I’m so sorry mom!!
sampaguita72:
What are you sorry for?
She doesn’t realize it was my idea? Tita Wendy’s voice rings out between my ears, saying,There will be no shortcuts!
I’m so distracted, face glued to my screen, I crash right into someone.
“Oh sorry!” I exclaim, clutching the phone in my sweaty palms.
“Ruby Ocampo!” Mark Winterson’s standing before me, grinning like this is the funniest unexpected development of his entire weekend. “This is a nice surprise.”
I feel like someone beaned me on the head with a Frisbee.
Does he think of me by my full name too? The way I can’t bring myself to think of him as just “Mark,” because there’s something cartoonish about him, like Charlie Brown?
It’s strange, seeing him in casual clothes instead of a suit. He’s wearing a black T-shirt that flatters his broad shoulders, and sweats that are more streetwear than sloppy. The briefest impure thought about what’s beneath the gray fabric skitters across my mind.
He’s even paler than I remember, in the bright light of day—less like Jacob Elordi and more like the ghost of a Victorian child who started hitting the gym in the afterlife. The man looks like he’s lacking in vitamin D. And is that…a pimple on his chin? Maybe he’s human, after all.
“You live around here too?” He points with his thumb over his shoulder toward Jonah and Krystal’s place. “I was going for coffee—want to join me?”
The offer goes straight to my head, champagne on an empty stomach. But there’s no way in hell I’m going back to that coffee shop.And how can I even be thinking about this when Mom is trapped, and I have to make a plan to get her out?
“Um, I’d love to, but…but I was—I have this—” I let out a deep sigh. “This…family thing.”
“Oh.” He looks like he’s trying to parse my words for hidden meanings.
“It’s just—” I squint up at him in the bright sun. “Not to be a downer, but there’s a lot of things to take care of, still, after my mom…”
“Oh God, of course.” His brow furrows, and he takes a step closer. “Is there anything I can—?”
“Raincheck for coffee?” I say in a rush, walking backward away from him, sage still stinging my nostrils.
“Gonna hold you to that!” he says jovially, pointing at me as I jog off.
Chapter
13
Two and a half months ago, I was on the phone with Mom, talking about some minor disappointment. I don’t even remember what, now. I was confident it had drifted into “funny story” territory by that time, but it must have sounded too much like whining to her. She scoffed and said, “Well, most of us don’t get what we want in life.”
It was so passive-aggressive and loaded, I had to take the bait.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, you know.” She sighed. “It’s not like this is what I expected when I pictured having a daughter.”
God, the way she could say things so airily, and they could slice so deep.
“What did you expect, Mom?”
She made a noise that said,Don’t tempt me with a good time!“You’re not going anywhere in your life, Ruby! You’re languishing in this entry-level role at a third-tier company—six years without a promotion!”
“Look, I’m trying my best, but—”
“And you’re so closed off! You don’t socialize! You’ve always been like that, since you were little. I try so hard to—” Her voice caught. “I’m always tryingso hardto make people like me. It’s how I got this far. Can’t you even make an effort?”
