nodded. “And Liam wants you to stick with the music?”
“I think so. I don’t want to let him down, and I don’t want to lose him –“
“Hey,” Heather said, crossing to Min and placing her hands on her shoulders. “In my experience, very few things in this world are either/or. Most things are more and/but.”
Min laughed. “What does that even mean?”
“It means, sister mine, that you must decide what you want and what you’re willing to compromise to have it.”
It was the first time she’d let herself really think it, but there, in her parent’s kitchen with the distant sound of her brother singing an off-key lullaby upstairs, it was so clear. She wanted it all – the man she loved, control over her own life, something secure she could call her own. And she was willing to give up performing to have it. The question was, would Liam still want her if she was no longer his prima donna?
