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Either way, it was kind of nice to have him there, in an odd sort of way.
“So, what’s the girl talk for today?” Daniel asked.
Katie giggled. “Well, right now, we’re talking about—”
I widened my eyes at her, telling her to shut her mouth. Daniel didn’t know, and I didn’t want him knowing. My pregnancy was none of his business until I could get things sorted out. Daniel’s eyes volleyed between us, waiting for someone to answer him.
“Should I slip off to the bathroom and come back?” Daniel asked.
“No, no. It’s fine. We were just talking about how I quit my job this week,” I said.
He furrowed his brow. “You quit?”
“Mhm. In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t what I want to do with my life. It was a way to pay off my student loans and still do some things for Mom. Though, I guess she doesn’t need my support now that she’s got Bernard.”
“Finally. It’s nice hearing you admit that,” Katie said.
“You’ve been supporting your mother?” Daniel asked.
“Not like in a ‘she needed it’ kind of way. More like in a ‘I wanted to help her like she helped me’ kind of way. She cosigned my loans for school. She worked two and three different jobs to raise me. I told myself that when I started pulling my own income and got up onto my feet that I’d try to pay for a few things for her, like her phone bill and her car insurance. Small things to take off her shoulders to sort of show her how thankful I was for all the sacrifices she made growing up,” I said.
Daniel smiled at me. “You’ve turned into such a wonderful young woman.”
“She really has, hasn’t she?” Katie asked, grinning.
“But consultant management isn’t what I want to do for the rest of my life. It’s the practice I was telling you about, which will require more schooling and the like. I’m not sure how I’m going to finagle all of it right now, but I’ll figure it out,” I said.
“Are things still okay with you and Brett, then? I mean, are the two of you still seeing one another?” he asked.
I drew in a deep breath. “Um… honestly? I think things between us are done. I mean, I think we broke up this past week.”
“You think?” he asked.
“Well, I say that because we never really discussed what we were in the first place, about being together officially or anything like that. For all I know, it was nothing but a fling that ended when I quit my job,” I said.
“Did you quit because of him? Did he do something to you, Olive?” he asked.
“It’s really sweet of you to worry like that, Mr. Wilson,” Katie said.
I narrowed my eyes at her a bit, wondering where this sweet and nonjudgmental side of my best friend was coming from. I loved her to pieces, but she was as judgmental as they came. She had an opinion about everyone and everything. And it seemed as if she had already developed a favorable opinion of Daniel.
It shouldn’t have struck me as odd. Katie came from a broken home, just like me, except her situation had been much worse. Her mother was addicted to drugs and had abandoned her and her father. And it wasn’t as if her dad had stepped up to do much. Many times back in college, I found her crying alone in her bed, wailing and asking why her father couldn’t love her the way she wanted him to. Many nights, I’d wiped her tears away and told her that he couldn’t love her because he wasn’t capable of it. He wasn’t capable of seeing her true worth, and that was on him. Psychologically, I knew what was going on with her. She saw my father coming back into my world and playing the caring role, a role she wanted her own father to step into.
She was living her childhood dream vicariously through what was happening to me.
I saw it in the way she stared at Daniel in awe.
“He didn’t do anything to me, Daniel. I let my feelings get in the way of my professional work, like Katie here was worried would happen,” I said.
“Did you warn her about it?” Daniel asked.
“I did. I’ve always warned her about Brett. I’ve never liked him, and I personally think she’s better off without him if he doesn’t want to step up and own up to some things in his life,” she said.
“I like this friend of yours. If Brett is stupid enough to toss away something as good for him as you, Olive, then he doesn’t deserve you or that mind of yours. His company lost something great this week. You’re better off without the hurt he would have brought down onto you over time,” Daniel said.
